Psychological warfare misleads, intimidates, and demoralizes the enemy, and the world of ancient conflict is packed with chilling examples. In this roundup of 10 ancient psychological tricks, we’ll explore how clever sounds, sly proverbs, and gruesome spectacles were wielded to break morale and secure victory.

10 Ancient Psychological Warfare: An Overview

From the echoing shrieks of ceremonial whistles to the silent resolve of soldiers willing to die for a cause, each tactic below demonstrates how fear, deception, and cultural reverence were turned into potent weapons. Let’s march through time and uncover the strategies that made whole armies tremble.

10 Aztec Death Whistles

Aztec death whistles emitted a sound that ancient chroniclers described as the “scream of 1,000 corpses.” Archaeologists uncovered two of these skull‑shaped instruments at the Temple of the Wind God, clutched in the hands of a sacrificed individual, confirming their ritual significance.

Initially dismissed as children’s toys, scholars now agree the whistles served both ceremonial and martial purposes. Their design mimics a human howl of agony, and they were reserved for only the most dire occasions, amplifying terror on the battlefield.

When unleashed at the opening of combat, the shrill, otherworldly wail could shatter the enemy’s resolve, sending soldiers into a trance‑like panic. Some researchers even suggest that Aztec healers harnessed sound for therapeutic purposes, further underscoring the instrument’s dual nature.

9 36 Stratagems

The 36 Stratagems is a timeless collection of Chinese proverbs centered on the art of deception. Each maxim offers a subtle psychological lever designed to erode an opponent’s will to fight.

These sayings have become so ingrained that they now serve as everyday clichés. The work is divided into sections such as “Attack Strategies,” “Chaos Strategies,” and “Desperate Situation Strategies,” each illustrating a different facet of mental warfare.

Although the exact author remains a mystery, most experts trace the compilation’s origins to the Warring States Period (403‑221 BC). The version we know today stems from a tattered copy discovered in a Sichuan market stall in 1941, suggesting the text evolved over many centuries.

8 Sacred Shields

In 525 BC, the Battle of Pelusium became a textbook case of cultural exploitation. The Achaemenid Persians, led by Cambyses II, discovered that the Egyptians revered cats as sacred symbols of the goddess Bastet.

To turn this devotion into a weapon, Persian soldiers affixed drawings of cats—some even claim actual felines—onto their shields. Polyaenus records that the Persian front line also bore dogs, ibises, and sheep, each animal sacred to the Egyptians, creating a bewildering tableau that paralyzed the defenders.

Herodotus recounts a personal slight that triggered Cambyses’ invasion: the Egyptian pharaoh Amasis allegedly sent a disguised woman instead of his daughter for a marriage alliance. The resulting affront spurred the Persians to attack, and Polyaenus credits their symbolic shields with securing victory through psychological shock.

7 Terror Tactics Of Tamerlane

Born in 1336, Timur the Lame—better known as Tamerlane—was a fearsome Uzbek warlord whose campaigns stretched across Central Asia, the Muslim world, and into India despite a debilitating paralysis that left half his body immobile.

Legend tells that his terror tactics were unparalleled: historians estimate his armies slaughtered roughly 17 million people, about five percent of the global population at the time. He became infamous for constructing pyramids of skulls, a macabre display meant to instill dread in any who might oppose him.

Accounts claim he beheaded 90,000 residents of Baghdad, assembling 120 skull pyramids, and after conquering Delhi, he razed the city as a stark lesson. Even after defeating the Ottomans, Timur seized the Byzantine gates and kept a captured sultan in a cage, parading the captive as a chilling warning to all.

6 Vlad The Impaler

Vlad III, popularly known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula, mastered the art of psychological intimidation in the 15th century. After spending his youth as a political hostage of the Ottoman Empire, he returned to Wallachia with a deep‑seated hatred for his captors.

Some scholars argue that the Ottomans themselves taught Vlad the gruesome practice of impaling. In 1462, when Sultan Mehmet II marched into Vlad’s lands, the invading force was greeted by a nightmarish forest of impaled Ottoman prisoners, a sight designed to sap morale before battle even began.Because most surviving accounts of Vlad were penned by hostile chroniclers, the details are often exaggerated. Yet the pervasive fear he inspired is undeniable; with limited resources, he turned terror into a strategic equalizer, using shocking displays to compensate for his smaller army.

5 Philip II Of Macedonia

Philip II of Macedonia laid the groundwork for his son Alexander’s legendary conquests. Ascending the throne in 359 BC, Philip inherited a fragmented realm plagued by foreign meddling, but he swiftly eliminated internal dissent and forged a powerful state.

When confronting the Chalcidian League, Philip razed the city of Stagirus so thoroughly that later travelers could scarcely tell a settlement had ever existed. The sheer devastation forced neighboring cities to surrender without a fight.

During the pivotal Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, Philip employed two psychological ploys: first, he subjected the Athenian and Theban forces to a grueling wait under a scorching sun, wearing them down with boredom; second, he staged a feigned retreat, luring the enemy into a false sense of advantage before spring‑trapping them in a well‑planned ambush.

4 Genius Of Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan wielded terror as his sharpest instrument. He razed any city that resisted, often ordering his soldiers to behead 400 inhabitants each before setting the settlement ablaze—a practice that inflated death counts but served a clear psychological purpose.

Genghis also mastered the art of deception. He would mount wooden dummies on horseback, light rows of bonfires at night, and spread rumors of an ever‑growing army, making opponents overestimate his strength. His campaigns spanned over 1,300 km, preventing enemies from gauging his true numbers.

