5 Military Strategies That Shouldn’t Have Worked But Did
History shows us that strategy in warfare can be far more important than superior numbers or technology. Indeed, some ingenious, unconventional, and seemingly foolhardy strategies have produced unexpected victories.
Military doctrine, both ancient and modern, typically emphasizes principles such as concentrating force, securing flanks, and choosing the right terrain and weather conditions for the task at hand. But some of history’s most remarkable successes came from deliberately violating these established rules.
We all know the story of the Trojan horse, in which Greek soldiers took the city of Troy — after a futile 10-year siege — by hiding in a giant horse supposedly left as an offering to the goddess Athena. While this famously left-field strategy is probably a myth, there are other wartime tactics that seemed destined for failure yet managed to achieve unlikely success.
Here, we look at five military strategies that shouldn’t have worked but did — maneuvers that succeeded precisely because they were so unexpected that their opponents had no contingency plans to counter them.
Hannibal’s Alpine Crossing
In 218 BCE, during the Second Punic War, the Carthaginian general Hannibal was determined to take the fight directly to the Roman Republic. Defying all conventional military wisdom, Hannibal decided to make a surprise attack into Northern Italy — but to do so, he would have to march his massive army across the Alps. The plan was near suicidal. Hannibal’s forces included 70,000 men, 20,000 horses, and 37 war elephants, all totally unsuited for crossing one of Europe’s most formidable mountain ranges.
It could have gone down as one of history’s greatest military disasters. Treacherous mountain passes, freezing temperatures, and potential ambushes by local tribes all conspired against Hannibal and his men — hundreds of whom died on the march — and yet the bulk of the force managed to cross the Alps in just 16 days. Rome never expected an attack from the north, and it was the audacity of Hannibal’s strategy that allowed him to establish a foothold in Northern Italy, from which he proceeded to attack the Romans on their own territory for the next 15 years. Hannibal crossing the Alps remains one of the most famous and celebrated achievements of any military force in ancient warfare.
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Caesar's Double Fortifications
When Julius Caesar besieged the Gallic fortress of Alesia in 52 BCE, he learned that a massive relief army of Gauls was approaching. Caesar had 10 to 12 Roman legions consisting of around 50,000 legionaries, while the fortified hilltop settlement of Alesia contained some 12,000 horsemen and 80,000 foot soldiers. Caesar had already constructed an encircling line of fortifications, known as a contravallation, around Alesia to keep the Gallic defenders in. But the approaching relief army may have numbered as many as 250,000 soldiers — meaning the overall numbers were certainly not in Caesar’s favor.
Every ounce of conventional wisdom suggested that Caesar should abandon the siege and retreat. Instead, he built a second set of fortifications facing outward — a circumvallation — essentially trapping his own army between two enemy forces. Three days of brutal fighting ensued, with the Romans at times at risk of being overrun. On the third day, Caesar himself led four cohorts and a contingent of cavalry to attack the relief army from behind to turn the tide of battle. The Gauls eventually lost the will to fight and Caesar demanded they lay down their arms, at which point the Gallic leaders surrendered.
George Washington's Christmas Night Crossing of the Delaware
The American Revolutionary War was going poorly for the Continental Army by August 1776, with British troops occupying New York City and morale plummeting after multiple defeats. George Washington, the commander in chief of the Continental Army, was determined to rectify the situation. He conceived a plan that would have seemed to many like a truly desperate gambit. He decided to lead his men across the ice-choked Delaware River at night, during a winter storm, to launch a surprise attack on a garrison of 1,400 Hessian mercenaries (hired by the British) at Trenton, New Jersey.
Military convention strongly advised against winter campaigns, night operations, and river crossings in bad conditions — but Washington attempted all three simultaneously. At 11 p.m. on Christmas Day, he led 2,400 soldiers across the icy and freezing river, reaching the New Jersey side just before dawn. Two further divisions, consisting of 3,000 troops and crucial field artillery, failed to cross in time. Washington forged on nonetheless, successfully launching a surprise attack and capturing nearly 1,000 Hessians at the cost of four American lives. News of the victory provided a massive morale boost, and Washington’s unusual yet critical strategic decision led to further American victories, including the Battle of Trenton and Battle of Princeton.
The Capture of Tabor Bridge
In 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars, French Marshal Joachim Murat and his forces faced a critical obstacle — the strategically vital Tabor Bridge crossing the Danube River. Their Austrian and Russian opponents had retreated to the other side of the river to regroup, destroying many of the bridges after they had crossed. The bridges near Vienna, including the Tabor (which was actually a series of three bridges) remained standing, but were rigged to detonate should the French try to take them. Knowing that any conventional assault would result in the destruction of the remaining bridges, Murat and Marshal Jean Lannes came up with a seemingly preposterous strategy: They would simply walk up to the Austrians guarding Tabor Bridge and convince them to hand it over.
Leaving precise instructions with their soldiers, Murat and Lannes walked somewhat nonchalantly to the bridge in full dress uniform. They strolled past confused Austrian engineers, who were ready to light the fuses and destroy the bridge. They made it to the middle of the bridge, where they were met by an Austrian colonel who promptly asked why two such notable marshals were walking unarmed across an enemy-held bridge in the midst of a war.
The marshals politely asked to speak with the Austrian commander, whom they convinced that an armistice had been signed — and that there was no need to destroy the bridge as the two sides were no longer at war. In the meantime, the French troops began casually approaching the bridge, with not a shot fired. Within two hours, the Austrians had turned over the bridge to the French, who proceeded to cross the Danube to continue the war. Murat and Lannes had gone against military doctrine by risking their lives in such brazen fashion, but they pulled off the unlikely ruse.
Operation Mincemeat
Another improbable strategic bluff took place during World War II. As the Allies prepared to invade Sicily in 1943, they faced a serious problem: Sicily was an obvious target and the Germans were well prepared to defend it. So, British intelligence officers devised a plan so outlandish, it seemed more like the stuff of fiction.
They obtained the body of a recently deceased homeless person named Glyndwr Michael, dressed him as a Royal Marines officer, and created an elaborate false identity — “Major William Martin,” complete with personal items including a photograph of his fictitious fiancée, a receipt for an engagement ring, and a theater ticket stub. Crucially, the body also carried secret documents — written in code the British knew the Germans could decipher — which purported to reveal the true targets for the forthcoming invasion: Greece and Sardinia, with Sicily intended as a mere feint.
In April 1943, the body of “Major Martin” was launched into the sea from the British submarine HMS Seraph, just off the southern coast of Spain. It was soon recovered by pro-German locals, and the “secret” documents were passed via Nazi sympathizers to German intelligence officers. Just a couple of weeks later, Adolf Hitler declared that Sicily was not the next landing and that Greece and Sardinia must be reinforced. Operation Mincemeat had been a success — a brilliantly unorthodox strategic deception that paved the way for the invasion of Sicily.
