Military traps. Vietnam nightmares of American soldiers

03.03.2020 This is interesting

Cu Chi is a rural area about 70 kilometers northwest of Saigon that has become a thorn in the ass of first the French and then the Americans. The same case when “the earth burned under the boots of the invaders.” It was never possible to defeat the local partisans, even though an entire American division (25th Infantry) and a large part of the 18th Division of the South Vietnamese Army were stationed close to their base. The fact is that the partisans dug a whole network of multi-level tunnels with a total length of over 200 kilometers, with many camouflaged exits to the surface, rifle cells, bunkers, underground workshops, warehouses and barracks, densely covered with mines and traps on top.

A large group can order a sightseeing bus; the excursion involves the active participation of tourists in what is happening. For example, they may offer to find a camouflaged entrance to a tunnel in a small patch in the jungle, and then squeeze through this hatch.

Surprisingly, this is generally quite possible; even fairly large Western tourists can climb through, albeit with difficulty. The bunkers have been brought to the surface, and the flat roofs have been replaced with high slopes, so that it is spacious enough to comfortably look at the Viet Cong-shaped mannequins depicting guerrillas in their natural habitat.

Like many other things, metal was in terrible short supply, so the partisans collected numerous unexploded bombs and shells (and an absolutely incredible amount of them were dumped on a tiny patch; the jungle was simply demolished by carpet bombing from B-52s, turning the area into a lunar landscape), sawed , explosives were used to make homemade mines...

...and the metal was forged into spikes and spears for traps in the jungle.

In addition to the workshops, there was a dining room, a kitchen (with a specially constructed external smokeless hearth that did not give away the place of cooking with a column of smoke), a uniform sewing shop...

...and, of course, a room for political information.

And tunnels. A three-level system of tunnels, secretly carved into the hard clay soil with primitive tools by numerous groups of three or four people. One digs, one drags the earth out of the tunnel to a vertical shaft, one lifts it up, and another drags it somewhere and hides it under leaves or throws it into the river.

When the team makes its way to the neighboring one, a thick pipe made of a hollow bamboo trunk is inserted into the vertical shaft for ventilation, the shaft is filled up, and the bamboo on top is disguised as a termite mound, stump, or something else.

The Americans used dogs to search for entrances to tunnels and ventilation shafts. Then they began to hide captured uniforms there, usually M65 jackets, which the Americans often abandoned when providing first aid and evacuating the wounded. The dogs smelled a familiar smell, mistook it for their own and ran past.

If they did find the entrance, they tried to fill it with water or throw it in tear gas. But a multi-level system of locks and water castles protected the tunnels quite reliably: only a small segment was lost, the partisans simply brought down its walls on both sides and forgot about its existence, eventually digging out a workaround.

Since numerous shelling and bombing did not bring the desired result, the Americans eventually had to go underground themselves. In Tunnel rats, “tunnel rats”, they recruited short, desperate guys who were ready to climb into the unknown with one pistol, in which they were awaited by cramped conditions that did not allow them to breathe, darkness, mines, traps, poisonous snakes, scorpions and, after all this, if they were lucky - evil partisans.

Now sixty meters of tunnels have been widened and illuminated so that tourists can squeeze through them. Even in them you have to move in an eternal half-squat, while simultaneously scratching the walls with your hips, elbows, shoulders and head. It's like running inside an endless nightstand.

The jungle in Cu Chi was fraught with many unpleasant surprises, from the already mentioned mines, which even blew up tanks like this M41, to the famous movie homemade traps, some of which can be seen up close.

"Tiger Trap" Ji Ai walks along calmly, suddenly the ground under his feet opens up and he falls to the bottom of a hole studded with stakes. If he is unlucky and does not die immediately, but screams in pain, his comrades will gather nearby, trying to pull the unfortunate man out. Need I say that around the trap in several places there are exits from the tunnels to the surface, to camouflaged sniper positions?

Or more humane traps, “Vietnamese souvenirs”. A soldier steps on an inconspicuous hole, covered on top with a piece of paper with leaves...

The leg falls through, the pin from below pierces it, the pins on the sides not only pierce it, but also prevent it from being pulled out. As a rule, the soldier did not die, but as a result he lost his leg, and then received pins removed from his leg in a Saigon hospital as a souvenir. Hence the name.

The next couple of photos show a similar design.

