Ernest Dunlop Swinton

The Defence of Duffer's Drift (Dodo Press) Ernest Dunlop Swinton

Major General Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton KBE, CB, DSO, RE (1868-1951) was a military writer and British Army officer. He was credited as having an influence on the development of the tank and for coining the phrase "no-mans land", the latter popularised when using the pseudonym 'Eye-Witness' reporting on military matters. He became an officer in the Corps of Royal Engineers in 1888, serving in India and becoming Lieutenant in 1891. He received the DSO in the Second Boer War (1899-1902). After the war, he wrote his book on small unit tactics, The Defence of Duffer's Drift (1904), a military classic on minor tactics that has been used by the United States military to train its officers. In the years leading up to the First World War he served as a staff officer and as an official historian of the Russo-Japanese War. His other works include: The Green Curve and Other Stories (1909), The Great Tab Dope (1915), A Year Ago (1916), The Study of War (1926) and Eye-Witness (1932).