← Back to the front page

A Memorable History of Deception and Spy Capers

Khalid Elhassan June 7, 2020 34 min

Operation Mincemeat - World War II — Items recovered from Major Martin and his briefcase. BBC

16. A Great Conqueror’s Great Deception

Alexander the Great of Macedon pulled off one of his greatest military deceptions at the Battle of the Hydaspes River in May of 326, BC. Facing the Indian king Porus, who challenged Alexander with a powerful army in the Punjab, the Macedonian conqueror set out to wrongfoot his opponent. He put in motion a carefully planned deception that caught the Indian king off guard, and set the stage for a complete Macedonian victory.

When Alexander marched into the Punjab, King Porus set out to intercept the invaders at the borders of his realm. He beat them to the Hydaspes River, which Alexander needed to cross if he was to penetrate into Porus’ territory. The Indian king waited on the river’s far bank with his army, guarding against a crossing.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.