Feigned retreats were another favorite: Mongol archers pretended to flee, drawing pursuers into prepared kill zones. He also employed camel‑mounted kettledrums whose thunderous beat signaled an oncoming cavalry charge, sowing panic among foes unfamiliar with such a sound.

3 Suicide Army

King Goujian of Yue ruled from 496‑465 BC during the Spring and Autumn Period, a time marked by fierce rivalry with the state of Wu. According to the historic text Shiji, Goujian’s front line comprised soldiers who would decapitate themselves—a shocking form of psychological warfare.

Some interpret the phrase “criminals sentenced to death” as literal condemned men forced into combat, while others argue it refers to volunteers willing to sacrifice their lives for the cause, reflecting an ancient Chinese belief that ultimate devotion earned posthumous reward.

Although scholars debate whether self‑decapitation truly occurred or is simply legend, the story underscores Goujian’s relentless determination. After years of hardship, he ultimately overcame Wu, annexing their territory and cementing his legacy.

2 War Chariots

During the 1274 BC Battle of Kadesh, Hittite heavy chariots thundered into the ranks of Ramses II’s Re Division, creating chaos and terror among the Egyptian forces.

In contrast, Egyptian war chariots were lighter, typically crewed by a driver and a warrior armed with a bow, spear, or both. Their agility allowed them to outmaneuver the bulkier Hittite machines, striking swiftly before the enemy could regroup.

Scholars believe the Hyksos introduced chariots to Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period. By the 15th century BC, Pharaoh Thutmose III commanded over 1,000 chariots, using them to intimidate untrained infantry. By around 1000 BC, mounted cavalry began to replace the chariot as the dominant battlefield asset.

1 Hannibal’s Folly

Hannibal Barca, the Carthaginian commander of the Second Punic War (218‑201 BC), terrified Rome with a suite of psychological tricks. At the Battle of Trebia in 218 BC, he baited the Romans into crossing the icy Trebia River by sending a contingent of Numidian horsemen to provoke a hasty pursuit.

While the Romans strained across the frozen water, Hannibal’s main force lay concealed on the opposite bank, ready to unleash a devastating ambush that left the enemy disoriented, exhausted, and shivering.

His audacious Alpine crossing with war elephants is often hailed as a masterstroke, yet it also served as a psychological gamble that backfired. The elephants, unsuited to the cold, suffered heavily; those that survived emerged weak, diminishing their battlefield impact and illustrating the thin line between daring and folly.

When you think of 10 weird siege tactics, the image that springs to mind is the massive gap between sturdy defensive walls and the outlandish methods attackers devised to breach them. For most of warfare’s long story, fortifications out‑paced offensive tech, meaning a solid stone wall often kept armies at bay. This mismatch birthed a cavalcade of creative, sometimes downright bizarre, siege tricks that changed the course of countless battles.

10 Weird Siege Innovations

10 Pigs

King John, often remembered as England’s most troublesome monarch, repeatedly clashed with his barons, leading to the famous Magna Carta charter. After the charter was granted, John promptly tried to invalidate it, sparking another round of rebellion. One of the strongholds that resisted him was a castle in Rochester, where his attempts at diplomacy, bombardment, and bribery all fell short.

John’s engineers finally resorted to tunneling beneath the keep’s walls. When the tunnel was ready, the king ordered “forty of the fattest pigs, the sort least good for eating” to be set ablaze and thrust into the tunnel to scorch the support beams. The resulting inferno was so fierce that the tunnel collapsed, taking a portion of the tower above it down with it.

The rebels managed to hold out a little longer, but the destruction of their defenses and the ensuing starvation forced them to surrender, proving that even swine could be turned into a weapon of war.

9 Dead Bodies

Imagine being stuck outside a fortified city with catapults that can’t breach the walls – morale would be at an all‑time low. In 1346, the Mongol‑led siege of Caffa (now Feodosia in Crimea) faced exactly that dilemma. The attackers, carrying the deadly Black Death, found their own camp teeming with corpses from disease and battle.

Rather than retreat, they loaded those rotting bodies into catapults and hurled them over the walls, hoping the foul stench would incapacitate the defenders. The gruesome projectiles indeed carried the plague, turning the “mountains of dead” into a biological weapon. While Caffa withstood the siege, the diseased corpses likely helped spread the plague to Europe via fleeing ships.

Later, during the protracted 21‑year siege of Candia (modern‑day Heraklion) in the 17th century, the besieged contemplated concocting a poisonous liquid from the spleens and sores of plague victims. Though the plan never materialised, it shows how desperate defenders became when conventional tactics failed.

8 Heat Rays

When the Romans tried to capture the Greek city of Syracuse, they ran into the genius of Archimedes. The famed mathematician allegedly built devices that could lift Roman ships out of the harbor and plunge them to a watery doom. But perhaps his most legendary invention was a “heat ray” that set enemy vessels ablaze.

According to some ancient accounts, Archimedes arranged mirrors—or polished shields—in a tight formation, focusing the sun’s glare onto the Roman fleet. The concentrated sunlight supposedly ignited the tarred hulls, turning the invading ships into bonfires. Modern experiments have demonstrated that, under the right conditions, such a mirror array can indeed start fires on wooden targets, lending credence to the ancient story.

7 Rocket Cats

Franz Helm, a 17th‑century German artillery master, penned a bizarre treatise describing how a cat could be weaponised. He suggested capturing a cat from the enemy’s own town, fastening a small sack—similar to a fire‑arrow—to its back, igniting the sack, and then letting the terrified animal dash toward the nearest fortress.

The text reads: “Create a small sack like a fire‑arrow… bind the sack to the back of the cat, ignite it, let it glow well and thereafter let the cat go, so it runs to the nearest castle or town, and out of fear it thinks to hide itself where it ends up in barn hay or straw it will be ignited.” The illustration makes it appear as though the cat would be propelled like a rocket over the walls.

