Tunnel rat

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
An Australian tunnel rat looking into a Viet Cong tunnel discovered during Operation Crimp, Vietnam.
Sgt. Ronald H. Payne entering a tunnel in search of Viet Cong with a flashlight and M1911 pistol.
Sgt. Ronald H. Payne moves through a tunnel in search of Viet Cong with a flashlight and M1911 pistol.

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

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.

History

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.S. Army who cleared and destroyed enemy tunnel complexes. Their motto was the tongue-in-cheek Latin phrase Non Gratum Anus Rodentum ("not worth a rat's ass").[2]

In the early stages of the war against the

guerrillas to remain hidden underground for months at a time.[citation needed
]

During the

explosives
.

Many tunnel rats reportedly came to dislike the intense

Besides enemy combatants, the tunnels themselves presented many potential dangers to tunnel rats. Sometimes they were poorly constructed and they would simply collapse. Tunnels were often

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.[citation needed
]

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.

Video showing Củ Chi Tunnels complex

By Mangold and Penycate's account, the tunnel rats first garnered public attention in January 1966, after a combined U.S. and Australian operation against the

In the years since the Vietnam War ended, tunnel rats have suffered from a high percentage of Agent Orange injuries and diseases due to soldiers' exposure to the chemicals on the ground, or that leached from topsoil into the tunnel environment. While in the tunnels, soldiers were breathing air heavily saturated with Agent Orange.[citation needed]

Afghanistan

war in Afghanistan.[11][12]

Israel

SAMOOR (Hebrew: סמור, "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.[13]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Historical Vignette 062 - How Army Engineers Cleared Viet Cong Tunnels". U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. January 2003.
  2. ^ Tom Mangold and John Penycate, The Tunnels of Cu Chi: A Harrowing Account of America's Tunnel Rats in the Underground Battlefields of Vietnam (New York: Random House, 1986).
  3. .
  4. ^ "M1917 revolver". historic-firearms.com.
  5. ^ a b Kevin Dockery (June 2002). "Tunnel Weapon: The Bang in the Dark". smallarmsreview.com.
  6. ^ "Weapons Lab: Small Arms Development at USALWL". Small Arms Defense Journal. 25 August 2014.
  7. ^ Jones, Jonathon. Beneath the Bamboo: A Vietnam War Story.
  8. ^ "The Tunnel Rats of Viet Nam". Viet Nam. Digger History: an unofficial history of the Australian & New Zealand Armed Forces.
  9. ^ .
  10. ^ Grau, Lester W.; Ali Ahmad Jalali (November 1998). "Underground Combat: Stereophonic Blasting, Tunnel Rats and the Soviet-Afghan War" (PDF). Engineer.
  11. ^ ""Taliban using ancient well and tunnel system"". Archived from the original on July 24, 2011.
  12. ^ ""Taliban Secret Weapon: Ancient Irrigation Trenches"". Archived from the original on November 16, 2001.
  13. ^ "Israel's 'tunnel rats' brace for new guerrilla war", Mar 8, 2012 Reuters

Sources

External links