Lieutenant Backsight Forethought is sent with fifty men to hold a river crossing during the South African War. Six times he dreams the defence, and six times the Boers teach him a harder lesson about cover, trenches, scouts and civilians, until he finally gets it right. This text comes from a 1905 reprint by the United States Infantry Association.
Still assigned to officers more than a century on, it is a short and witty parable of learning from mistakes. Download the free EPUB.