Reversed position of the fighting man, having returned from leave? (4,2,5)
I believe the answer is:
back to front
'reversed' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'position of the fighting man having returned from leave?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'position' could be 'front' (front is a kind of position) and 'front' is located in the answer.
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is found within the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is located in the answer.
'man' could be 'k' (abbreviation for king, a chess man) and 'k' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'bac' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for back to front that I've seen before include "rejoin colleagues in the trenches?" , "Given wrong order" , "At end of leave, soldiers' orders" , "In disorder" , "like soldiers returned from leave" .)