Tunnel rat

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The tunnel rats were American, Australian, and New Zealand soldiers who performed underground search and destroy missions during the Vietnam War.

Later, similar teams were used by the Soviet Army during the Soviet war in Afghanistan and by the Israel Defense Forces in campaigns in the Middle East.

Video Tunnel rat

Vietnam War

During the Vietnam War, "tunnel rat" became an unofficial specialty for volunteer combat engineers and infantrymen from Australia, New Zealand, and the United States who cleared and destroyed enemy tunnel complexes. Their motto was the tongue-in-cheek Latin phrase Non Gratus Anus Rodentum ("not worth a rat's ass"). In the early stages of the war against the French colonial forces, the Viet Minh created an extensive underground system of tunnels, later expanded and improved by the Viet Cong. By the 1960s, the tunnels 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.

During the Vietnam War U.S. and ANZAC troops uncovered a great many enemy tunnels while patrolling or conducting larger operations. Tunnel rats were tasked with them, gathering intelligence within them, and killing or capturing their occupants--often in conditions of close combat. Typically, a tunnel rat was equipped with only a standard issue .45 caliber pistol, a bayonet, a flashlight, and explosives, although some tunnel rats were allowed to non-standard weapons with which to arm themselves (see below).

Tunnels presented many potential dangers to tunnel rats besides booby traps and enemy combatants. Snakes (including venomous species, which were sometimes placed as living booby traps), rats, spiders, scorpions and ants posed threats to tunnel rats. (Black-bearded tomb bats (Taphozous melanopogon) and lesser dawn bats (Eonycteris spelaea) also roosted in the tunnels, though they were generally more of a nuisance than a threat.) Tunnel construction occasionally included anti-intruder features as well, such as U-bends that could be flooded quickly to trap deadly poison gas. 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). 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.

Many tunnel rats reportedly came to dislike the intense muzzle blast of the relatively large .45 caliber round, which could often leave one temporarily deaf if fired in a confined space. Consequently, some preferred to clear tunnels with non-standard sidearms. The Soviet-made TT-30s and TT-33s and Makarov PMs the Viet Cong carried were particular favorites, but they were rare, and soldiers would often ask contacts at home to send them a civilian pistol or revolver. Among other favorites were the smaller German Luger or the less-common double action Walther pistols, both chambered in 9×19mm and were popular war trophies from World War II. Other tunnel rats would trade their pistols for revolvers used by other personnel, fitting them with improvised suppressors to dampen the report. A particularly favored weapon was a specially modified Smith & Wesson Model 39 known as the "Hush Puppy." Unlike the standard Model 39, the Mark 22 featured a threaded barrel, 14-round magazine and a slide stop lever.

Tunnel rats were generally men of smaller stature (5'6" and under), who were able to maneuver more comfortably in the narrow tunnels. Tom Mangold and John Penycate, authors of one of the definitive accounts of tunnel warfare in the Vietnam War, reported that U.S. tunnel rats were almost exclusively white or Hispanic soldiers, many of whom were Puerto Rican or Mexican American. By Mangold and Penycate's account, the contributions of tunnel rats first came to prominence in January 1966, after a combined U.S. and Australian operation against the C? Chi tunnels in Bình D??ng Province, known as Operation Crimp. The "Diehards" of the U.S. Army's 1st Engineer Battalion, whose exploits are featured in Mangold and Penycate's book, later claimed a special place for tunnel rats in American military history during their rotation through the Cu Chi District of Vietnam in 1969.

Maps Tunnel rat

Afghanistan

Afghanistan features an extensive series of historic tunnels used for transporting water and the "kariz." During the 1979-1989 Soviet war in Afghanistan, such tunnels were used by Mujahideen fighters. The Soviet 40th Army therefore fielded their own tunnel clearance and demolition units, which were tasked with clearing the tunnels of enemy combatants, disarming booby traps, and destroying the underground complexes. According to contemporary accounts, the U.S. Marine Corps and British Royal Marines are involved in similar work in the ongoing war in Afghanistan.

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Israel

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.

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References

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Sources

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External links

• Australian Tunnel Rats

• Tunnel rats in Vietnam
• The short film STAFF FILM REPORT 66-17A (1966) is available for free download at the Internet Archive
• The short film STAFF FILM REPORT 66-18A (1966) is available for free download at the Internet Archive
• The short film STAFF FILM REPORT 66-25A (1966) is available for free download at the Internet Archive

Source of the article : Wikipedia