Vietnam tunnel rat

Hi, my dad just passed away and an ex cop partner of his told us my dad was a "Tunnel Rat" vietnam tunnel rat the war. My dad only mentioned a couple of vague hand to hand combat situations he and his guys got into but never mentioned anything about being a Tunnel Rat, vietnam tunnel rat. One aspect of the Vietnam War that contributed to the difficulty in defeating the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army was their extensive use of tunnels and underground fortifications to avoid losses to massive American firepower.

The film is based on the factual duties of tunnel rats during the Vietnam War. In a documentary for the film, Boll revealed the film did not have a script, and instead the actors improvised their lines. A group of US Army soldiers, trained in underground warfare , arrive at base camp in the jungle of South Vietnam. The soldiers spend the first day and night getting to know each other. Armed with nothing more than bayonets , pistols, grenades and flashlights, the US soldiers take to the tunnels in search and destroy operations, and begin to encounter dangers including primitive but lethal booby traps , such as punji sticks , grenades rigged with tripwire , as well as roving Viet Cong troops.

Vietnam tunnel rat

The Viet Cong were well known for their devious jungle ambushes and cruelly ingenious booby traps. Operation Crimp, undertaken by U. Jonathan O. Seaman, commander, 1st Infantry Division, was the overall allied leader. The 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, operating as part of the rd, played a significant role in the operation. The mission, according to the After-Action Report written by Col. William D. Brodbeck, commander of 3rd Brigade, and staff member 2nd Lt. Leo J. Unsuspecting U. The communists began digging these tunnels under the jungles of South Vietnam in the late s while fighting the French.

Spiders, mosquitoes, and bats annoyed and distracted Soldiers already on edge. Hidden Tunnel Networks These tunnels were able to withstand most explosions—the soil contained clay and iron which created a cement-like binding agent, vietnam tunnel rat.

The Army faced two different threats in the Vietnam War, preventing it from focusing on exceptional performance in either conventional or unconventional warfare. The conventional forces of the North Vietnamese Army demanded respect from the U. At the same time, the unconventional insurgency of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam known as the Viet Cong presented a very real threat to Soldiers throughout the conflict. Tunnels were particularly useful in the insurgency and a series of tunnel networks provided the Viet Cong with manufacturing, resupply, and planning space within easy striking distance of their targets. Few Soldiers could fit into the tunnels and follow the guerillas into their lairs.

The tunnel rats were American , Australian , New Zealander , and South Vietnamese soldiers who performed underground search and destroy missions during the Vietnam War. During the Vietnam War, "tunnel rat" became an unofficial specialty for volunteer combat engineers [1] and infantrymen from the Australian Army and the U. Army who cleared and destroyed enemy tunnel complexes. 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. By the s, the tunnel complexes included hospitals, training areas, storage facilities, headquarters, and barracks. These diverse facilities, coupled with sophisticated ventilation systems, allowed VC guerrillas to remain hidden underground for months at a time.

Vietnam tunnel rat

These American, Australian and New Zealander soldiers infiltrated and sabotaged the intensely-claustrophobic labyrinth of underground tunnels used by the Vietcong to launch surprise attacks and set up ambushes. Most of these subterranean tunnels were dug by hand and only covered a short distance, but over the course of the war which lasted until , when the French were defeated and expelled from the region the network of tunnels was greatly expanded. The tunnels were used to covertly transport troops and supplies, launch surprise attacks, and set booby traps. During the s, the Vietcong greatly expanded the network of tunnels, which eventually covered a distance of almost miles and linked Vietcong bases from around Saigon to as far away as the Cambodian border.

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Dogs sent down could not avoid any booby traps. Retrieved 26 May He suffocated to death from a combination of tear gas and carbon monoxide when he removed his respirator in his struggle to get free. They organized makeshift units made up of volunteers, necessarily men of small stature, to go into the tunnels to confront the enemy. Article Talk. Changing Tactics Tragedy struck on the afternoon of the 12th. Osprey Publishing. Release date. He hoped search and destroy operations would force the enemy into conventional battles that would drain them of men and materiel. The "Diehards" of the U. The remainder arrived overland as part of a convoy. Communist soldiers used the underground caverns to house troops, store and transport supplies, and initiate surprise attacks. The gruesome manner of his death and the failed rescue attempts left a pall of grief over the operation.

In order to combat better-supplied American and South Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War, Communist guerrilla troops known as Viet Cong VC dug tens of thousands of miles of tunnels, including an extensive network running underneath the Cu Chi district northwest of Saigon.

The engineers formed teams of a dozen volunteers under the command of a non-commissioned officer or junior officer for the tunnel rat role. The "Diehards" of the U. Besides enemy combatants, the tunnels themselves presented many potential dangers to tunnel rats. My dad only mentioned a couple of vague hand to hand combat situations he and his guys got into but never mentioned anything about being a Tunnel Rat. Deliberate tunnel clearance fell to this group of volunteer infantryman, engineers, and chemical weapons experts. Uwe Boll also presented a video game of the same name based on the film. Rottman, Gordon Perhaps Gen. The allies had been unable to engage the enemy in a conventional battle and were unprepared and ill-equipped to deal with the discovery of the tunnels. So just about every combat unit would have some sort of group of "Tunnel Rats. He hoped search and destroy operations would force the enemy into conventional battles that would drain them of men and materiel. The 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, operating as part of the rd, played a significant role in the operation. But the tunnels presented two difficulties for the Army: they were small, often too small for most Soldiers to fit in, and they were wholly unknown. Thread Options. Categories : films action films s English-language films s war films Anti-war films about the Vietnam War Films directed by Uwe Boll Golden Raspberry Award winning films Vietnam War films American war films American thriller films s American films.