As you may have already noticed, Special attention They paid attention not only to the task of piercing the adversary, but also to pin him in place and not let him get off the hook. This “basket” was placed in flooded rice fields or near river banks, hidden under water. A paratrooper jumps out of a helicopter or boat, OPA! - we've arrived...

However, it happened that the task was not to injure, but to kill. Then they put on grinds like this, in which G.I. quickly stuffed himself under his own weight.

For those who liked to enter the house without knocking, simply by knocking down the door with a valiant blow, such a device was hung above it. The slow ones went straight to the other world, the quick ones managed to put the machine gun forward - for such, the lower half of the trap was suspended on a separate loop. So the efficient one, as the Vietnamese guide put it, then went to Thailand, a paradise for transvestites.

Well, the simplest, most reliable and popular design in the film industry. Since it flies much faster than the “home” one, there is no need to worry about having two halves. And so it will sweep away. The guide likes her the most.

Vietnamese dungeons:

What Vietnamese traps existed during the war with the United States?

The Vietnam War took place between 1964 and 1975. Various countries participated in it, namely the USA, Vietnam, USSR, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Philippines, Taiwan, China and North Korea. This was another round of development of the Cold War between the superpowers. The essence of the war was to obtain all of Vietnam as a satellite. The southern part of the country supported the American government, while the north was on the side Soviet Union. Thus, the war, which claimed many lives, had one goal: control of the country and the possibility of placing military bases on it to control the entire Asia-Pacific region.

The US Army was ill-prepared for a ground war, as it had no previous experience in jungle operations. Their shape in the first years of the conflict was the same as always, so they stood out well in the foliage. At the same time, the Vietnamese had a camouflage uniform, and it was difficult to notice them in the thick grass.

As for armored vehicles, they also could not move through the jungle, so the Americans could only rely on their manpower and air support. Their aircraft immediately took a leading position in the war, but this situation was changed when the USSR entered the Vietnam conflict on the side of North Vietnam. But not into direct confrontation, but began to supply the necessary equipment.

The Soviet aircraft turned out to be more technologically advanced, and the experience of the pilots acquired during the Second World War made it possible to shoot down American aircraft with minimal losses. However, NATO forces had complete superiority at sea, which made it possible to shell coastal areas from ships.

It is worth noting that the NATO army quickly realized its mistakes at the beginning of the conflict and made adjustments to its uniform and improved its equipment. This made it possible to use it in jungle conditions.

Traps for American soldiers

Vietnamese soldiers turned out to be original in creating traps. It was the only one effective method struggle, since weapons in Vietnam in the initial stages of the conflict were significantly inferior in quality to US weapons. A wide variety of methods were used to combat the occupiers, the following were used:

Improvised explosive devices;
Punja's trap is regular and rotating;
Whip Trap;
Bucket trap;
Trap with closing sides;
Trap cartridge;
Cube-shaped spike traps;
Standard stretch marks;
Poisonous snakes;
Mining;
Exploding flags;
Self-firing guns protecting the graves of ancestors.

These are the main Vietnamese traps that became a real nightmare for the American army and its allies. None modern weapons could not cope with them, so NATO forces lost soldiers every day without a fight. You can read to learn more about the traps of partisans.

Poisonous "gifts"

In Vietnam, the liberation army often used traps, the main element of which were poisonous snakes. Usually they used bamboo keffiyeh. It is also called the “three-step snake” because its venom acts instantly. This is a small snake that was hung by its tail at face level. When it bites, the body's blood clotting process is disrupted and red blood cells are destroyed.

The Vietnamese liberation army soldiers hid such snakes wherever possible: in bags, boxes, tunnels, in empty bamboo stalks. They were also planted on the trails where American troops were supposed to pass.

Minefields

Soviet-made anti-personnel mines were used to mine the villages that had to be abandoned. In addition to villages, large fields were mined where the enemy should or could have been located. Absolutely everything in the villages was mined: weapons, windows, doors, objects that could be of interest to the invaders, and so on.

During war, the symbolic meaning is to remove the enemy flag from the flagpole. But often NATO soldiers blew themselves up. Considering that the fighting was fierce, the first desire after the victory was to remove the flag, which was flying in a prominent place. But when someone started to pull the rope, he pulled the pin out of the grenade and exploded. When his colleagues saw this, they ran up to the exploded soldier. At this moment, a more powerful explosion was heard, which significantly increased the losses of NATO forces.

