Deception in warfare - PART 1

“All Warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. ”

• Sun Tzu, famous Chinese Military General

Deception was, is and will always be an inevitable part of warfare. It has been practised since ancient times and in various forms.

Deception is mostly used to confuse your enemy and achieve objectives which wouldn’t have been possible through conventional means. This includes but is not limited to:

• Tricking your enemy into thinking that you outnumber their forces while in fact you do not. This discourages your enemy from attacking you.

• Distracting your enemy from their original intended attack target by the use of decoys, or dummies.

• To blend in with your environment to make it difficult to be visible to the enemy (also called Camouflage).

• Using stealth and / or disguise to penetrate your enemy’s stronghold for gathering information or for espionage (spying).

• Deliberately passing false information to the enemy about battle plans and other information, preventing the enemy from gauging your strength.

• Deceiving your enemy by attacking from an unexpected vantage point catching them unawares and taking them completely by surprise.

The use of deception in ancient history

The practice of deception has been in vogue since ancient times during warfare. Here are two well known examples:

The Trojan Horse, Troy (Ancient Turkey)

The Odyssey, the ancient Greek Epic mentions the story of the Trojan horse. It is one of the earliest examples of the use of deception in ancient times.

The story goes thus:

Around the 13th or 12th Century BC, Greece and Sparta went to war with the ancient Kingdom of Troy. After ten years of laying fruitless siege to the Trojans, the Greeks were frustrated. Unable to penetrate the seemingly impenetrable gates of Troy, they decided to use unconventional means to best their enemy.

The Greek soldier Epeius, under the supervision of the Greek King Odysseus, constructed a large wooden horse as an offering to the Goddess Athena. Odysseus and thirty of his best soldiers lay concealed inside the horse, unknown to the Trojans. The remaining Greeks then pretended to sail away, giving the Trojans the impression that they were leaving. The overjoyed Trojans thought that they had won the war. They brought the Wooden Horse inside as a symbol of victory, not knowing of the enemy hidden inside.

An imaginary prototype of the Trojan Horse (Photo by Tayla Kohler on Unsplash )

When night fell, the hidden Greek Soldiers crept out and secretly opened the otherwise impenetrable gates of the city. They signaled the nearby Greek ships (which had never really left) to return. The Greeks then attacked the unsuspecting, sleeping city of Troy. The Trojans, totally caught unawares, were overpowered and defeated.

Fun Fact: There is a computer virus which goes by the name of Trojan Horse, which does exactly as its namesake. The Virus enters the computer system disguised as a legitimate program either via a system vulnerability or human error. Upon successful entry, the virus executes its malicious code which it was designed for (ex: stealing sensitive data, monitoring personal activity etc.), thereby causing harm.

The deception of Dronacharya, Kurukshetra, Ancient India

The great Indian epic, the Mahabharata mentions the use of deception by the Pandavas to kill Guru Dronacharya in the great final battle at Kurukshetra. Dronacharya, who was the teacher of the Pandavas and Kauravas was a formidable opponent who fought on the side of the latter in the war. With his impeccable combat skills, he wreaked havoc on the Pandava army. Unfortunately, no one from the opposition was able to lay as much as a finger on him. Krishna knew that Dronacharya needed to be stopped before he turned the tide of the war. So he devised their clever stratagem to deceive Dronacharya into laying down his weapons.

Dronacharya had a son named Ashwatthama. On the fifteenth day of the great war Krishna instructed the Pandava prince, Bhima to kill an elephant named Ashwatthama and should loudly at the top of the voice claiming that Ashwatthama had been slain. Bhima did so. Dronacharya heard this and was shocked, thinking that it was his son Bhima was referring to. Ashwatthama, his son, was nowhere near him to confirm. He then approached Yudhishtra, the eldest of the Pandavas who was known for his truth and righteousness, to clarify whether what Bhima was claiming was true. Dronacharya was confident that Yudhishtra would never willingly tell a lie.

To this, Yudhishtra replied in Sanskrit “Ashwatthama Hathahaa !!”(Ashwatthama is slain). He then paused and continued “Ithi Narova, Kunjarova.” (I’m not sure if it was a man or an elephant), which was what Krishna had instructed him to reply. But hardly had Yudhishtra completed speaking the first part of his sentence and paused, when Krishna had his men beat the drums and blow conches loudly, which drowned out the rest of Yudhishtra’s words. So Dronacharya didn’t hear the second part of the sentence and was shocked. Thinking that his son was really killed, he put down his weapons in grief and started meditating on the battlefield.

Taking advantage of Dronacharya’s position, Dhrishtadyumna, son of Draupada (killed earlier in battle by Dronacharya himself) unsheathed his sword, quietly approached Dronacharya from behind and beheaded the Kaurava warrior, taking his revenge for the slaying of his father.

Dhrishtyadumna, son of Drupada slaying Drona in battle (Image courtesy: Amar Chitra Katha comics)

This act of deception was heavily criticized by many, including some from the Pandava camp. But it was deemed necessary by Krishna since there was no other way to stop such a formidable warrior as Dronacharya.

To be Continued ......