Last Ditch

When I hear the term trench warfare, I immediately think of the first World War. This makes sense—millions of soldiers fought, suffered, and died in trenches that cleaved Europe effectively in two for years.

All the while, photographers and early filmmakers captured the events in vivid detail, showing the true atrocities of war on a grand scale for the first time. I know I read All Quiet on the Western Front at some point in school, and much of the art that most fascinated me—especially Surrealism—arose as a response to this horrible multi-year stalemate turned meat-grinder.

It makes sense that WWI is where my brain goes, but trench warfare goes way, way back. Before there were bullets, there were cannonballs and arrows to worry about, and for anyone trying to hold onto a fortification, there was a compelling reason to dig a trench as a last line of defense before the attackers got to your fort or castle. The idea was that your attackers would have to run down there to get to the other side, and while they were down there, you’d have an enormous advantage.

By the 1600s, there weren’t so many castles to defend anymore, but instead well-designed military fortifications in shapes like stars—very hard to invade and designed to ensnare anyone trying to get inside. It was during this time that we began to hear the phrase last ditch being used metaphorically.

Most famously, John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough popularized this phrase when he declared that he’d rather die in the last ditch than to see Great Britain make peace with Spain. Churchill’s great, great, great, great grandson would go on to lead Britain against the Nazis and to write a book about him centuries later, and Winston also had a way with words.

Since then, last ditches have increased in frequency and broadened in linguistic use. In military terms, if your army lost in that final ditch, all was effectively lost. Now, a last-ditch effort might mean something akin to a Hail Mary pass in American football or a final, desperate gambit.

Final stand has a similar meaning, but I think last ditch has a more memorable ring to it. It brings you down into the trenches with the soldiers who are fighting, and you realize how grim the situation is right away. This is, in fact, the very last ditch you have.

What about literal last ditches, though?

Of course, you can visit some of those incredible military fortifications, and you can see those final defensive fortifications, still in place. However, there are other forms of last ditches out there too.

In Colorado, there’s one particular ditch I want to draw your attention to now. Water rights have always been a concern in Colorado, and extensive irrigation is the only way large parts of the American west get any water at all for most of the year. It makes sense, then, that farmers in Colorado began referring to the canal they had dug as their Last Chance Ditch. This would be the final opportunity for them to divert water from the Cache la Poudre River, their only chance to get access to water.

As a last ditch effort to come up with a few more real-world examples and metaphors, let me turn the question to you: what’s a notable use of “last ditch” you want to share today?

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