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Rifleman Dodd Essays

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RIFLEMAN DODD: A NOVEL OF THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN The story in the book talks about an infantry warrior named Private Matthew Dodd and his journey to re unite with his fellow soldiers. The British army was retreating to the lines of Torres Vedras and Dodd was left behind since he separated from his comrades during the retreat in Portugal behind enemy lines. He knew that he had to do one thing, and that was to kill all the Frenchmen. Private Dodd ran through a lot of problems during his journey trying to find his way back to his men. With some help here and there from the natives, but mostly his own, he raids the French with his rifle to try and prevent them from building a bridge across the Tagus River. Rifleman Dodd is a story of a …show more content…

Mind you, this was the little rations he had the night before he was left behind, he saved it just in case they’d run out. With him doing this, he gave himself the hopes to not only sustain the little amount of food he had but also the strength and energy that he was going to need in case he would end up in the heat of battle. After traveling many miles on foot, Dodd crept through several fields during the day and night time so that he wouldn’t run into any Frenchmen. He was seen by Frenchmen, so the French started to fire at Dodd and still missed. Dodd fired back and took out numerous amounts of men. As the day goes by, Dodd starts to feel like he could no longer walk, his next challenge was that he had to go through during his separation was the battle of fatigue. It was really starting to tear him away. Fatigue is a major factor to a person who is in the heat of battle because a person can do so much to keep their strength and move forward without stopping or giving up. It was hard for Rifleman Dodd because he had been starving for days but he still found the durability to look beyond himself and continue to fight to return back to his men. He had a plan of attack to help him sleep at night and continue on with his mission in the morning by using tactics. For example, one night he slept with his pack on his back sitting straight up with his rifle

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