While there is no solid evidence that such fiery felines ever saw combat, records do describe “fire pigs” being used. For instance, during the siege of Megara, defenders smeared pigs in oil, set them ablaze, and released them to frighten and drive off attacking elephants.

6 Sand

Hollywood often shows defenders dousing attackers with boiling oil or water, but when resources ran low, innovators turned to other scorching substances. During the 1346 siege of Caen, Sir Edward Springhouse was knocked off a ladder, prompting the defenders to hurl burning hay onto him, roasting him in his armor.

Alexander the Great’s assault on the island city of Tyre demanded an even more inventive approach. The city’s defenders heated fine sand until it glowed like embers and then poured it onto the scaling troops. The scorching grains seeped into armor joints, causing excruciating pain that forced many to strip off their protection, leaving them vulnerable to archers. The hot sand also caught the wind, igniting enemy ship sails as it drifted across the water.

5 Greek Fire

Greek fire was the medieval equivalent of a liquid flamethrower, a terrifying concoction that burst into flame on contact with water and clung to anything it touched. Launched from catapults or specialized siege engines, it could scorch enemy ships and breach fortifications. Its exact formula remains a mystery, though scholars suspect a mix of caustic chemicals, pitch, and resin. Only sand, salt, or even urine could extinguish its voracious blaze.

Beyond ship‑to‑ship combat, the Byzantines fielded a hand‑held weapon called the cheirosiphon. Mounted on a siege tower, this device sprayed a stream of Greek fire onto defenders and structures within a besieged city, turning the walls themselves into a fiery deathtrap.

4 Toilets

Modern plumbing is a luxury, but medieval castles often featured a simple board with a hole—known as a garderobe—projecting over the walls to let waste fall away. While one might assume such a setup was only for sanitation, it could also serve as an unexpected point of infiltration.

Château Gaillard, built by Richard the Lionheart and touted as impregnable, fell less than a decade after its construction. King Philip II of France captured the outer bailey but could not breach the inner keep. One observant soldier noticed the castle’s toilet shaft and realized it could provide a narrow, waste‑splattered passage into the keep. He squeezed through, opened a window into the chapel, and allowed French troops to pour into the supposedly unassailable fortress.

3 Exploding Mill Wheel

In 1552, the Ottoman army laid siege to the Castle of Eger in Hungary, hammering its walls with relentless artillery. The defenders, perched atop a hill, faced overwhelming numbers and constant bombardment that began to crumble the outer defenses.

Enter Gergely Bornemissza, a resourceful defender who repurposed heavy millstones—used for grinding grain—by stuffing them with gunpowder. Rolled down the steep hill, these explosive mill wheels amassed significant velocity before detonating amidst the Ottoman ranks, showering the attackers with flaming wood and jagged stone fragments.

2 Piggybacks

In 12th‑century Germany, a patchwork of principalities frequently clashed. In 1140, Conrad III besieged the city of Weinsberg, demanding surrender or facing total destruction. The townsfolk held out, forcing Conrad to threaten a fiery massacre if they refused.

Starvation finally broke the defenders’ resolve, and they agreed to surrender. However, they begged a single concession: that the women be allowed to leave with whatever they could carry. Conrad, displaying a chivalrous streak, granted the request.

When the women exited, the besieging army was stunned to see them bent over, each carrying a male townsfolk on her back. Some contemporaries deemed the scene a humiliating trick, but Conrad reportedly laughed and permitted both the women and the men to depart unharmed.

1 Bees

Walls give defenders the high ground, allowing them to hurl projectiles onto attackers below. Yet besiegers are clever, often digging tunnels or using protective shields to avoid being pelted. When Vikings assaulted Chester in the 10th century, they employed wooden hurdles to deflect thrown weapons.

In response, the city’s defenders first boiled all the beer in massive cauldrons and poured the scalding liquid onto the Vikings, burning their skin. The invaders countered by covering their hurdles with animal hides, forcing the boiling brew to run off. Undeterred, the defenders then seized their beehives and hurled them over the walls.

The angry swarms descended upon the Vikings, stinging them relentlessly. Overwhelmed by the buzzing assault, the Viking forces abandoned the siege, retreating in defeat.

Most folks can name the classic battlefield moves – ambushes, charges, artillery barrages, aerial strikes – the usual playbook. Yet history also records a handful of truly odd maneuvers that somehow turned the tide. Below you’ll find 10 bizarre military tactics that actually succeeded, each stranger than the last, yet each undeniably effective.

Why These 10 Bizarre Military Moves Matter

1 Operation Mincemeat

It was the spring of 1943 when the Allies cooked up a wildly imaginative ruse aimed at the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. The centerpiece of the plan? A dead body dressed up as a Royal Marine officer, complete with a briefcase stuffed with counterfeit documents suggesting an imminent Allied invasion of Southern Europe.

The corpse, later dubbed the “corpse of deception,” was set adrift off the coast of Spain – a region known for its pro‑German sympathies. German intelligence scooped it up, took the bait, and redeployed forces based on the fabricated intel.

The scheme worked like a charm, steering the Germans away from the actual invasion routes. The dead officer never knew he was part of a grand strategic plot, but his unwitting role helped tip the balance in a world at war, proving that sometimes a fake file and a floating body can be more powerful than a fleet of battleships.

2 The Ghost Army

Don’t picture actual specters marching across the battlefield – this was an Allied deception unit that used inflatable tanks, dummy artillery, recorded sound effects, and fake radio traffic to create the illusion of a massive force where none existed.

