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hellofresh and now today's video in the past we've told just how expensive war can get and as many
people know the defense budget of a country like the united states or russia is enough to make elon
musk break into a sweat but not every victory has to break the bank and there's more than
little precedence to suggest some effective and devastating tactics don't need to cost very much
money at all let's take a look at 10 of history's cheapest but most creative military tactics
10. the world war ii ghost army anything known as a ghost army is probably going to be cool
no matter what it entails but in the case of the ghost army most famously deployed during
the second world war is also incredibly creative and more than a little sneaky otherwise known as
tactical deception the ghost army was a tool meant to deceive hitler and the german forces during the
war and it relied not on the strength of soldiers and weapons so much as the creativity artists
known as the 23rd headquarters special troops this division built fake armies inflatable tanks
and rubber airplanes were combined with radio transmissions that were designed to be intercepted
by the enemy they featured actors playing out parts making it seem like troop movements and
deployments were happening when in reality everything was just for show they even set up
speakers in forests to broadcast the sounds of war and make it seem convincing to those on the ground
this army of fakers numbered around 1100 but their work was able to create the illusion of around 30
000 soldiers their work was effective enough that they were able to draw german forces off and save
lives as a result records obtained from germany after the fact indicated that the deception was
a total success meaning tens of thousands of lives and millions worth of equipment were spared it was
also kept secret from the public stateside until 1996 9. aerial ramming the deadliest fight pilot
of all time was eric hartman who has been credited with 352 kills in the air now many of his victims
were soviet fighters but for the sake of argument let's say he took out 352 p-51 mustangs one of the
most common u.s fighter planes of the war which were picturing here at a cost of about 58 000
at the time he would have destroyed over 20 million dollars in fighter planes that'll work
out today at over 340 million dollars obviously shooting the man down didn't work out very well
at the time so what else could have been done one low cost alternative to a traditional dogfight is
the extremely dangerous technique known as air ramming like running another car off the road
air ramming involves hitting an enemy plane with your own plane you can see why this is a tactic
that isn't done often the goal is to not get yourself killed in the process so it takes a
steady hand a keen eye and nerves of something a little harder than steel and it's a tactic about
as old as flight itself rumors of the tactic date back to even before world war ii but many people
considered them wholly unreliable after all what kind of maniac would or could do such a thing but
consider if you're out of ammunition head-to-head against an enemy in the air and fully expecting to
be shot down what do you have to lose back in 1956 two soviet fighters took on two hungarian planes
and witnesses on the ground watched as one of the soviet pilots very clearly maneuvered his plane
into the enemy destroying them both in the process but allowing the soviet who knew when
he'd need to jump ship to float safely to the ground with his parachute the pilot denied it
was intentional but witnesses say is intense and the result was very clear the pilot later admitted
that when his guns failed him he rammed the plane to take it out number eight quaker guns sometimes
your best chance for victory is just to make the enemy think you're going to win even if you can't
like the ghost army you can achieve this by making them believe you have more resources than you
really do and in the american revolutionary war this took the form of quaker cannons named for the
pacifist religious group from a distance a quaker cannon looks like any other cannon but get close
enough and you'll notice it's less a powerful piece of artillery and more of a painted log
colonel william washington had his men turn a pine tree into a fake cannon and threatened to take out
men in a fortified barn if they didn't surrender they all gave up nearly a hundred years later the
same trick was being used during the civil war 7. two songs from four sides in the year 202 in china
the chew army had reached a place called gaxier and oh trapped in a canyon they were surrounded by
the han army many of the chew army were destroyed or captured and as night fell only a small force
remained the leaders of the han army had their soldiers and the captured chew army begin to sing
traditional songs of chi the true army confronted with songs of their homeland on all sides began to
fear that chu had fallen and they were all that remained of their people many soldiers deserted
and the leader of the two army is said to have taken his own life causing the remaining forces to
surrender 6. hammering u-boats german u-boats were a powerful force during world war one and sank
upwards of five thousand ships defeating them was a serious priority and detecting them was not easy
sonar did not exist at the time so a vessel hidden underwater was all but invisible sometimes the
most low-tech methods prove surprisingly effective for a time the best way to deal with a submarine
