“In general they used vipers that had had their venom removed. "
Seems counterproductive?
To me, boarding a ship with a deck full of venomous vipers seems rather counterproductive. 
OTOH, they should be perfectly fine to confuse an enemy that should not be privy to the fact that the venom was removed.
But after the first time, sans venom, the gig is up, everybody knows they [snakes] are harmless.
Not a problem. Every enemy that knows should be dead or captured by then.
Your optimism has won me over, stay safe Cowpoke!
Even if it was known: would you bet your life on the greeks not suddenly switching to vipers with venom?
That’s why they aimed the snakes at the ships without any bearded dudes.
I commute on a motorcycle in Southern Cal. traffic, so I’m not a good specimen for that experiment.
Disinformation weapon.
I see your logic, kinda sorta.
I can not stop laughing, the BOSS is looking at me!
This is why “knowing is half the battle!” was the motto of those who fought COBRA.
It doesn’t mention how many. One flying snake is bad, but can you imagine a whole cloud of flying vipers descending on you? I suppose that would be bad for morale.
During WW2 the information from the Sorge network in Japan flowing back to the Soviet Union was of such high quality that Stalin was suspicious of his efforts. As a result when he was found out by the Japanese the Soviet Union abandoned him instead of engaging in an exchange (Japan and the CCCP weren’t at war.) He was executed in 1944 and wasn’t made a Hero of the Soviet Union until after destalinisation.
Those snakes should have known they were just the fall guys.