Their elaborate ruses fooled German reconnaissance aircraft and high command, making the Nazis believe the Allies were massing for attacks far from the true target. By convincing the enemy of a phantom army, they bought real troops time and space to maneuver, showing that a well‑executed illusion can be a weapon more lethal than any cannon.

3 The Double Siege of Alesia

The year was 52 BCE, and the hilltop fortress of Alesia in modern‑day France became the focal point of a clash between Julius Caesar’s legions and a coalition of Gauls led by Vercingetorix.

Caesar’s answer was audacious: he ordered two concentric rings of fortifications. The outer ring faced outward to fend off any Gallic reinforcements, while the inner ring turned inward to contain the besieged forces inside the city.

This double‑encirclement, a marvel of Roman engineering and logistical planning, meant the Gauls were squeezed from both sides. Despite desperate fighting on both fronts, the Romans held firm, and Vercingetorix’s forces eventually capitulated, cementing Caesar’s reputation as a military genius.

4 Hammering Periscopes

U‑boats prowled the Atlantic, using periscopes to spy on and target Allied shipping. To blunt this menace, the Royal Navy devised a blunt‑yet‑effective countermeasure.

Patrol crews would stealthily approach exposed periscopes and smash them with hammers, or simply drape canvas sacks over the lenses and tie them tight. By blinding the submarines, the tactic forced them to surface, where they became easy prey for surface ships and aircraft.

5 The Night Witches

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nIjmWIfn44

The Night Witches were an all‑female Soviet bomber regiment that earned a chilling nickname from the Germans because of the eerie, broom‑like whine their wooden Po‑2 biplanes made as they glided in under cover of darkness.

Flying slow, canvas‑covered aircraft, these pilots repeatedly swooped low over enemy positions, delivering bombs with pinpoint accuracy while remaining virtually invisible in the night sky. Their daring nocturnal raids rattled German troops and demonstrated that courage and ingenuity can outweigh even the most advanced technology.

6 Flaming Camels

Timur, also known as Tamerlane, employed a truly fiery tactic during the 1402 Battle of Ankara against the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I. He ordered his men to load camels with straw, set them ablaze, and unleash the burning beasts into the enemy ranks.

The sight of flaming camels charging forward terrified the Ottoman war elephants and horses, sowing chaos and panic throughout their formation. The resulting disorder allowed Timur’s forces to press the advantage and claim a decisive victory, capturing Bayezid and dealing a major blow to the Ottoman Empire.

7 Bring Your Pets to War Day

Ancient Egyptians revered cats as sacred protectors, believing they possessed divine qualities. When Cambyses II of Persia marched on the Egyptian stronghold of Pelusium in 525 BC, he exploited this cultural belief.

The Persians marched forward with cats at the forefront, even painting feline images on their shields. Egyptian soldiers, fearing divine retribution for harming these holy animals, hesitated, giving the Persians a psychological edge that helped them breach the fortifications and secure victory.

8 Self Mutilation

Zopyrus, a Persian general during the 482 BC siege of Babylon, executed a shocking plan to infiltrate the city. He deliberately cut off his own ears and nose, then presented himself to the Babylonian king as a disgraced defector who had been brutally punished by King Darius.

The gruesome self‑mutilation earned him the trust of the Babylonians, who appointed him to a position of authority within the city. From inside, Zopyrus sabotaged the defenses, paving the way for the Persian army to capture Babylon – a brutal but undeniably effective method of espionage.

9 Releasing One Prisoner

World War I was a stalemate of trench warfare, but the Germans pulled a political ace by releasing a single prisoner: Vladimir Lenin. Once back in Russia, Lenin sparked the Bolshevik Revolution, toppling the Czarist regime and pulling Russia out of the war.

With the Eastern Front collapsed, Germany could shift its full might to the Western Front, launching the 1918 Spring Offensive that nearly broke the Allied lines. Although the offensive eventually stalled when American forces arrived, the German gamble of freeing Lenin almost altered the entire outcome of the war.

10 Hannibal Beats an Enemy Fleet With Snakes

During a naval skirmish in the Second Punic War, Hannibal Barca turned to nature for a surprise weapon. He gathered venomous snakes from the local terrain and ordered his troops to hurl the slithering creatures onto the decks of the enemy fleet commanded by King Eumenes II of Pergamon.

The sudden onslaught of poisonous snakes threw the Pergamene sailors into a chaotic frenzy; many leapt overboard to escape the writhing reptiles. The terrified crews abandoned their ships, granting Hannibal control of the waters without a single traditional cannon shot.

In war, strategy is everything. A single well-executed maneuver can be the difference between victory and defeat. This was certainly the case with the Trojan Horse, a brilliant tactical move that allowed the Greeks to take control of Troy. But, while the story of the Trojan horse may be a thing of fiction, the use of wacky but clever ploys in war is not.

Here is a list of some of the most clever deceptive tactics that have been used in war throughout history.

10 Fake Paris in World War 1

Paris is a city rich with history that stretches back centuries. But during World War I, German bomber planes flying by night were an imminent threat to the iconic landmarks of the French capital. The French came up with a pretty ingenious plan to build a fake Paris replica out of wood and canvas, complete with lights, so that it would fool the German pilots at night.

The decoy city would be located just outside the real Paris, and it would be designed to confuse and lure the German pilots away from their true target. Fortunately, the war ended shortly after construction began, so the plan was never fully realized. The story of the fake Paris is a reminder of the lengths that people will go to in times of war. It is also a testament to the power of human ingenuity and creativity, even in the face of adversity.^[1]

9 German City Does Not Go Dark to Avoid Bombing

Like France, German cities were also terrorized by nighttime air raids. In World War II, one German city called Konstanz, which sits near the border of Switzerland, was able to elude bombardment by refusing to turn out the lights after dark. In order to protect itself from nighttime air raids, German cities were forbidden from using any lights. Street lamps and buildings went dark, and citizens were not allowed to use candles and had to cover their windows with curtains or black paint.