was to detect and disable the periscope 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'd cover the periscope
with a bag and then smash it with a hammer if the u-boat wanted to see anything it had to surface
and that left it open for attack 5. operation christmas they say war is hell so if you can make
the enemy focus on something better maybe they'll give up the fight right well there's evidence
it works just look at operation christmas in an effort to counter the guerrilla forces in colombia
the military opted to decorate some christmas trees deep in the jungles where the guerrilla
forces were known to move about soldiers would pick massive trees and drape them in thousands
of christmas lights they even filmed it to make commercials the lights would activate on a motion
sensor and a banner would light up that said if christmas can come to the jungle you two can
come home demobilize at christmas everything is possible the tactic resulted in about 300 gorillas
five percent of their total force giving up and going home they tried a similar tactic the year
after and another 180 packed it in before king harold faked his death king harold sigurdsson's
life is steeped in unbelievable tales of heroism and strength it said he triumphed in countless
battles against countless enemies through strength as well as intelligence and few stories exemplify
that as well as the tale of his sicilian campaign it said that he laid siege to four different towns
during the campaign often undermanned compared to his enemies if he couldn't starve his enemies out
it used some trickery to gain the upper hand which happened during the fourth campaign the town was
well fortified and seemed unbeatable so he began to spend his days in his tent eventually rumor
spread that he was gravely ill and finally as men gave word the enemy that had died his final wish
as a christian man he wanted to be laid to rest on church grounds inside the town so the town opened
its gates and coffin containing cigarettes and was brought in by his men who used it to block the
gate allowing the whole army into very much alive cigarettes and to sack the town number three zhuzh
liang's victory by shay no one likes a show-off but it happens showing off and rubbing someone
else's face and it can apparently save lives who do it enough that's what happens when zhu
zh liang military strategist and prime minister of the chinese state of shu between 221 and 263 was
tasked with defeating meng huo enemy chieftain the story of meng hua's defeat has become the stuff of
legend because it kept happening according to those legends liang captured hole on the
field of battle instead of killing or torturing the man he gave him a tour of his army showing
off how great it was and asked what he thought manghwa was not impressed so liang released him
they did this a total of seven times after seven captures mengho realized that zhuzh liang's forces
were superior and he voluntarily surrendered himself and ended up joining the other side
2. the battle of pelusium getting into your enemy's head can be invaluable and turn the
tide of any battle but what does that mean in a practical sense how could it be best exploited
arguably one of the greatest examples of this occurred when cambyses ii a persian king met the
egyptians during the battle of pelusium this was a major battle that essentially put egypt in the
hands of persia and started egypt's 27th dynasty cambyses ii was taking on the forces of pharaoh
samatic iii and he was an experienced tactician he was also aware of the egyptians beliefs and in
particular their reverence for all forms of life in particular those creatures that they viewed
as earthly representations of their gods for egyptians cats were always associated with the
goddess bastet the goddess was both a nurturer and a fighter and had a prominent cult of followers
few egyptians would dare harm a cat unless they earned the goddess's ire so combices littered the
battlefield with them and painted their images on the shields of his men the persians carried
cats into battle which caused the egyptians to fear loosing arrows against them carbises let
loose dogs cyber seas sheep and any other animals he thought the egyptians would be too afraid to
harm the tactic worked and the egyptians either fled or were slaughtered 1. the whistling sound
of falling bombs psychology has a lot of impact in war as we've seen dive bombers used to mount
jericho trumpets on the front of their planes so that when they went into a dive the plane would
blare out that iconic wailing sound we associate with them and cause panic likewise most of us
recognize the high-pitched whistling sound of a bomb being dropped if from nowhere else other than
old movies and even cartoons it's even the sound a cartoon will use for a character falling if you've
watched any modern footage of war zones as bombs are deployed you will not have heard a tell-tale
whistle like the dive bombers of world war ii only certain bombs made that sound because of an
actual whistle that was attached to the casing the sound and pitch change as the bomb drops
thanks to the doppler effect this means that on the ground you had an audio warning of the
speed and distance to the bomb which you have to assume played havoc with a lot of people's minds
knowing your potential destruction is closing in fast would have chilled even the hardest soldier
and severely shaken the nerves of all who survived all that for the cost of a whistle