Shock Troops

The Claim: There was an army a long time ago in Scotland or something whose front line of soldiers would cut off their own heads to stun the opposing army long enough for the remaining head-equipped soldiers to overwhelm them.

The Facts: Whoops! It turns out that the army I was thinking of was Chinese, not Scottish (I was confusing it with Scotsmen lifting up their kilts before battle to show the British that they were tough enough to wade through nettles with no underwear). That doesn't change my main claim though:

In 496 BC the army of King Goujian of Yue put three ranks of criminals in the front of their battle formation. Their task was to impress the enemy with their ferocity and commitment by chopping off their own heads as soon as battle was joined. The tactic was a success; while their opponents from the State of Wu were recovering from their astonishment they were overrun by the rest of the Yue army. The convicts, who were condemned men anyway, had been coerced by the threat that if they didn't comply with this plan their families would be executed also. This era of Chinese history is known as the Spring and Autumn Period. The Yue people were the ancestors of the modern Vietnamese. Yue eventually destroyed Wu before being itself swallowed up by Chu.

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