The Tunnel Rats of Vietnam
To tackle the vast network of Viet Cong tunnels, a special group of volunteers was formed
The Vietnam War saw soldiers fighting the type of battles they were unaccustomed to. Unlike in previous conflicts, there was little open warfare. The Viet Cong soldiers had a clear advantage in unfamiliar terrain, often carrying out stealth missions against their enemy.
A significant aspect of this was the construction of elaborate tunnels that spread across the nation. These were constructed over several years of the war, and it wasn’t until 1966 that the Americans began discovering them outside of Saigon, the capital of the Democratic South Vietnam.
The tunnels were well constructed and often difficult to discover with well-camouflaged entrances. They allowed Viet Cong soldiers to carry out stealth attacks and transport supplies under the nose of the enemy. The tunnels were small and very few American soldiers wanted to go down in pursuit of their enemy.
To combat the vast tunnel system that was undermining the Americans, Australians, and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) war effort, leaders came up with a plan. They recruited a volunteer group of troops that were tasked with going down through the network and confronting the Viet Cong deep underground.
These soldiers were singled out for having particular characteristics. These included being no taller than 5ft 5 inches and having a mental toughness that would come with climbing through small underground tunnels.
Capt. Herbert Thornton, a chemical corps officer with the 1st Infantry Division responsible for contaminating the tunnels with chemical agents, was the man who put together these teams of soldiers that would come to be known as The Tunnel Rats.
Thornton was under no illusions that the Tunnel Rats needed to have a host of key abilities to survive underground. They also needed to have sharp reflexes and a willingness to fight hand-to-hand combat against the enemy.
The crack team of volunteers operated in a way that was different from their fellow soldiers. They refused to indulge in the finer aspects of life in the armed forces including chocolate, alcohol, and smoking. This was to make sure the strong smells of these products didn’t give away their positions when in the tunnels.
The rats would spend their time training for life underground, and they formed a tight-knit comradeship. There were only around 100 in Vietnam, and many were killed or wounded through their dangerous work.
There was no one-way of doing the job of a tunnel rat. Each adapted to what worked best in their area. The choice of weapon for some was a revolver with a silencer, whilst others went into the tunnels with a shotgun.
Vietnam was a complicated war for the USA, with the guerilla warfare initiated by the Viet Cong often proving difficult to fight against. The tunnel rats were a hardened and specialised group within the US armed forces that went beyond to protect their fellow soldiers.
In a war that was unfamiliar to American and Australian soldiers, the underground skirmishes with an enemy that knew every inch of the terrain would have been one of the toughest elements of the lot.
