Sun Tzu Tactics

Sun Tzu’s, The Art of War is famously known as, “One of the most adaptable books of the past two millennia” (Gilsinan, Kathy. “The Art of War in 7 Charts.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 10 Mar. 2015). Sun Tzu’s strategies can be utilized for many challenges, not just for fighting in a war. I think that is why so many people admire these writings, because they can apply them to actions completely opposite from war such as work, relationship issues, and communication dilemmas. Not only can people learn how to tackle issues using different tactics, but they also learn about the true “warrior” within. People can challenge and test their own theories on “war” and use Sun Tzu’s maxims to modify their usual ways of thinking and behaving as

Prior to this happening, there was an extensive amount of preparation for the allies. They knew the Germans wanted more land and more control over Western Europe but they were angered by this decision, thus forming an alliance to confuse their enemy and perform an invasion. Since getting word of this invasion, Adolf Hitler tried to stop this plan in its tracks even though deep down he was never really sure of where the allies were going to land and attack from. A couple weeks before D-Day, the allied forces went through with a plan that shocked everyone, they wanted to confuse the Germans into thinking they would invade a very narrow area between Britain and France, “Pas-de-Calais” instead of Normandy’s beaches. Many other factors of Sun Tzu’s maxims were carried out during the invasion as well. For instance, “With more careful calculations, one can win; with less, one cannot” (Tzu, 130). Not only did they fake their target location, according to History.com, “They also had fake equipment, double agents, fraudulent radio transmissions, and Patton’s Ghost Army supposedly based in England” (History.com Staff, History.com Staff. “D-Day.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day). With planned tactics like these executed

The allies knew that it was going to be a risky process trying to defeat Hitler but they knew that in order to have a successful operation they would have to do the unexpected. I admire their courage and confidence as they went about this. In Sun Tzu’s, The Art of War there is a chapter titled, “Attack by Fire”. After reading this, I was able to capture some similar methods from Patton’s Ghost Army. In, The Art of War, Sun Tzu states, “And therefore, it is said that enlightened rulers must deliberate upon the plans to go to battle, and good generals carefully execute them” (Tzu, 172). It is evident that the plan to deceive Hitler and the Germans needed to be executed carefully by a strong general with a lot of experience and robustness. Lieutenant General George S. Patton was just the man for the job. The needed to make the pretend invasion seem realistic, so General Patton’s job was to create an illusion out of this army that would go on to save thousands and thousands of lives. Just one of many examples includes the actors in the Ghost Army would go around in public places such as restaurants and spread rumors about where certain units might be heading off to or where they heard a new attack might be on some random area. This was just the trickery needed to dupe the Nazi’s into going back to their headquarters and reporting false information to their superiors. Aside from small tricks