On the other hand, their Swiss neighbors—who were neutral in WWII and thus not targeted by the Allies—remained illuminated at night. By keeping their lights on, Konstanz was able to fool the Allied forces into thinking they were part of Switzerland and managed to make it through the war mostly unscathed.^[2]

8 Ghost Army

If you think deception is an art, then the U.S. Army took it to new heights during World War II. They went so far as to gather a team of artists and audio experts to create an elaborate phantom military unit of inflatable tanks and phony sound effects and radio transmissions to fool the Nazis.

The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, also known as the “Ghost Army,” was made up of around 1,100 soldiers who were tasked with creating lifelike dummy tanks, trucks, and artillery. They also played recorded sounds of battle to make it seem like there were more troops than there actually were. The bluff created a distraction that tied up enemy resources and preoccupied them with a military presence that wasn’t really there while the real Army maneuvered elsewhere.^[3]

7 Foiled Camisade During the War of 1812

During the war of 1812, one town on the coast of Maryland managed to fool the British during a nighttime siege. St. Michaels was a shipbuilding town targeted by British forces approaching via the Miles River. When an attack by the British became imminent, the townspeople decided to take action.

They placed lanterns in the treetops around the town, making it appear as though the town was at a higher elevation than it actually was. When the British rowed onto shore in the night, they were met with cannon fire by the Americans. This drove them back to their ships, from which they fired upon the town. Because they aimed at the lights in the trees they thought were windows and buildings, they ultimately shot over the town and failed to hit anything.^[4]

6 Army Builds a Fake Base to Fool Saddam Hussein

The Gulf War was fought in the early 1990s as a coalition of forces from more than 30 countries sought to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. Before the first bombs fell on Baghdad in 1991, the U.S. military was engaged in a battle of wits with Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi dictator had invaded Kuwait and was dug in for a long occupation. In order to drive him out, the U.S.-led coalition needed to mount a surprise attack. But how could they keep Saddam guessing about their plans?

The answer was Forward Operating Base Weasel, a secret military base set up for the purpose of deceiving the Iraqi leader. By sending out false radio signals, including recorded Egyptian radio traffic about the Americans and planting bogus intelligence, the coalition was able to convince Saddam that the main attack would come from the south when in reality, it would be coming from the west. It was a daring plan, and it worked like a charm. Thanks to the brave men and women at Forward Operating Base Weasel, Saddam was caught off guard when the real attack came, and his forces were quickly routed.^[5]

5 Vietnam POW Plays Stupid to Deceive Captors

Douglas Brent Hegdahl III was only twenty years old when he was taken captive by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. A Navy seaman, Hegdahl had been on a ship in the Gulf of Tonkin when he fell overboard and was picked up by a North Vietnamese fishing boat. Hegdahl was immediately taken prisoner and spent the next two years in captivity.

During that time, he developed a deep understanding of the Vietnamese language and culture. However, he was able to fool his captors into thinking he was stupid and harmless. He exaggerated his country accent and expressed a fascination with communism. As a result, he was treated relatively well and was dubbed “the incredibly stupid one.” He was allowed to roam the POW camp freely and would secretly sabotage the Vietnamese by doing things like putting dirt in gas tanks to disable them. He was eventually released as part of a prisoner exchange. After returning to the United States, Hegdahl was tapped for his knowledge about the Vietnamese as part of negotiations for ending the war.^[6]

4 Hannibal of Barca Tricks Romans

A trap is only as good as its bait, and when it comes to luring in his enemies, Hannibal of Barca is a master angler. In 216 BC, the Carthaginian commander found himself and his army cornered in a valley in Campania. Unfortunately, his army was situated in a valley with Romans guarding the only way out—a mountain pass.

Seeing no other way to escape, Hannibal took a herd of cattle and stampeded them toward the pass with flaming torches on their horns. The guards, thinking the cattle were Hannibal’s soldiers, rushed to confront them and his army safely slipped away under cover of night. It’s a story that has gone down in history as one of the most clever military maneuvers, and it’s a testament to Hannibal’s resourcefulness as a leader.^[7]

3 Operation Mincemeat

In 1943, British intelligence came up with an outlandish plan to deceive the Nazis that sounds straight out of a spy flick. The plan, codenamed Operation Mincemeat, involved planting false documents on the body of a dead man and releasing the body into the sea off the coast of Spain. The corpse was that of a homeless man but was given a fake identity to pass off as a dead British officer.

The hope was that the Germans would learn of the corpse and believe the contents of the phony documents attached to it. The plan was successful, and the Germans were led to believe that the Allies were going to invade Greece and Sardinia rather than Sicily. As a result, they diverted troops to these areas, which helped ensure the success of the Allied invasion of Sicily. Operation Mincemeat is now considered one of the most successful deceptions in military history.^[8]

2 Opium-Laced Cigarettes

In World War I, the British and the Ottomans were embroiled in a slow, drawn-out battle in the trenches. Eventually, the British learned that the Ottomans had run out of cigarettes, at which point they sent packs to the enemy. However, the action was far from altruistic as they also attached propaganda in an attempt to demoralize and taunt their adversaries.