Protection of graves

Often in Vietnam, traps were set on graves, as the occupiers did not hesitate to avenge their fellow dead. Often a gun was placed in the grave. This trap could have taken one life. They also used a “torpedo”. There were many different types, for example, they installed a shotgun in a coffin. It fired when the lid was opened. Another type of such trap resembled an anti-tank mine in its principle of operation.

Cube with spikes

Such traps were often set during. It was a small metal cube with spikes. He did not kill, but could neutralize an enemy soldier for a long time. Thus, the leg of the enemy soldier was damaged, and he became helpless. Moreover, two other soldiers were neutralized and were forced to carry the wounded man and his weapon.

About the Bamboo trap

It was great way get rid of the looters. This trap was installed at the entrance to an abandoned house. When the enemy entered, a stick with spikes was pointed at him. In most cases, such a blow was fatal. The main blow fell on the head or stomach to crush the skull or rip open the insides. The same devices were sometimes used on small jungle paths.

About the whip trap

It also served as a kind of weapon to fight the Americans.

Outwardly it was a stretch, but in which it was not used explosives. So, a bamboo trunk with long stakes was bent and connected to a guy wire. If someone touched the tripwire, they received a powerful blow to the area from the knees to the stomach. Such weapons were rarely lethal, but they reduced the enemy's combat effectiveness and negatively affected the morale of the enemy army.

Bucket trap nightmare

It is somewhat similar to Punji, but it used fish hooks set at an angle. The bucket itself was buried and camouflaged. If an enemy soldier fell into such a trap, he could not get out of it on his own. They had to dig out the bucket and take the victim to the medical unit. If someone tried to get out on their own, the hooks dug into the leg more strongly.

Despite the fact that it is not a lethal weapon, with its help the number of enemy combat-ready soldiers decreased daily. To make it, you needed any bucket and several fishhooks. Simplicity and low cost made it possible to use such a device especially often.

Cu Chi is a rural area about 70 kilometers northwest of Saigon that has become a thorn in the side of first the French and then the Americans. The same case when “the earth burned under the boots of the invaders.” It was never possible to defeat the local partisans, even though an entire American division (25th Infantry) and a large part of the 18th Division of the South Vietnamese Army were stationed close to their base. The fact is that the partisans dug a whole network of multi-level tunnels with a total length of over 200 kilometers, with many camouflaged exits to the surface, rifle cells, bunkers, underground workshops, warehouses and barracks, densely covered with mines and traps on top.

They are quite simple to describe: these are underground fortifications that are perfectly camouflaged in the local tropical forest. The main purpose of their creation was to deliver unexpected blows to the enemy during the years of American aggression. The tunnel system itself was thought out in the most careful way, thereby making it possible to destroy the American enemy almost everywhere. An intricate zigzag network of underground passages diverges from the main tunnel with many branches, some of them are independent shelters, and some suddenly end due to geographical feature terrain.

The cunning Vietnamese, in order to save time and effort, did not dig the tunnels very deeply, but the calculations were so accurate that if tanks and heavy armored personnel carriers passed over them, or were hit by artillery shells and bomb attacks, the recesses did not collapse and continued to faithfully serve their creators.

To this day, multi-level underground rooms, equipped with secret hatches covering the passages between floors, have been preserved in their original form. In some places in the tunnel system, special types of plugs are installed, designed to block the enemy's path or stop the penetration of poisonous gases. Throughout the dungeons there are cleverly hidden ventilation hatches that open to the surface in a variety of unnoticeable openings. Plus, some passages at that time could perfectly serve as fortified shooting points, which, naturally, was always a big surprise for the enemy.

And even this was not enough for the Vietnamese. The tunnels and approaches to them were equipped with a large number of ingenious death traps and masterfully camouflaged “wolf” pits. For greater security, anti-personnel and anti-tank mines were installed at the entrances and exits, which have now, of course, been destroyed.

Often, during wartime, entire villages lived in the tunnels, and this allowed the Vietnamese to save many lives. There were weapons and food warehouses, smokeless kitchens, hospitals for the wounded, as well as living quarters, camp headquarters, shelters for women, the elderly and children. It’s not like a village, a whole city underground! Even during hostilities, the Vietnamese did not forget about culture and education: school classes were set up in large underground rooms, and films and theatrical performances were also shown there. But, for all that, this entire underground world was carefully hidden and disguised

Since numerous shelling and bombing did not bring the desired result, the Americans eventually had to go underground themselves. The Tunnel rats, “tunnel rats,” recruited short, thin, desperate guys, ready with one pistol to climb into the unknown, in which they were awaited by cramped conditions that did not allow them to breathe, darkness, mines, traps, poisonous snakes, scorpions and, after all this, if you're lucky - evil partisans.

