The letter, written a couple years after the battle, cautions the new Grand Master to look out for false retreats of the kind that were used in the Great Battle.

Stephen Turnbull asserted that the Lithuanian retreat did not quite fit the tried formula of a false retreat.

He creates a false retreat to lure Vercingetorix into battle, but this fails and the Romans are defeated by Vercingetorix.

Another widely used tactic was to make a false retreat and then suddenly attack the enemy - breaking the lines when in pursuit.

Muslim sources at the time, however, put Saladin in the "baggage of the center" with orders to lure the enemy into a trap by staging a false retreat.

They outnumber us; they may try a false retreat, to draw us out, so they can fall on us in the open.

Basic tactics were used, such as breaching using heavy fighters (who were usually held in reserve), encircling, false retreat and others; but as a rule, tight wall formation never broke.

This he did as soon as his long-range sensors assured him that the Dog fighters were indeed gone rather than simply staging a false retreat to try and lure him in.

Then we will practise the false retreat again.

He could see the purpose of the false retreat.