The Ottomans willingly took the smokes but defiantly discarded the propaganda, showing no intention to surrender. The British prepared to raid the enemy but, before doing so, sent over more cigarettes, this time laced with opium. By the time the British launched their attack, it was an easy victory as their enemy was too strung out to put up much of a fight.^[9]

1 Cats on the Battlefield

Back in 525 BC, a war was waged between the Persians and Egyptians. In the battle of Pelusium, the battle-tested Persian leader Cambyses II was able to get the best of Egypt’s young inexperienced pharoah, Psametik III. In Egyptian culture, cats and other animals were held as sacred. Cambyses II knew this, and according to ancient accounts, he had his army show up to battle with images of cats painted on their shields.

Additionally, Persian forces released a large number of cats, dogs, and sheep onto the frontlines. The Egyptians were fearful of causing harm to these animals and were so alarmed at the sight of Persian soldiers throwing cats at them that they fled in panic. As a result, many Egyptians were slain in the process, and the Persians were able to take control of Egypt with relative ease.^[10]

In the past, we’ve covered 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 is more than a little precedent to suggest some effective and devastating tactics don’t need to cost very much money at all. Let’s take a look at ten of history’s cheapest but most creative military tactics. 

10. The WWII 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, it’s 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 of 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 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 1,100, 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 indicate 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 fighter pilot of all-time was Erich Hartmann, 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 US fighter planes of the war (pictured above). At a cost of about $58,000 at the time, he would have destroyed over $20 million in fighter planes. That’d work out to over $340 million today. Obviously, shooting the man down didn’t work out very well at the time, so what else could have been done? One lost cost alternative to a traditional dog fight 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 WWII, but many people considered them wholly unreliable. After all, what kind of maniac could or would 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 one of the Soviet pilots very clearly maneuver his plane into the enemy, destroying them both in the process but allowing the Soviet, who knew when he’d need to jump ship, float safely to the ground with his parachute. The pilot denied it was intentional, but witnesses say his intent and the result were very clear. The pilot later admitted that, when his guns failed him, he rammed the plane to take it out. 

8. 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 100 years later, the same trick was being used during the Civil War.

7. Chu Songs from Four Sides

In the year 202 in China, the Chu army had reached a place called Gaixia and were trapped in a canyon. They were surrounded by the Han army. Many of the Chu 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 Chu army begin to sing traditional songs of Chu. 

The Chu 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 Chu 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 WWI and sank upwards of 5,000 ships. Defeating them was a serious priority, and detecting them was not easy. Sonar did not exist at that 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? There’s evidence it works. Just look at Operation Christmas.

In an effort to counter the guerilla forces in Colombia, the military opted to decorate some Christmas trees. Deep in the jungles where the guerilla 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 too can come home. Demobilize. At Christmas, everything is possible.”

The tactic resulted in about 300 guerillas, 5% of their total force, giving up and going home. They tried a similar tactic the year after and another 180 packed it in. 

4. King Harald Faked his Death

King Harald Siggurdson’s life is steeped in unbelievable tales of heroism and strength. It’s 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’s said that he laid siege to four different towns during the campaign, often under-manned compared to his enemies. If he couldn’t starve his enemies out, he’d use 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, his men gave word to the enemy that he 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 a coffin containing Siggurdson was brought in by his men who used it to block the gates, allowing the whole army and a very much alive Siggurdson to sack the town. 

3. Zhuge Liang’s Victory by Shame

No one likes a show off but, as it happens, showing off and rubbing someone else’s face in your greatest can apparently save lives if you do it enough. That was what happened when Zhuge Liang, military strategist and Prime Minister of the Chinese state of Shu back between 221 and 263, was tasked with defeating Meng Huo, an enemy chieftain.

The story of Meng Huo’s defeat has become the stuff of legend because it kept happening. According to those legends, Liang captured Huo 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, Meng Huo was not impressed, so Liang released him. They did this a total of seven times. 

After seven captures, Meng Huo realized that Zhuge 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, and how could it best be 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 Psametik 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 associated with the goddess Bastet. The goddess was both nurturer and fighter and had a prominent cult of followers. Few Egyptians would dare harm a cat lest they earn the goddesses ire. So Cambyses 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. Cambyses let loose dogs, ibises, 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 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 would not have heard that telltale whistle. Like the dive bombers of WWII, only certain bombs made that sound because an actual whistle was attached to the casing. 

The sound and pitch change as the bomb drops, thanks to the Doppler effect. This meant 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.

“We romanticize swords so much. Imagine everyone is swinging tire irons at each other.” 

– John Dolan 

Anyone who tries to conceptualize military engagements from a millenia or two ago is going to have their impression heavily shaped by influences that themselves were heavily influenced by fantasists, such as pulp fantasy painter Frank Frazetta. It’s difficult not to imagine berserker Vikings axing their way through villagers caught off guard, vast Chinese or Japanese ranks struggling amidst forests of arrows, or Spartans plowing their way through, well, anybody. And all of it is done for optimal cinematic effect. People with a need for escapism will want to picture themselves in that situation, usually on the winning side.

While it’s no surprise that real life is very different from re-creations done for show, we often get the very basics wrong. So let’s take a look at what combatants from the distant past actually had to look forward to, and hopefully better appreciate how far removed we are from that reality. Not only was the past more horrifying than fiction wants us to believe, it was also often (and surprisingly) far more mundane. 

10. Barbarian Mercenaries Caused Rome’s Decline

Unless a civilization reaches a degree of influence where it is designated an “empire,” it is invariably regarded as just an unusually large mob of savages. How often have we seen Roman conquerors pitted against dirt-caked crowds under haphazard piles of furs just running at the legions like kids being let out on the last day of school? This an especially handy perception when nationalists wish to claim that the Roman military heavily turning to barbarian soldiers in its last few centuries was the impetus to its downfall.  

