At that point, the Vietnam tunnel rats’ role became much more involved. One tunnel rat wrote that it wasn’t … Some tunnels had special holes in the wall where Viet Cong would wait for soldiers and then thrust stakes through the hole impaling the troops. Punji stakes were spikes made out of wood or bamboo, which was then sharpened and heated. [5] Consequently, some preferred to clear tunnels armed with a .38 Special revolver equipped with a sound suppressor[6] and other non-standard weapons. A tunnel rat checks out a possible ventilation shaft. Viet Minh forces initially developed a complex system of underground tunnels to combat the French colonial invasion of Vietnam known as the Cu Chi tunnels. One in three of us was either killed or wounded during our tour.”. Then, take a look at these stunning photos of Vietnam War protests. If the tunnels were the secret weapon of the Viet Cong, the Tunnel Rats were the unsung heroes of the American forces. He was always secured to a rope in case he needed to be pulled out in an emergency. Aside from intentional dangers, there were the natural ones as well. Typically, a tunnel rat was equipped with only a standard issue M1911 pistol or M1917 revolver,[4] a bayonet, a flashlight, and explosives. Soldiers couldn’t fire off more than three shots in a row because Viet Cong would know that you were empty and had to reload after six shots. [12][13], SAMOOR ("Weasel"), a formation within Israel's Yahalom elite combat engineer unit, is charged with many of the same missions that tunnel rats performed during the Vietnam War. Their standard military pistols weren’t ideal because the blast was so loud it would deafen them momentarily after firing. Rats, spiders, scorpions, and ants also posed threats to tunnel rats. Because of the trap doors, the Viet Cong could seal off the rest of the tunnel system from dangers such as gas and flooding. "Historical Vignette 062 - How Army Engineers Cleared Viet Cong Tunnels," U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, https://www.usace.army.mil/About/History/Historical-Vignettes/Military-Construction-Combat/062-Viet-Cong-Tunnels/, http://www.historic-firearms.com/m1917-revolver.html, http://www.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=2423, http://www.sadefensejournal.com/wp/?p=2724, "Underground Combat: Stereophonic Blasting, Tunnel Rats and the Soviet-Afghan War", "Taliban using ancient well and tunnel system", "Taliban Secret Weapon: Ancient Irrigation Trenches", "Israel's 'tunnel rats' brace for new guerrilla war", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tunnel_rat&oldid=979951936, Articles with dead external links from December 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 23 September 2020, at 18:41. In the dark tunnels, Vietnam War tunnel rats needed every one of their senses so they had to settle for lesser quality pistols. The tunnel rat would look, as best he could, for any enemy troops and then feel for any booby traps or mines. Sometimes they were poorly constructed and they would simply collapse. The tunnel rats’ first operation was part of Operation Crimp, carried out in January 1966, designed to destroy the bunker. Viet Cong would also wait for a soldier to come out a trap door then kill them with stakes, guns, or knives. For other uses, see. In addition to their regular role, tunnel rats had to be extremely good at hand-to-hand combat. After the tunnel was searched, the tunnel rats would go back in with explosives and place them at tunnel bends and other strong points. Sometimes stakes were also coated in poison from plants or animals or human feces. But these weapons were very few in number and wanted by a number of other special units. Before entering, a grenade was usually thrown into the tunnel entrance to kill any Viet Cong that may be near the top. Tunnel rats were generally men of smaller stature (165 cm (5 ft 5 in) and under), who were able to maneuver more comfortably in the narrow tunnels. A tunnel rat checks out a possible ventilation shaft. Less sophisticated traps were also used. The Vietnam War tunnel rats were a group of soldiers from the United States, Australia, and New Zealand whose job it was to search out underground tunnels to flush out or kill any Viet Cong, gather intelligence, recover arms, and then destroy the tunnels. In a three-level tunnel, there were hidden trap doors leading from one level to another. The second tunnel rat’s job was to note the soil and other measurements required for demolition later. According to U.S. tunnel rat veterans, however, most tunnel rats usually went without gas masks because wearing one made it even harder to see, hear, and breathe in the narrow dark passages. Besides enemy combatants, the tunnels themselves presented many potential dangers to tunnel rats. Later, similar teams were used by the Soviet Army during the Soviet–Afghan War and by the Israel Defense Forces in campaigns in the Middle East. shovels dirt into a tunnel entrance where Viet Cong were believed to be hiding. Similarly, entry points were created where poisonous gas could be introduced to kill or render a soldier unconscious. Sometimes, tunnel rats would run into Viet Cong in such close proximity that you couldn’t use your weapons and instead had to use hand-to-hand combat. Many tunnel rats reportedly came to dislike the intense muzzle blast of the relatively large .45 caliber round, as the .45's loud report could often leave one temporarily deaf when fired in a confined space. It was a small group of men made up of soldiers from the US 3rd Infantry Brigade, the 173rd Airborne, and the 1st Infantry Division as well as the 1st Royal Australian Regiment, which had two companies from the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. Any time ground troops found a suspicious hole, the Vietnam War tunnel rats were called in and it was their job to investigate, collect information, and then destroy the tunnel. They Thought Killer-Turned-Writer Jack Unterweger Was Reformed — Then He Started Killing Again, Benito Mussolini's Death: How Italy's Fascist Dictator Met His Grisly End, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. Effective ventilation shafts were later installed which allowed Viet Cong soldiers to remain hidden underground for months at a time. Their motto was the tongue-in-cheek Latin phrase Non Gratus Anus Rodentum ("not worth a rat's ass").