Death to the French (also published as Rifleman Dodd) was written by C. S. Forester in 1932. The novel is set during The Napoleonic Wars, specifically in the "Peninsular War" in Spain, with allied forces fighting against the armies of Napoléon Bonaparte. The chief focus of the novel is on a member of 95th Foot Rifles Matthew Dodd, aka Rifleman Dodd.
British Rifleman Matthew Dodd gets left behind during an allied retreat during a battle while his unit retreats behind the lines of Torres Vedras. Dodd is cut off from rejoining his unit by advancing French skirmishers and the French Armies of Napoleon following close behind. Forced to flee into the hills away from his unit, Dodd is cut off and trapped behind enemy lines. The story focuses on Dodd's survival for several months separated from the army and his efforts to fight the French in a running guerrilla war with the aid of local guerrilla forces.
Its picture of the hero's resolution and devotion to duty in dangerous circumstances caused it to be put on the official reading list endorsed by the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps and other military bodies and groups.
This novel provides examples of:
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: A remarkable aversion, despite several actions more than worthy of the Victoria Cross in later times. All Rifleman Dodd wanted is to rejoin his unit, and do his duty.
- That is indeed all he got, instead of the depressing and actually risked alternative of getting shot by his own side as a deserter, in recognition of his maintenance of his equipment, and coming up to the patrols smiling which is not what deserters do.
- As noted near the end of the book, the story of his epic adventure was not pieced together - in universe - until he was old and senile, from officers' and soldiers' war and personal diaries and the occasional fireside tale. Common soldiers of that era neither received nor expected distinction.
- Instant Death Bullet: Usually seen when Dodd uses his Baker rifle. Justified, since infantry rifles in the Napoleonic era fired huge rounds, and the Baker is no exception. note
- La Résistance: Dodd joins up with Portuguese Guerrillas to assault the French while trapped behind enemy lines.
- No One Left Behind: Subverted leading to Dodd's separation from his unit and subsequent adventures that result from him trying to rejoin them.
- Shout-Out: In Sharpe's Escape (2004), one of Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe novels, Matthew Dodd appears right before being separated from Sharpe's company in a skirmish. Per
Word of God, this intended to be Forester's Dodd, in a nod to one of Sharpe's biggest influences. - Silver Bullet: One particularly superstitious French soldier whom Dodd is facing mould silver bullets when they start to believe that Dodd is a supernatural being. It is said that musket balls moulded by the soldiery themselves (when they take the care to do so) can have better performance than those issued to the rank and file, but to cast them out of actual silver is so out there that even Dodd, a five-year veteran of five campaigns, merely thought the French must be stretching their supply of lead with scrap metal, and threw the unexpectedly light and unusually shiny ball away without care, when one of them happened to come into his possession.
- Tactical Withdrawal: The British are withdrawing to the lines of Torres Vedras. This results in Dodd being accidentally left behind to fend for himself.
