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Fake Vampires, Wailing Ghosts, and Other Fascinating Psy-Ops and Military Deceptions

Khalid Elhassan January 29, 2020 33 min

North Vietnam - Viet Cong Fighter — Viet Cong. Wikimedia

12. Marshalls Murat’s and Lannes’ Brazenness

In an uncertain environment in which hostilities might end at any moment with an armistice and peace treaty, the French army’s vanguard neared the Tabor Bridge on November 13^th, 1805, and halted. Two of Napoleon’s enterprising commanders, Marshalls Joachim Murat and Jean Lannes, then casually ambled to the bridge.

Seemingly without a care in the world as confused Austrian guards aimed their muskets at their breasts, Murat and Lannes laughed and expressed their pleasure with the “just concluded” armistice and peace treaty. Once they reached the other side, still maintaining a carefree air, they asked to see Count Auesberg, wondering if he had already gone to attend the peace signing ceremony. As a messenger was sent to fetch Auesberg, the Marshalls chatted with the guards to distract them from the French soldiers who were now casually crossing the bridge.

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.