A close look at the historical record debunks this. Julius Caesar himself was very candid that the Gauls he faced for eight years demonstrated considerable organization. Their weapons, clothing, and social systems all demonstrated they had very well-organized infrastructure. More to the point, some of the greatest Roman victories, such as the 356 AD victory at Strasbourg, were overwhelmingly due to specialized barbarian cavalry archers at nearly three to one odds. Even Caesar relied heavily on mounted German mercenaries to save his army at Alesia, the battle he won at the longest odds of his career. The evidence indicates that if barbarian mercenaries were the cause of Rome’s fall, they had been key to its rise as well. 

9. Ancient China Was Extremely Militaristic

We assume that because ancient nations were often at war, the only societies that would survive would be those which venerated the military. How were soldiers supposed to be motivated to go put their lives on the line if there weren’t concepts like martial honor to compel them, especially during times when there were limited material rewards to go around?

So it must be with Ancient China, which conquered such a vast and influential empire, right? This is a particularly common perception in the West, which primarily sees Ancient China through war stories such as Mulan, John Woo’s Red Cliff, or The Wall. 

There’s some evidence gathered by historians that indicates anti-militarism was a mainstream view in Ancient China. Confucius, as influential an advisor as China ever produced, was noted for his dismissiveness of soldiers and argued that military conquests undermined a ruler’s legitimacy. There’s an adage from Ancient China: “Good men do not become soldiers.” Much harsher than the relatively recent American saying, “mamas, don’t let your sons grow up to be cowboys.” A significant part of the appeal of Sun Tzu’s Art of War was that it prevented the loss of valuable resources and infrastructure to war by appealing to cunning over honorable warfare. 

8. Greeks Thought Archers Were Cowardly

In the Greek classic The Iliad, the character Diomedes is hit by an arrow and calls archery fit only for cowards. As posited by Peter Gainsford, this fed the misconception that this viewpoint was a mainstream belief among the Greeks, and not the grousing of a specific wounded character. This belief was further supported by the way that the close quarters formation known as the phalanx became so highly venerated for its supposed invincibility. So these days you see depictions of the Greeks, such as in both the graphic novel and film 300, where Spartan King Leonidas says this explicitly.

In reality even the Spartans, the supposed pinnacle of phalanx fighters, regularly used archers as a suppression technique during maneuvers. To be fair, there are no surviving accounts of Spartan archers devastating enemies, like Welsh bowmen or Mongol horse archers are known to have done, but archaeologists have unearthed tributes to archers in ancient Sparta itself. Not that they needed to confirm this point, as Greek mythology and epics such as Homer’s Odyssey are full of tributes to heroic archers. 

7. PTSD Wasn’t Acknowledged Yet

History classes often spread the idea that post-traumatic stress disorder wasn’t really understood or recorded until the 20th Century. Even at the beginning of that era with World War I, the prevailing notion is that it was only dismissed as “shell shock.” Since life off the battlefield was so much harsher than modern amenities, it’s assumed people must have been conditioned with sterner stuff than they can muster now. Even Ancient Romans sometimes gave barbarian soldiers credit for being tougher because they believed civilization was softening up their troops. 

Ancient historians might not have used the term “post-traumatic stress disorder,” but they recorded the effects nevertheless. Herodotus, famous for documenting the Greco-Persian Wars, named spear-carrier Epizelus as one suffering from psychological problems after the fighting ended. Centuries earlier, PBS reported that Assyrian tablets recorded the psychological harm that soldiers had suffered from their time in the service. While Ancient China does not have any known direct translation for the word, Huangdi’s Canon of Medicine from circa 200 BC very strongly alludes to veterans suffering from suspiciously similar psychological afflictions. The evidence indicates that less technology often does not necessarily produce super-soldiers.  

6. Ancient Ships Rammed Each Other All the Time 

Ancient ships ramming each other all the time seems like it would make sense, since wooden ships would naturally seem vastly more vulnerable to it than metal hulls. It’s very difficult to sink an enemy ship with arrows or any heavy equipment most ancient vessels could bring to bear in battle. Even using fire can result in an attacker’s own ship being set ablaze, an unusually literal example of backfiring. 

But as consistently reported, such as in Raffaele D’Amato’s 2017 book Imperial Roman Ships, it was not something any captain would do if they could avoid it. A successful ramming still risks ruining the structural integrity of anything from the hull to the mast of the attacker. Further, even if a ship one-hit killed its enemy, there was the danger of the ram being caught and the rammer being taken down with the sinking ship. This was why even much ricketier ships were often more successful because of their improved speed and maneuverability, such as Constantine’s navy in the 4th Century AD.  

This was the case in Ancient Asian naval combat as well. Even when the Korean navy began producing pioneer ironclad ships, which were celebrated for being unsinkable, they were hesitant to ram other ships with them because it was too risky. If anything, ramming ships is more common with modern navies, where ships have mass-produced interchangeable components, and the ability to scuttle ships making boarding a vessel for capture much riskier than back in the day.    

5. Roman Uniforms That Were… Uniform

You know what an Imperial Roman soldier looked like. Red tunic, leather armor that ended in a sort of skirt. Makes sense the empire would want a standardized item of clothing to help form a sense of cohesion with its legion. Except according to surviving documents, the Roman Empire very often couldn’t be bothered to make the effort. In fact, payrolls show that they actually docked soldiers’ pay for their uniforms, so the poorer troops weren’t going to try that. There are a number of letters from the period where the soldiers ask their own homes to mail them some clothes, including a particularly celebrated letter where one poor soldier stationed in Britain wrote to home asking them to send him wool socks. 

