What is the craziest military tactic ever used?

The modern day bayonet charge.

Even back when the bayonet charge was a legitimate war time tactic, you still needed to have some stones to pull it off. In modern times with weapons that include magazines, ammo belts, high explosives, and weapons with high cyclic rate of fire; the thought of a bayonet charge is insane. As a disclaimer, I would not try this at home or at all.

Enter Corporal Brian Wood.

On 14 May 2004 a squad of British warrior fv510s (an infantry fighting vehicle that carries a small squad of infantry and light weaponry) were responding as backup to a unit that had been ambushed at a point known as Checkpoint Danny Boy outside of Amarah in Iraq.

More than 100 of the Mahdi forces from prepared positions had opened fire and disabled a number of the vehicles in the patrol. Corp. Wood’s unit came to respond. When Corp. Brian Wood (then aged 22) came under fire, he found that his lead vehicle had been struck by a well placed rocket propelled grenade, knocking it completely out of the fight. Corp. Wood’s vehicle was struck next. The driver of the Warrior turned to Wood and told him what happened, “we’re #^%ed, the 30mm cannon has been disabled, and we’re one lucky shot away from becoming an over-microwaved TV dinner.”

Under pressure with enemy fire coming from three different positions and knowing his vehicle was a sitting duck, Wood did the only thing that seemed to make sense to him at the time. Without hesitation he kicked the back door open and ordered his men to fix bayonets.

Rather than staying put and waiting under cover for backup, Wood and his 5 soldiers decided to take the fight to the enemy.

Using sequential bounding tactics, the six British men would charge, drop, fire, and charge. They made their way 200 or so meters to safety. They made it all the way to the enemy fixed position, and charged over it. The men on the fixed position were not expecting hand to hand combat, so Wood’s men made short work of the men who were there. They attracted so much attention that it pulled the attackers back from attacking the convoy. The crew members inside of his warrior were able to bring its 30 mm cannon back online. The Mahdi forces withdrew shortly after.

The best part of this? Not only did it work, and not only were there enemies that were captured/ forced to retreat, but none of the British were killed.

Corporal Wood went on to receive a military cross for bravery.