Not many American soldiers could fit into such a narrow hole

The pictures show everything clearly

A three-level system of tunnels, secretly carved out of the hard clay soil with primitive tools by numerous groups of three or four people. One digs, one drags the earth out of the tunnel to a vertical shaft, one lifts it up, and another drags it somewhere and hides it under leaves or throws it into the river.

Only a Vietnamese could squeeze through such a gap.

If they did find the entrance, they tried to fill it with water or fire tear gas into it. But a multi-level system of locks and water castles protected the tunnels quite reliably: only a small segment was lost, the partisans simply brought down its walls on both sides and forgot about its existence, eventually digging out a workaround.

Now there are no disguises at the entrances, they have been expanded for tourists.

The bunkers have been brought to the surface, and the flat roofs have been replaced with high slopes, so that it is spacious enough to comfortably look at the Viet Cong-shaped mannequins depicting guerrillas in their natural habitat.

and the metal was forged into spikes and spears for traps in the jungle.
In addition to the workshops, there was a dining room, a kitchen (with a specially constructed external smokeless hearth that did not give away the place of cooking with a column of smoke), a uniform sewing shop….

...and, of course, a room for political information. Only then was all this located at a sufficient depth underground

Let's look at the traps used by Vietnamese guerrillas during the war and how they ruined the lives of the occupiers.

Vietnamese traps, being very insidious and effective products, at one time spoiled a lot of blood for Americans. Perhaps it will be useful to you too.
The jungle in Cu Chi was fraught with many unpleasant surprises, from the already mentioned mines, which even blew up tanks like this M41, to the famous movie homemade traps, some of which can be seen up close.

Or covered with turf and grass

Or more humane traps, “Vietnamese souvenirs”. This is a pretty high-tech trap. There are pins at the bottom; in addition, ropes connected to nails are stretched under the round platform. When a soldier steps on an inconspicuous hole, covered on top with a piece of paper with leaves...

The leg falls through and the first thing he does is pierce the leg with pins at the bottom, at the same time the ropes are stretched and pull nails out of the holes, which pierce the leg from the sides, while fixing it and making it impossible to pull it out.

As a rule, the soldier did not die, but as a result he lost his leg, and then received pins removed from his leg in a Saigon hospital as a souvenir. Hence the name.

The next few photos show a similar design.

Or is there a wider trap?

As you probably already noticed, special attention was paid not only to the task of piercing the adversary, but also to pin him in place and not let him get off the hook. This “basket” was placed in flooded rice fields or near river banks, hidden under water. A paratrooper jumps out of a helicopter or boat, OPA! - we arrived...

The soldiers try to follow the trail

However, it happened that the task was not to injure, but to kill. Then they put on grinds like this, in which G.I. quickly stuffed himself under his own weight.

For those who liked to enter the house without knocking, simply by knocking down the door with a valiant blow, such a device was hung above it. The slow one went straight to the other world, the quick one managed to put the machine gun forward - for such, the lower half of the trap was suspended on a separate loop and made a sofa out of his eggs. So the efficient one, as the Vietnamese guide put it, then went to Thailand, a paradise for transvestites.

The traps were very diverse.

Regular wolf pit

Leading Vietnamese production workers returned to their workplaces. Long nails, thin steel rods - everything will go into use. It is enough to drive more sharp objects into a wooden block, and the base for the trap is ready.

The magazine clearly shows that even women and children participated in the making of traps.

Clamshell trap. The simplest and most common trap. They say that at one time it was mass-produced by Vietnamese schoolchildren during labor lessons. The principle is simple. Placed in a small hole and covered with leaves. When the enemy steps on it, under the weight of the foot, the boards are dented and the nails, previously smeared with manure, are pierced into the foot. Blood poisoning is guaranteed.

Board with spades. It is made on the principle of a rake, at the end of which there is a board with nails. When the enemy steps on the “pedal”, the board joyfully jumps up and hits the soldier in the chest, either in the face, or in the neck, or wherever it hits.

Sliding trap. It consists of two wooden boards moving along guides and studded with pins. The boards are moved apart, a support is placed between them, and they are wrapped with an elastic rubber band (or Pilates tape). When the support holding the slats moves, the latter, under the action of the cord, slide along the guides towards each other. But they are not destined to meet, because someone’s soft body is already between them.