[2]. It also wasn’t unusual for a tunnel rat to quit after a few runs because it was just too intense. Wikimedia CommonsA Viet Cong soldier sits in a tunnel. The Vietnam War tunnel rats were created in an effort to take down the Viet Cong. Indeed, considering the elusive and hidden odds stacked against them, it’s amazing their outcome was not much, much worse. They would move out a safe distance and detonate the explosives. By the 1960s, the tunnel complexes included hospitals, training areas, storage facilities, headquarters, and barracks. Along the tunnels, U-bends had been placed which allowed sections of the tunnels to be flooded and trap a solider. By the onset of the Vietnam War in the 60s, the tunnels included several hospitals, storage facilities, training camps, and barracks. A tunnel rat might therefore choose to enter the tunnels wearing a gas mask (donning one within was frequently impossible in such a confined space). Tunnels were often booby trapped with hand grenades, anti-personnel mines, and punji sticks. It was soon discovered that the enemy troops had a very complex network of underground tunnels. Katie Serena is a New York City-based writer and a staff writer at All That's Interesting. In addition to trying to avoid surprise attacks and booby traps, Vietnam tunnel rats also had to avoid getting lost in the myriad of tunnels. shovels dirt into a tunnel entrance where Viet Cong were believed to be hiding. Some tunnels were as much as 18-feet below ground and the system stretched for 200 miles, all the way to the border of Cambodia. It seems crazy that men actually volunteered to go into these tunnels, but the tunnel rats were motivated by many different things. Instead, Vietnam tunnel rats were an elite group of soldiers during the Vietnam War who probably had one of the most daring jobs. Sometimes poison gases were used. The Viet Cong would seem to appear and then disappear very quickly. Various species of venomous snakes, known to the Vietnamese but not to the outsiders, were dropped into the tunnels. Its bite was usually deadly. One tunnel rat wrote in an article, “In the tunnels, your adrenalin was pumping like a river. Soldiers quickly learned to scan the ceilings with their flashlights. An American soldier peers into a tunnel’s trap door. During the Vietnam War, "tunnel rat" became an unofficial specialty for volunteer combat engineers[1] and infantrymen from Australia and the United States who cleared and destroyed enemy tunnel complexes. The tunnel rat in front was always the one who had to look for booby traps or enemies. Despite being many feet underground, the tunnels were fully functional. Bats and other creatures used the tunnels as roosts, providing yet another distraction from the task at hand. In their 1985 book, ... Cross-sectional diagram of Vietcong tunnel system used by the communist insurgents during the Vietnam War. In the early stages of the war against the French colonial forces, the Viet Minh created an extensive underground system of tunnels, which was later expanded and improved by the Viet Cong. [11] According to contemporary accounts, the U.S. Marine Corps and British Royal Marines were involved in similar work in the war in Afghanistan. But many tunnel rats were devoid of any formal training and though they were sometimes successful in securing intelligence, an enemy hospital, or stores of weapons. There weren’t generally more than 100 tunnel rats on the ground at any given time. It didn’t take long to figure out that the odds of a tunnel rat dying were much higher than a soldier carrying out regular operations. Often when faced with a Viet Cong soldier below ground, tunnel rats had to resort to hand-to-hand combat, as firing a weapon in such a small space could spell disaster for eardrums and the stability of the space around them. In the end, not much of importance was found but the Viet Cong continuously hit troops with small surprise attacks. There weren’t gen… Wikimedia CommonsSoldiers reach into a tunnel to pull a man out. Needless to say, it was a dangerous job that only a special group of soldiers could handle. Being underground meant troops were subject to insects, some poisonous like scorpions, and others annoying, like ants. One in three of us was either killed or wounded during our tour.” The VC would even use venomous snakes (placed as living booby traps). They were called Tunnel Rats—an unofficial designation for the volunteer combat engineers and infantrymen from the United States, Australia, and New Zealand who ventured into the labyrinth. Soldiers reach into a tunnel to pull a man out. During the Vietnam War, "tunnel rat" became an unofficial specialty for volunteer combat engineers and infantrymen from Australia and the United States who cleared and destroyed enemy tunnel complexes.