Feigned Retreat

Famous Battles Using Feigned Retreat

In the Battle of Thermopylae (480 b.c.e), the Persian Empire of Xerxes I attempted to invade Greece, but the Greek city-states formed an alliance, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, to stop the army. The Greek army, composed of 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, and 400 Thebans, blocked the pass of Thermopylae from the Persian advance. The Spartans used the tactic of feigned retreat during the first day of the battle to break their formation and then turn and kill their pursuers.

The Roman defeat by Hannibal at the Battle of Cannae (216 b.c.e.) is considered one of the greatest tactical feats in military history. The Roman army was composed of over 86,000 soldiers, while the Carthaginian army had roughly 40,000. During the battle, Hannibal remained in the center of his forces, where the strength of the army was the weakest. As the Roman army attacked, the infantry retreated. As it retreated, the Roman army slowly found itself positioned in a tight semicircle The Roman troops in the front line chased the retreating troops, causing the troops in the middle to be pinched in. This pinching action reduced the space for the Roman troops to maneuver their weapons. Eventually the troops lost cohesion as the gap narrowed.

Although the Roman infantry was in a vulnerable position, Hannibal defeated the Romans by ordering the cavalry to attack at the rear. It is one of the earliest instances of a popular military strategy called the pincer movement. Feigned retreat is the fundamental tactic used in order for the pincer movement to work. The battle resulted in Hannibal's victory and is one of the greatest defeats of the Roman army. To this day, the strategy represents the archetypal battle of annihilation.

The Mongolian empire, under Genghis Khan, frequently feigned retreat to conquer nearly all of Asia, the Middle East, and parts of eastern Europe. Most often during a battle the Mongols would pretend to panic and run away to draw the enemy out, only to turn around and attack. Eventually, frequent enemies of the Mongols learned this strategy. The Mongolians countered this by feigning retreat for days, even weeks, in order to convince the enemy that they were defeated. Once the enemy let its guard down or broke formation, the Mongols would then attack the weakened army.

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