We’ve covered in the past how expensive war can be, and as many know, the defense budget of a country like the United States or Russia is enough to make Elon Musk sweat. But not every victory has to break the bank, and there’s more than a little precedent to suggest that some effective and destructive tactics don’t have to cost much at all. Let’s take a look at ten of the cheapest, most creative military moves in history.
10. Ghost Army of World War II
Anything known as a Ghost Army is likely to be cool no matter what it entails, but in the case of the Ghost Army, most famously deployed during World War II, it's also incredibly creative and more than a little mean.
The ghost army, also known as tactical deception, was a tool designed to deceive Hitler and the German forces during the war, and it relied less on the strength of soldiers and weapons than on the creativity of artists.
This division, known as 23rd Special Purpose Headquarters , created fake armies. Inflatable tanks and rubber airplanes were combined with radio transmissions designed to be intercepted by the enemy. They involved actors playing roles, making it seem like troop movements and deployments were taking place when in fact it was all for show. They even set up loudspeakers in the forests to broadcast the sounds of war and make them convincing to those on the ground.
This army of scammers numbered about 1,100 people, but their work was able to create the illusion of about 30,000 soldiers . Their work was effective enough to distract German troops and save lives as a result. Records obtained from Germany after the fact indicate that the deception was a complete success, saving tens of thousands of lives and millions of dollars in equipment. It was also kept secret from the U.S. public until 1996.
9. Air ram
The most deadly fighter pilot of all time was Erich Hartmann, who was responsible for 352 murders in the air. Now, many of his victims were Soviet fighters, but for the sake of argument, he destroyed 352 P-51 Mustangs, one of the most common American fighters of the war (pictured above). At a cost of about $58,000 at the time It would have destroyed over $20 million worth of fighters. That would be over $340 million today. Obviously, shooting someone down wasn't a good idea back then, so what else could you do? One alternative to the traditional dogfight is an extremely dangerous technique known as "air ramming."
Similar to running another car off the road, aerial ramming involves hitting an enemy plane with your own plane. You can see why it’s a tactic that isn’t used often. The goal is to not kill yourself in the process, so it requires a steady hand, a keen eye, and nerves of something a little harder than steel. And this tactic is just as as old as flight itself .
Rumors of this tactic date back to before World War II, but many considered it completely unreliable. After all, what kind of maniac would or would do such a thing? But think about it: if you're out of ammo, facing the enemy in the air, and fully expecting to be shot down, what do you have to lose?
Back in 1956, two Soviet fighters attacked two Hungarian aircraft, and witnesses on the ground watched as one of the Soviet pilots very precisely maneuvered his plane toward the enemy, destroying them both in the process, but allowing the Soviet, who knew when he would need to jump from the ship, to parachute safely to the ground. The pilot denied that it was deliberate, but witnesses say his intentions and the outcome were very clear. The pilot later admitted that when his guns failed, he rammed the plane to disable it.
8. Quaker guns
Sometimes your best chance of winning is simply to make the enemy think you're going to win, even if you're not. As with the Ghost Army, you can do this by making them believe you have more resources than you actually do. And during the American Revolutionary War, this took the form of Quaker guns, named after the pacifist religious group.
From a distance, the Quaker cannon looks like any other cannon. But get close enough and you'll notice that it's not so much a powerful artillery piece as it is a painted log . Colonel William Washington ordered his men to turn a pine tree into a fake cannon and threatened to massacre the men in the fortified barn if they did not surrender. They all surrendered. Almost 100 years later, the same trick was used during the Civil War .
7. Listen to songs from four directions
In 202 in China, the Chu army reached a place called Gaixia and found itself trapped in a canyon. They were surrounded by the Han army. Many of the Chu army were killed or captured, and as night fell only a small part remains The leaders of the Han army had their own soldiers, and the captured Chu army starts singing traditional Chu songs.
The Chu army, faced with songs of their homeland from all sides, began to fear that Chu had fallen and that they were all that remained of their people. Many soldiers deserted, and the leader of the Chu army is said to have committed suicide, causing the remaining forces to surrender.
6. Attacks on submarines
German submarines were a powerful force during World War I and sank more than 5000 ships . Defeating them was a serious task, and finding them was not easy. Sonar did not exist at that time, so the ship hidden under the water was almost invisible. Sometimes the most low-tech methods turn out to be surprisingly effective.
For a time, the best way to combat a submarine was to detect and periscope off . At night, small boats would go out on patrol with just a couple of soldiers on board, hunting for periscopes. When they found one, they would cover the periscope with a bag and then smashed it with a hammer If a submarine wanted to see something, it had to surface, and that left it open to attack.
