One of my favorite weird tactics was when during the Boer Wars, Lord Baden-Powell (yes that one) was defending a town with pretty much no supplies. So, to convince the enemy that he had all the defenses he needed, he had his unit ACT like they did. They hammered stakes into the ground, pretended to string barbed wire, then always 'stepped over' it when walking through the area. He also let the enemy see his men burying fake land mines, and improvised a 'spotlight' out of a welding torch and a biscuit tin which was moved to a different spot every night to make their numbers and equipment seem better than they were

@uprebel5150

2 жыл бұрын

This story should be on this list for sure.

I got this Monty Python-like image of hundreds of fake tree stumps (from both sides) running chaotically around No Man's Land, tripping over and running into one another without any of them realizing that the others are phony. That's how wars should be fought.

@voornaam3191

5 жыл бұрын

Comes a group of soldiers in the middle of a dark night, trying to saw it, and nick it for some wood. Cloonk cloonk... Metal?!

@MrChriscameron

5 жыл бұрын

no.. the leader of each country should have a fight to the death.. that way, wars wont get started

@lillygodstoy6502

4 жыл бұрын

A tree falling over and screaming "Tabernac!". That would be more amusing than mimes drinking cheap wine.

@chuckiejay

4 жыл бұрын

Yeah..........with the "trees" manned by the contestants in the "upper-class twit of the year" contest !!!!!! Lol.

My personal favorite (read to the end) was the Siege of Sogdian Rock, a high fortress believed impenetrable along Alexdander the Great's eastward track. They boasted that Alexander would need soldiers who could fly to take it. So Alexander recruited 300 men experienced in rock-climbing to climb it. They lost 30 on the way, but come dawn, the remaining men stood on on the walls looking down, as Alexander's herald woke everyone in the fortress up shouting out, "The King has found his flying soldiers!" The fortress-dwellers were so flabbergasted that they didn't notice that the mountaineers couldn't climb and bear weapons at the same time, and so the fortress surrendered immediately.

Thank you for your mention of Beersheba. It was a combine attack by both Australian and New Zealand Light Horse Regiments, mostly being Australian. Not to many Brits were there. Although the ANZAC's were apart of the Commonwealth Imperial Forces, they were never British. It was the last victorious mounted massed charge in history. Your welcome.

this makes me think of that thing that I heard about or I saw a video of where an army defending a castle was running low on arrows so they made a bunch of soldiers out of straw and lowered them down to the outside of the castle and when the enemy's fired all their arrows at the soldiers they would pull them up and take the arrows out of the straw dummies and use those to defend the castle.

Things you would never learn in school/history class. I like the last one.Thanks Simon for all your great content :)

Tactical opium. A classic of British ingenuity.

@RadioactiveSherbet

5 жыл бұрын

Yeah. I don't think even getting tea involved would make it any more British than that. Lol

@jayfrank1913

5 жыл бұрын

They used strategic opium in China.

@benlittle901

5 жыл бұрын

@@jayfrank1913 if it works it works lol

@graeme3023

5 жыл бұрын

@너나잘해 - to be fair the opium ward weren't exact our finest hour.

@cordlefhrichter1520

5 жыл бұрын

@@jayfrank1913 And now China is using strategic fentanyl on us.

Id like to order a pack of those lucky strikes. ... "Wacky Tuh-Back-Eee"

@TheMattc999

4 жыл бұрын

Kenniff Kanniff yup.😌

@birthcertificate7223

4 жыл бұрын

mucky shites after not smoking any for a few days

@philgiglio7922

3 жыл бұрын

Strangely enough Luck Strike packaging was green in color up til 7 Dec,. After the war started the pack was changed to a simple white background: their advertising was "Lucky Strike Has Gone to War": referencing their package change and also that every C ration pack contained Lucky Strikes for the troops.

@mnemonichotpocket

3 жыл бұрын

Phil gets the prize. Love me some history.

@mnemonichotpocket

3 жыл бұрын

@@philgiglio7922 You'd almost think it'd be the other way around....going army green when they went to war, but still that's some interesting stuff.

Another superb video. Thanks Simon and co.

Absolutely brilliant Simon!! None of this was ever taught in history class. Mind blown! Thanks mate!!

@davidsan9654

4 жыл бұрын

You know he doesn't write this, right?