The idea every Roman dressed the same was overwhelmingly a Hollywood misconception. Those bright red uniforms looked very nice in Technicolor. It’s kind of a silly notion in hindsight: Red was a very expensive dye for the time, reserved for the nobles. Thinking every private dressed like that would be like if modern soldiers were portrayed as all going into battle wearing Louis Vuitton or Gucci uniforms. 

4. Wars Were Won on the Basis of Single Battles

One of the long-held beliefs about the American Revolution was that the Americans won their independence because while they couldn’t defeat His Majesty’s armies in conventional battles, they could turn to guerilla tactics to win the day. While we’ve talked before about how true that is, history lessons often treat the notion of American rebels preferring guerrilla tactics as some sort of innovation. There are practical reasons to think this was the case: Less-developed agricultural technology would have meant that fielding an army was not plausible, as either side would need to send troops back for the harvests or face ruin at home.  

Yet even in ancient times the concept of warfare and attrition were well understood. Emperor Fabius was particularly noted for his skill with them, and so the slang term of being tactically offensive to wear down an enemy, even one conventionally unbeatable in a pitched battle, acquired the nickname “Fabian tactics.” These would allow Rome to defeat Hannibal even as he slaughtered their armies four times on the Italian Peninsula during the Second Punic War. They almost brought Julius Caesar to a stop during the Gallic Wars, with Caesar giving Vercingetorix considerable credit for his skill in their use. According to New Perspectives on Ancient Warfare by Garrett Fagan and Matthew Trundle, even Sparta itself was brought to defeat by attrition warfare, in no small part because its extreme reliance on slave labor made their positions more tenuous if the troops had to be mustered for long. No amount of toughness will help troops that can’t be supplied or can’t seem to make progress.  

3. Very Heavy Swords Were Common 

It makes sense to assume that if a sword is going to be expected to chop away at people wearing armor and wielding shields, you’re going to want something as heavy as a sledgehammer. Not for nothing did warhammers become a popular implement by the time the Medieval era rolled around and soldiers needed to incapacitate those wearing the best deflections available. 

Well, in truth swords have historically been pretty light. As pointed out by Escapist magazine, heavier broadswords were likely only going to weigh about four and a half pounds, meaning that if someone can wield an average laptop without much trouble they’re on their way to being in shape enough to wield a sword. Even the heaviest (or at least the very heaviest swords known to have been used in real combat), the Middle European Zweihander, weighed 8.8 pounds. Considering that an American Civil War musket weighed about 9.75 pounds, that means that soldiers that tried to bayonet or club their enemies were performing a more laborious task than the strongest ancient swordsmen. 

2. The Soldiers Were All Men

Every time there’s a historical drama that features a woman wielding a sword in battle, internet commentators will come out of the woodwork to decry that as unrealistic. The assumption is that women and men are just operating at such inherently different levels of strength. Even fantasy programs such as The Witcher came in for heavy rebukes for these creative decisions. 

The common rejoinder is to point out specific female combatants from ancient times, such as Queen Boudica or Queen Tomyris. But that’s a fundamentally flawed approach, as it implies that such soldiers were the exception that proves the rule. Let’s instead consider the armies where female combatants were a practice barely even worthy of comment: there were Trung Trac and Trung Nhi of Vietnam, who not only led a defense of Vietnam that drove out the Chinese in 40 AD, but who also trained a general staff of 36 other women. Or there were the numerous iron age Celtic burial sites which included chariots and female skeletons buried with them. Still not enough armies where this was a regularly accepted practice? Hopefully the accounts of East Africa, where regiments of female archers from Western Sudan, or similarly large units of female warriors from Ghana who were still being pitted against European armies during the Medieval era will be enough to make the case. No one at TopTenz can decide for you. We’re not your mother. 

1. Long Swords are Ideal

As implied by the opening quote and our third entry, there is no arm through the ages as venerated as the sword. The most famous blade of kings, perhaps only the club is more universal. We’re certainly led to believe that an army armed with longswords would make short work of any row of spearwielders in close combat outside of maybe a phalanx. 

According to History.com‘s analysis of ancient warfare, armies where the soldiers were relying on swords were at a considerable disadvantage. The sword, even a short sword, requires considerable elbow room to be wielded properly. This is partially why the Roman legion strongly preferred short swords known as gladiuses after closing with their enemies, though even that was substantially supported by javelins and slings to create gaps in enemy lines. In conclusion, in ancient war, even the most classy individualistic weapon was no match for unit cohesion. 

Dustin Koski is the author of the fantasy novel A Tale of Magic Gone Wrong, where a character wields a spearspade. He hopes that someday he can spread the misconception that they were real ancient weapons.

“We romanticize swords so much. Imagine everyone is swinging tire irons at each other.” 

– John Dolan

Anyone who tries to conceptualize military engagements from a millenia or two ago is going to have their impression heavily shaped by influences that themselves were heavily influenced by fantasists, such as pulp fantasy painter Frank Frazetta. It’s difficult not to imagine berserker Vikings axing their way through villagers caught off guard, vast Chinese or Japanese ranks struggling amidst forests of arrows, or Spartans plowing their way through, well, anybody. And all of it is done for optimal cinematic effect. People with a need for escapism will want to picture themselves in that situation, usually on the winning side.

While it’s no surprise that real life is very different from re-creations done for show, we often get the very basics wrong. So let’s take a look at what combatants from the distant past actually had to look forward to, and hopefully better appreciate how far removed we are from that reality. Not only was the past more horrifying than fiction wants us to believe, it was also often (and surprisingly) far more mundane.

This is an encore of one of our previous lists, as presented by our YouTube host Simon Whistler. Read the full list!