5. Operation Christmas
They say war is hell, so if you can get the enemy to focus on something better, maybe they'll give up the fight, right? There's evidence it works. Just look at Operation Christmas.
To combat the guerrillas in Colombia, the military decided to decorate some Christmas trees. Deep in the jungle where the guerrillas were known to move, soldiers collected massive trees and decorated them by the thousands christmas lights . They even filmed it for advertising. The lights were triggered by a motion sensor, and a banner would light up that read: "If Christmas can come to the jungle, you can come home too. Demobilize. Anything is possible at Christmas."
This tactic resulted in about 300 partisans, 5% of their total number , gave up and went home. They tried a similar tactic a year later, and another 180 packed it.
4. King Harald faked his death
The life of King Harald Sigurdsson is filled with incredible stories of heroism and strength. He is said to have won countless battles against countless enemies through strength and intelligence, and several stories illustrate this, as well as the story of his Sicilian campaign.
During the campaign, he is said to have besieged four different cities, often with insufficient numbers of men compared to his enemies. If he could not starve his enemies to death, he would use some tricks to gain the upper hand, which is what happened during the fourth campaign.
The city was well fortified and seemed invincible, so he began to spend his days in his tent. Eventually, word spread that he was gravely ill, and finally his men informed the enemy that he had died. His last wish? As a Christian, he wanted to be buried on the grounds of a church. Inside the city.
So the city opened its gates, and his people introduced transport with Sigurdson , who used it to block the gates, allowing the entire army and a very much alive Sigurdson to sack the city.
3. Zhuge Liang's Victory Through Shame
Nobody likes to brag, but as it happens, bragging and rubbing someone's face at its best can apparently save lives if you do it enough. That's what happened when Zhuge Liang, a military strategist and prime minister of the Chinese state of Shu between 221 and 263, was tasked with defeating Meng Ho , the enemy leader.
The story of Meng Huo's defeat became a legend because it lasted. According to these legends, Liang captured Huo on the battlefield. Instead of killing or torturing the man, he gave him a tour of his army, showing him how big it was, and asked him what he thought. Meng Huo was unimpressed, so Liang let him go. They did this in total seven times .
After seven captures, Meng Huo realized that Zhuge Liang's forces were superior to his, and he voluntarily surrendered and eventually joined the other side.
2. Battle of Pelusium
A headshot of an enemy can be invaluable and can turn the tide of any battle. But what does this mean in practical terms and how can it be best used? Perhaps one of the greatest examples of this occurred when Cambyses II, the Persian king, met the Egyptians during the Battle of Pelusium. This was a major battle that essentially handed Egypt over to Persia and marked the beginning of the 27th Dynasty of Egypt.
Cambyses II fought the armies of Pharaoh Psametik III and was an experienced tactician. He also knew about the beliefs of the Egyptians and, in particular, their reverence for all forms of life, particularly those beings they considered to be the earthly incarnations of their gods.
For the Egyptians, cats were associated with the goddess Bastet. The goddess was both a nurturer and a warrior, and she had a distinguished cult of followers. Few Egyptians would dare harm a cat, lest they incur the wrath of the goddesses. So Cambyses strewed the battlefield with them and painted their images on the shields of his men.
Persians they took cats with them into battle, which made the Egyptians afraid to shoot arrows at them. Cambyses released dogs, ibises, sheep andany other animals that, as he thought, the Egyptians were afraid to cause harm. The tactic worked, and the Egyptians either fled or were killed.
1. The whistling sound of falling bombs
As we have seen, psychology has a big influence on war. Dive bombers would install Jericho trumpets on the front of their planes so that when they went into a dive, the plane would make that iconic whining sound that we associate with them and cause panic. Likewise, most of us recognize the high-pitched whistling sound of a bomb being dropped, if for no other reason than from old movies and even cartoons. It is even the sound that a cartoon character will use when fall .
If you watched any modern footage of war zones during bomb planting, you wouldn't hear that telltale whistle. Like the dive bombers of World War II, only some bombs made that sound because was attached to the body real whistle .
The sound and pitch of the sound changes as the bomb falls due to the Doppler effect. This meant that on the ground you had an audible warning of the speed and distance of the bomb, which you must assume wreaked havoc in the minds of many people. Knowing that your potential destruction was fast approaching would have chilled even the most steadfast soldier and seriously unsettled the nerves of anyone who survived. All for the cost of a whistle.
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