Wow! Talk about what they didn't teach you in history class. Great content, thanks so much. You rock Simon! 😘

Love LOVE the jibe about getting profits from war. Makes me think of the military industrial complex.

love the wealth of info you give. great job

That was super amusing and amazed at their creativity

Very cool video! So, interesting. Some amazingly mind games. 👏👏👏

So Chuko Liang won against Sima Yi pretty much by weirding him the hell out

There are many great moments in military history (in context) like this list. It's what makes the quote "It is well that war is so terrible. We would grow too fond of it" such a great phrase.

This channel has taught me a hell of a lot. Its awesome!!

@nicolek4076

5 жыл бұрын

One thing you learned that is false is that there are seal-lions off the coast of Britain. Sea lions are only found in the Pacific Ocean.

@kerryann2041

5 жыл бұрын

@@nicolek4076 maybe they are mistaken with seals.

@chris-8597

5 жыл бұрын

Kerry Ann amen

@hotpockets2224

5 жыл бұрын

"seal lion" 🙂

@ContentCalvin

5 жыл бұрын

@@kerryann2041 a sea lion stole mah bike

This is a great show! Well done.

That one was really good and I'm glad you didn't have to reference the Trojan Horse, either. Great job. Simon, Adrian and Shell. =D

I like all of your videos but this one was especially fun.

So glad you added the legendary sleeping bard.

Amazing 👏

I bet those opium cigarettes were so powerful.

That's great some of these tactics

I don’t know how accurate it is, but number one should be the Trojan Horse. Honorable mention should go to the Star Wars space race of the Cold War, the USSR going bankrupt trying to keep up with America’s costly research

@TheFloridaStig

4 жыл бұрын

Actually what bankrupted the Soviets was a combination of falling oil prices and rising wheat prices. They ran out of foreign currency. Internal spending like defense was irrelevant as they could just print rubles and the government owned all the factories anyway.

Hah! That's hilarious:) I was born in Beer Sheva (from #1) and I never knew that story. Thanks !

What bout ancient Egypt and the usage of cats to invade them

You should have mentioned the SMS Emden, what they pulled was hilarious.

Yup, I liked it.

I totally love the idea of bird poop as a weapon of war! As any statue will tell you, this is aerial warfare at it's best (or worst).

Lol finnish on the cigarette packs on the opium case.

I love videos about war! Keep em coming!

goddamn i wish my cigarettes were laced with opium.

If I'm not mistaken, the Zhuge Liang empty fort strategy is only an event described int he Romance of the Three Kingdoms but his not historically correct. The tales in Romance of the Three Kingdoms are often exaggerated or even fictional. There is a lot of flaws to this story, and this is even mentioned on the wikipedia article of this subject. In short, 1) Sima Yi could have sent scouts to check the city out (like any half-competent General would), 2) Sima Yi was close enough to see Zhuge Liang's actions in detail, which meant that they were close enough to shoot Zhuge Liang with an arrow, and 3) with such overwhelming armies, they could have surrounded the fort and let Zhuge Liang's army starve. It was also mentioned that Sima Yi wasn't even in that region at the time, so although the 32nd of the 36 stratagems may sound mind-blowing, in this case it never actually happened.

This guy's got a higher workrate than Khabib!

That last one 👍🤣🤣🤣 Peace Charlie 🇬🇧

11:40 It's not just hard, it's impossible, because there are NO Sea lions swimming freely around Great Britain. Only Seals!

Thanks for all the wonderful ideas!!!

Last time I was this early, Rob Pitts hadn’t sold a granny a jacked up ford Oh wait.. wrong channel

@ianthompson2802

5 жыл бұрын

Rabbit?

@ianthompson2802

5 жыл бұрын

Even earlier than him shattering his leg on a motorcycle?

@joedirt9620

4 жыл бұрын

John Roscoe I thought I was a dodge

How do I get the British to drop opium cigarettes in my backyard?

The subject in the thumbnail was the shortest covered in the video...

The last one way badass

Cool video! The thick British and rushed words makes it a little difficult to understand, if you could slow it down a little that would be great. Other than that, excellent.

damn now i want some opium : (

Never underestimate the creativity of the Brits, especially in warfare.

I swear that somebody must have trained sea gulls to poop on my car.

So essentially Stalin was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross by the Nazis. Awesome. I would have worn that one prominently.

@noahstevens3060

5 жыл бұрын

I'd bet Stalin hadn't much to do with the plan at all but was simply credited. Such was the way of the cult he figure headed.

@voornaam3191

5 жыл бұрын

What do you think Stalin means? It was not his family name, it just means Steel. Why does nobody mention the ironic fact that Mr. Steel has an Iron Cross?!