A welcoming trap. Making such a trap is not difficult, and it will delight you for a long time. You and your guests. You will need: two bamboo stalks, steel rods and wire. We connect the bamboo into the letter “T” and drive the rods into the headboard. We hang the finished trap above the door, connect it with a wire and invite a neighbor to come over, for example, to watch football. When a neighbor inadvertently crosses the wire, the trap flies whistling towards the guest.

According to an old Vietnamese belief, hanging a rake over the entrance and smeared with manure is a sign of peace in the house.

Someone was “lucky” to run into this trap. It's better to dismantle it.

Then the Americans paid dearly for their invasion.

But since then there have been quite a few aggressions by the United States against other countries. It seems that they have drawn conclusions, but they are unlikely to come to the brave Vietnamese.

USA: irrecoverable losses- 58 thousand (combat losses - 47 thousand, non-combat losses - 11 thousand; of total number as of 2008, more than 1,700 people are considered missing); wounded - 303 thousand (hospitalized - 153 thousand, minor injuries - 150 thousand)
The number of veterans who committed suicide after the war is often estimated at 100-150 thousand people (that is, more than died in the war).

South Vietnam: data varies; military casualties - approximately 250 thousand dead and 1 million wounded; civilian casualties are unknown, but they are monstrously colossal.

It became one of the largest local conflicts of the Cold War period. According to the Geneva Accords of 1954, which ended the Indochina War, Vietnam was divided along the 17th parallel into northern and southern parts. On July 16, 1955, Prime Minister of South Vietnam Ngo Dinh Diem announced that he would not implement the Geneva Agreements, and an anti-communist state would be created in South Vietnam. In 1957, the first anti-Ziem underground units appeared in South Vietnam and began a guerrilla war against the government. In 1959, the North Vietnamese communists and their allies declared support for the South Vietnamese partisans, and in December 1960, all underground groups united into the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLLF), which in Western countries was more often called the “Viet Cong.”

The weapons that the South Vietnamese partisans fought with were very diverse. It had to be obtained in battles, through the introduction of secret agents into the enemy camp, and also through supplies from communist countries through Laos and Cambodia. As a result, the Viet Cong was armed with many examples of both Western and Soviet weapons.

Echoes of the previous war

During the Indochina War, which lasted from 1946 to 1954, the French army, which fought to preserve French colonial possessions in Indochina, was supported by Great Britain and the United States, and the Viet Minh national liberation movement was supported communist China. Thanks to this, the arsenal of the Vietnamese partisans in the early 60s was rich and varied in composition. The Viet Cong had submachine guns MAT-49 (France), STEN (Great Britain), PPSh-41 (China), PPS-43 (China), Mosin carbines and rifles (USSR), Kar98k carbines (Germany), MAS-rifles 36 (France), Browning machine guns (USA), DP-28 (USSR), MG-42 (Germany). Most Popular small arms The Viet Cong had MAT-49, Kar98k, Mosin rifles and PPSh.

Viet Cong fighters with small arms
Source: vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net

American machine guns

Since the United States entered the conflict, American material support for the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARV) has increased. Thompson and M3 submachine guns, M1 and BAR carbines began to arrive in the country. Some of these weapons immediately fell into the hands of the Viet Cong partisans, since many ARV soldiers were disloyal to the current government and willingly supplied their friends from « Viet Cong » . It is worth noting that after AK-47s fell into the hands of Vietnamese partisans, they happily abandoned American and British weapons, since Soviet machine guns were superior to enemy small arms. The only exception was the M3, which was very effective in close combat.

American soldier with an M3 assault rifle, Vietnam, 1967
Source: gunsbase.com

From the factory to the jungle

With the advent of the new American M-16 rifle in the ARV in 1967–68, it also appeared in service with the Viet Cong. The “Black Rifle” (as the soldiers dubbed it) showed low effectiveness during combat operations in the Vietnamese jungle. The barrel and bolt group of the Emka supplied to Vietnam were not chrome-plated, and there were no cleaning kits. All this led to the fact that the machine quickly became clogged with carbon deposits and failed. For this reason, the M16 was not particularly popular among the Viet Cong guerrillas. The new modification, the M16A1, was modified based on feedback received from soldiers who fought in Vietnam, and began entering service with the US Army in 1967. Unlike its predecessor, the M16A1 was readily used by both the Americans and the Viet Cong. The advantage of the modified “emka” was that it had a bayonet, but it was significantly inferior to the AK-47 in hand-to-hand combat, since its butt often split after impact, which did not happen with the butt of a Soviet machine gun.

