Author(s): Joseph Cummins

Military

"Turn Around and Run Like Hell" reveals stories of amazing deceptions, unprecedented tactics, and cunning generals succeeding against all odds. Readers observe brilliant strategists at their creative best in battle tactics that unfold in often odd-ball and always unorthodox and astonishing narratives. The stories range from King Cyrus diverting a river for a surprise attack on Babylon via the river bed to Napoleon, who made 29 men look like an army, to dropping opium-laced cigarettes on the Turks in WWI for an Allied victory. We follow the Mongols, creators of the world's first major empire, as they perfect their strategy of the 'false retreat' - a tactic which caught their opponents out almost every time. We learn how to exploit an enemy's weak spots and how to fashion handy weapons out of everything - from trees to dead bodies. And, in more than one story, we appreciate that there comes a time when the best strategy is simply to retreat.