@voornaam3191

5 жыл бұрын

Upcycle, I hope that is a bad joke? Do you know what nazi's are? Really?!

@voornaam3191

5 жыл бұрын

@johnmburt1960 Yep. Friend Stalin.

@voornaam3191

4 жыл бұрын

@Kat Murphy Why did both Stalin and Hitler kill so many people? Hitler because he was stupid and Stalin because he liked killing? To me they both seem horrible leaders. And the local fools loved them?

The nights cross of the iron cross with oak leaves swords and diamonds was the highest ranking medal for Nazi germany. And it was only awarded to one person.

Why didn’t they teach this stuff in school? It’s fascinating, and such cool parts of history.

Monty pythons flying circus: The art of camouflage👍

4:00 what was that Roman doing on the bottom right??? dude just collapsed xD

is your brother johnny sins ... distant relative at least?

Everyone's gangster till the trees start speaking dacian

"The Romans were decimated." Anyone else find that comment ironic?

@noahstevens3060

5 жыл бұрын

Why, because 'decimated' and 'Dacia'? That's not irony, that's a pun.

@heatherwillis-kershner1973

5 жыл бұрын

Prob because decimation was a roman practice. It has to do with thinning the ranks after a terrible loss on the battlefield; every tenth soldier, or an approximation of that figure by drawing colored stones, would be beaten to death by his comrades.

@noahstevens3060

5 жыл бұрын

Oh I forgot about that. Thank you for reminding me. Deci-mation that's the words origin.

@voornaam3191

5 жыл бұрын

Well, they were not eliminated. Is that from the Hebrew Eli or Elim? Perhaps they could appreciate annihilation, although no soldier might tell that story. Soldiers earned their wages in salt, that's why they're soldiers. Story is short for history. The Roman empire is gone, their language is not decimated at all. Strong as steel, isn't that ironic?

@voornaam3191

5 жыл бұрын

@johnmburt1960 Even more annoying if the Mitsubishi Zero was involved. "Decimation" is clearly annihilation then. Wait a second, people saying revolver, even when you see a pistol with both eyes closed, is that as annoying? Or people mixing up the words gun and rifle? And when is it a cannon? Or a canon? Haha! Annoying...

Probably shouldn't use the word decimated when describing Roman legions losing in battle

The cigarette packs in the Picture were in Finnish and Swedish, quite nice since i am a Finn.

little shoutout here to the Ghost Army of WWII and Operation Quicksilver!

Zhuge Liang is pronounced Choo-Ger Liang... possibly the greatest strategist in Chinese history

Decemated means that 1/10th of your forces were killed. It’s thought that it was first used as a punishment for romans in the army that didn’t follow orders. It doesn’t mean the force was destroyed

Zooje Liang 🤣🤣🤣🤣 someone doesn't play Dynasty Warriors.

Awesome, Fritz Klingenberg was the IRL Phelan Wolf.

They Needed isotope laced smokes that could temporarily boost neurological radio activity that could be mastered into tactical synthetic telepathy or something N went full on tessla with it instead of teaching gulls to defecate on submarine parascopes in my opinion

Training birds to poop on Submarine periscopes? Some of these birds must have escaped and flew here to train birds here who are now training their descendants. They do a great job of crapping on my windshield while I am driving. It also makes me wonder if the Army Air Corps got help from these birds designing the Norden bombsight.

Oooooooh yeah , opium too!

Guy at 4:02 died rough, took a solid kick to the balls than ran over by an army.

Beersheba was an Australian operation carried out by the Australian Light Horse, no Brits in the Light Horse.

About #5... I can only assume those captured in the stunt would have preferred to be shot because most of them probably died in labor camps or in other terrible ways.

And while I’m at it. I do believe that it was also Australian troops that liberated Jerusalem.

OMG a pair of balls beats everything! Love it.

@KumaBean

4 жыл бұрын

Just like the SAS motto; 'He who dares wins' 🍻

@julesmasseffectmusic

4 жыл бұрын

@@KumaBean I forgot about that.

what about the blow up army before D-Day?

you fooled me toptenz I was expecting hey vsauce miceal here. i'm deeply dissapointed

You are forgetting Leo Major, who in WW2 single-handedly liberated the Dutch city of Zwolle.

Suomi mainittu, torilla tavataan

@voornaam3191

5 жыл бұрын

Torilla tavataan, ota ase

@hotpockets2224

5 жыл бұрын

si...

Simon, I think you referring to acts as "decimation", especially when contexting Roman military anything is kinda confusing - to me - and I think I got that from you.