Girl partisan with M-16
Source: historicalmoments2.com

Controversial symbol of the Viet Cong

The symbols of early guerrilla warfare in Vietnam are the M-1 carbine and the M3 submachine gun - this primarily refers to units of local forces that did not enjoy sufficient support from North Vietnam. The lightweight but powerful M-1 carbine was easy to operate and repair, and the M3 submachine gun was indispensable in close combat. You can find quite conflicting reviews about the M1 carbine. In Vietnamese museum exhibitions dedicated to guerrilla warfare in the jungle, it is presented as the main weapon of the Viet Cong in the early stages of the war. At the same time, a number of experts indicate that the M1 is more correctly called the best among the weapons available to partisans, and with the advent of other types of small arms, the Vietnamese began to abandon the M1.

Girl partisan with an M-1 carbine
Source: pinterest.com

"Red" weapons

The third stage of development of the Viet Cong weapons base occurred during the Tet Offensive of 1968. During the offensive, the guerrillas suffered heavy losses, and to make up for them, the People's Army of North Vietnam sent some of its soldiers with weapons to the south. North Vietnamese soldiers were armed with the new SKS carbines, AK-47 assault rifles and RPD machine guns produced in China. The disadvantage of this weapon was its high sighting range (for the AK-47 it was 800 meters, for the RPD and SKS - 1 kilometer) - excessive in the conditions of Vietnam, where most of shots were fired at point-blank range or from a very short distance. At the same time, the SKS performed excellently when firing from unprepared positions, which was very important for the Viet Cong fighters. The RPD used in Vietnam was significantly lighter than its predecessors, making it easy to carry. And the most effective small arms of the Vietnam War, based on the totality of its characteristics, was the AK-47.

Vietnamese partisan with an SKS carbine. Wax figure at the Vietnam Guerrilla Museum
Source: ru.wikipedia.org

Guerrilla air defense

The main weapon of the Vietnamese partisan air defense was the DShK heavy machine gun, which was extremely weak in its task of shooting down American aircraft. The partisans' air defense worked more effectively against helicopters, but this effectiveness was achieved rather thanks to good camouflage. The Viet Cong machine gunners managed, while remaining unnoticed, to bring the American helicopter within close range and fire the first burst. After this, the partisans lost their advantage and became a good target for helicopter pilots.

North Vietnamese soldiers with DShK. With the same machine guns supplied to South Vietnam, Viet Cong partisans tried to shoot down American helicopters

During the Vietnam War (1964-1973), Americans faced one unexpected and very unpleasant surprise - a large number of Vietnamese traps. Because of natural features terrain - dense jungle, many rivers and swamps, as well as an underdeveloped road network, the Americans could not fully use vehicles, and were forced to rely on helicopters to move troops, a huge number. In the Vietnamese jungle itself, in the depths of the territory, American troops, having no other option, were forced to move and fight on foot. And this is in conditions of average summer temperatures of more than 30 degrees and one hundred percent humidity. It is also worth remembering what the rainy season is in Vietnam - when tropical rains fall almost continuously for several months, flooding vast areas with water. Main character The film Forrest Gump talks about the rains in Vietnam:
“One day it started raining and didn’t stop for four months. During this time we learned about all types of rain: direct rain, slanting rain, horizontal rain, and even rain that comes from bottom to top.”

American Marines in murky Vietnamese waters

In the wilds of the Vietnamese jungle

A Piasecki H-21 Shawnee helicopter transports reinforcements and picks up the wounded. Vietnam. The beginning of the war. 1965

South Vietnamese Army soldiers on the march

Vietnamese swamp. Batangan. 1965

An aerial cavalcade of Bell UH-1 "Huey". 1968

A column of the 25th Division on an M113 armored personnel carrier (APC) is moving along the “federal” road Tau Ninh-Dau Tieng. 1968

In such specific conditions, when even a few dirt roads turn into an impassable mess, and the use of aviation is problematic, the technical superiority of the American army is to a certain extent leveled out and Vietnamese traps become very effective and deadly.
Here are some of them.

