A piece in today's Mail on Sunday on the top ten greatest battlefield tactics. In pole position is Teutoburg:
In 9AD, Varus, the Roman governor of Germania, was lured into an ambush by Arminius, a Romanised German and offi cer of an auxiliary cavalry unit. Varus led three legions through the Teutoburg Forest to suppress a Germanic revolt, and when his 20,000 men were strung out along the line of march, Arminius struck with the full force of his warrior army. The Romans struggled on for days until the survivors made a last stand at Kalkriese Hill, north of present-day Osnabrück. The Roman defeat wasn't just physical; it was also psychological. Ambushes demand patience and careful siting, with precise coordination of each strike arm. The Germanic tribesmen, so often thought of as wild barbarians, succeeded because of their self-discipline in waiting for the right moment to spring their attack, but ultimately their strategy was an example of eff ective and channelled aggression.
It is an excerpt from a new book, How to Win on the Battlefield: The 25 Key Tactics of All Time by Rob Johnson and Michael Whitby.
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