@shebbs1

5 жыл бұрын

The true meaning of that word has been lost, especially in the internet age it seems.

felicitari adrian chirila

i knew you were familiar, how many channels do you run!@? lol

5:40 ... a "Captain K" bluffs his way to victory while in unknown territory against superior forces by pretending to have power at his command that does not, in fact, exist ... Star Trek TOS, "The Corbomite Maneuver" (personal favorite episode!) ("If I jumped every time a light came on around this place, I'd wind up talkin' to myself ..." -- Leonard McCoy, to himself. LOL)

the time when Ents went to war, armed with machine guns

4:24 The Legions were "decimated"? 1 in 10 were selected for execution at their fellow legionnaires hands as punishment by Rome?...Obliterated would've been a better word choice, as decimation in Ancient Rome means a very different thing than losing a battle terribly to an enemy foe.

@christianrivera0712

2 жыл бұрын

Decimate means to lose a large percentage of , or to kill one in ten , if we’re pulling out the dictionary . So yeah he’s speaking fine

Was hoping Simon was going to call the surveillance trees observ-a-trees but sadly he did not

They painted the sea lions with 1940s era glow in the dark paint??? Like with radium????

They should have laced cigs with dope weeks before an attack and then stop a few days before. You would render the enemy army dope sick and incapable of fighting once the cigs run out. They would most likely surrender rather than fight.

Down to the piniest details

Gotta say that the romans weren't afraid of trees. They just didn't like walking through forests in enemy territory, because their entire combat style relied on using open fields. Their formations were useless in a forest and therefore they were often decimated in forests. What happened in the Dacian forests also happened in the Germanian forests. Also, the use of decimated is quite funny in conjunction with the Romans, since Roman decimation was a punishment dealt to the troops if some of the troops fled the battle. Instead of killing the culprits themselves, the Romans took out every 10th soldier, innocent or not, and then his fellow soldiers had to kill him by throwing rocks on him. Seems stupid, but it was highly effective as it often meant that the real culprits was forced to look into the eyes of a fellow, but innocent comrade and kill him. Psychologically speaking, the soldiers would be mentally scarred for life and they wouldn't dare to flee a battle again. But great video none the less! :)

@bigniper

5 жыл бұрын

Techwise Jor This also happened in the Trench Warfare of the first world War when some British regiments refused to attack every 10 soldier was shot.

Dam Amazon sell them lucky strikes?

Wasn't there an operation in WWII that was basically an elaborate theatrical set to disguise a vulnerable location created by designers that included a (eventually) famous American fashion designer?? Hope my memory is not a movie plot.😶

This is a Sabaton album waiting to be made.

im actually surprised the seagulls pooping on periscopes didnt work cause the bastards seem to crap everywhere else!!!

What about operation mincemeat and "Major Martin"? In 1943 the Allies were poised to invade Sicily before launching an invasion on the Italian mainland. There was however one problem... the Italians and Germans had pre-empted the invasion (as Churchill had stated "anyone but a damn fool could see we'll land in Sicily".

You should talk to Peter Zeihan.

They should have continualy put small quantities of heroin in the cigs so they dont notice they are getting addicted. Then stop 3 days before an attack. The enemy would be at the height of WD by then and either be too sick to fight or be fighting eachother over the last few cigs left.

"Decimate" means to reduce by 10% It does not me to totally destroy.

@trashcanhands19

5 жыл бұрын

Hmm, indeed it does sir...had to look that one up as it's mainly used out of context

@TheJMBon

4 жыл бұрын

It does...but also can mean "to reduce drastically especially in number". Like many English words, it has many definitions and you have to use context to figure out which definition is correct. Simon's use of it in that particular sentence does not reference the Roman practice of "decimation" but instead implies "reduce drastically in number".

Ah so that's why they say it's bad luck if a gull poops on yer periscope

Shouldn't use the word decimated with Roman legions. It means something quite different in that context.

Damn the British sure are nice, I wish somebody would drop me opium-laced cigarettes out of an airplane

Q Ships! Al I can think of is Q in charge of a bunch of starships.

4:57 king de cebollas means king of lettuce subtitles.

@mentelessa1296

5 жыл бұрын

is Decebal not cebollas ...

@Markerface

4 жыл бұрын

And cebollas is not lettuce it’s onions buddy

Ww1’s revolutionairy technology: tanks machine guns chlorine gas and of course barbed wire 😂

Why opium though? Personally I'd have had those cigarettes laced with something more deadly, like a nerve agent or something.