The famous Punji trap was installed in large numbers on forest paths, near American bases, and being camouflaged under a thin layer of grass, leaves, soil or water, it was difficult to detect. The size of the trap was calculated exactly to fit the foot in the boot. The stakes were always smeared with feces, carrion and other bad substances. Getting your foot into such a trap, having your sole pierced by stakes and being wounded almost certainly caused blood poisoning. They often had a more complex design.

Broken shoe

Bamboo trap - installed in the doors of rural houses. As soon as the door was opened, a small log with sharp stakes flew out of the opening. Often traps were set in such a way that the blow would fall on the head - if triggered successfully, this would lead to severe injuries, often fatal.

Sometimes such traps, but in the form of a large log with stakes and a trigger mechanism using a tripwire, were installed on paths in the jungle.
In dense thickets, the log was replaced with a spherical structure. It should be noted that the Vietnamese often made stakes not from metal, but from bamboo - a very hard material from which knives are made in Southeast Asia.

Whip Trap - often set along jungle trails. To do this, a bamboo trunk with long stakes at the ends was bent and connected to a guy wire through a block. As soon as you touched a wire or fishing line (the Vietnamese often used it), the released bamboo trunk with stakes hit with all its might the area from the knees to the stomach of the person who touched it. Naturally, all traps were carefully camouflaged.

Big Punji is a larger version of Punji. This trap inflicted much more serious injuries - here the leg was pierced up to the thigh, including the groin area, often with irreversible injuries in the area of the “main male organ" The stakes were also smeared with something nasty.

One of the scariest big Punjis is the one with the rotating lid. The lid was attached to a bamboo trunk and rotated freely, always returning to its strict position. horizontal position. The lid was covered with grass and leaves on both sides. Having stepped on the platform cover, the victim fell into deep hole(3 meters or more) with stakes, the lid was rotated 180 degrees and the trap was again ready for the next victim.

Bucket Trap (bucket trap) - a bucket with stakes, and often with large fishing hooks, dug into the ground, camouflaged. The whole horror of this trap was that the stakes were firmly attached to the bucket at an angle downwards, and if you fell into such a trap, it was impossible to pull out your leg - when you tried to pull it out of the bucket, the stakes only dug deeper into your leg. Therefore, it was necessary to dig out a bucket, and the unfortunate man, along with the bucket on his leg, was evacuated using MEDEVAC to the hospital.

Side Closing Trap - two boards with stakes were held together with elastic rubber, stretched, and thin bamboo sticks were inserted between them. As soon as you fell into such a trap, breaking the sticks, the doors slammed shut just at the level of the victim’s stomach. Additional stakes may also have been dug into the bottom of the pit.

Spike Board Trap - These traps were usually installed in shallow ponds, swamps, puddles, etc. As soon as you stepped on the pressure plate, the other end of the board with stakes would forcefully hit upward and towards the person who stepped on it. A successful hit often resulted in death. An example of such a trap being triggered from the film “Southern Hospitality”.

The Vietnamese have launched mass production of traps

Press-action cartridge trap in a bamboo container. Various cartridges could be used, including hunting cartridges with shot or buckshot.
Although all these traps look impressive, of course, the damage they cause cannot be compared with mines and tripwire grenades. By constantly mining the territory and setting up tripwires, the Vietnamese managed to turn the presence of the American military on foreign soil into a real hell.

"Pineapple" - grenades, high-explosive shells and other ammunition suspended from tree branches. To trigger it, you had to touch the branches. One of the most common traps during the Vietnam War.

Stretching - installed on the ground or close to it. The situation was aggravated by the fact that in the forest floor of the jungle, in the twilight, it is very difficult to notice the trap, and even more so in forty-degree heat and one hundred percent humidity, which clearly do not contribute to concentration.

The photo from Vietnam shows a well-installed tripwire with a Chinese hand grenade in the grass. Even with camera flash it is very difficult to notice.

Good shot. An explosion of ammunition at a Marine base as a result of sabotage. Vietnam. March 18, 1968

To prevent their own people from falling into traps, the Vietnamese developed an entire signaling system of sticks, leaves and broken branches arranged in a certain way. An experienced person could use these marks to determine not only that a trap was installed nearby, but also the type of trap.

Trap signs

This is not to say that the Americans did not struggle with this. The traps and signaling system were carefully and constantly studied. Regular training was conducted with personnel, and pocket instructions on traps and their disarming were issued. Miners began to be placed at the head of the groups.