5 Scariest Booby Traps of the Vietnam War

two step charlie during the war north vietnamese and viet cong soldiers were well aware that they were outnumbered by the us in troops artillery and technology but not even the best trained army in the world knew the jungle terrain better than them the vietcong resorted to planting booby traps to terrorize american troops physically and psychologically to achieve this they employed every nature-based defense possible made available by the country's weather and land conditions the banded crate snakes nicknamed two-step charlies played a big part in one of these macabre plans rumor has it that the snake's venom was so toxic that one bite could make a man drop dead after taking only two steps u.s soldiers also referred to the banded crate as the cigarette snake implying that the bite would kill you in the time it took to smoke a cigarette this booby trap was simple enemy soldiers would take the snakes and trap them inside old weapons caches they would also tie the animals to bamboo sticks and hide them throughout their complex tunnel structures the snake would be released at the same time as the bamboo right onto the enemy's face as if deathly snake pits weren't bad enough they were sometimes nailed to tree branches and doors waiting angrily to strike soldiers faces keepsake lose hand even when seemingly on the verge of defeat the vietcong knew how to take advantage of the war in their home turf and made sure american soldiers had to be aware of the surroundings at all times vietnamese soldiers placed explosives in everyday items that they knew american servicemen would want to take back home with them as a keepsake these items would detonate the moment the soldiers took them hence the term keepsake lose hand after defeating battles vietnamese soldiers would escape and leave flags and other trinkets around the train because they knew u.s troops enjoyed capturing enemy items when they were about to leave the location they rigged their flagpoles with explosives when americans started to take down the flag it would set off the charge and detonate other temptations included tampered lighters that were rigged with flammable cotton and fountain pens with friction fuses and pull wires set to blow up when removing the caps don't look down possibly the most famous viet cong booby trap punji sticks have been around for hundreds of years they were cheap and easy to make and since they were mainly made of natural materials the sticks usually weren't located by mine detectors built with sharpened bamboo sticks with points hardened by fire or nails the viet cong had multiple variations of the trap but the punji stick pits were the most common [Music] a punji stick pit was a hole with the sticks protruding out of the sides in the bottom in the tropical jungles these holes would have been concealed by forests leaves and bushes it was easy to camouflage punji sticks and they often went undetected by the americans the traps would often be placed in helicopter landing fields or around defensive positions where u.s troops were likely to walk through the vietcong would then fire from the jungle tree line to distract enemy troops from the danger hiding right under their feet when an american soldier fell into a pit he first got injured by the sticks in the base and then by the lateral sticks since they were pointing downward victims would get hurt when they tried to pull out of the trap and it was challenging to get out without help the words spread around fast and us bases about these simple but sneaky traps making soldiers afraid of their own shadow an injury from a punjabi stick was rarely fatal the main objective of the booby trap was to take soldiers out of the fight and inflict battle fatigue on those still on the field to increase their potency the vietcong would smear the sides with poison or waste thus increasing the likelihood of an infection in a medical report made by the us military in 1967 it was estimated that 324 soldiers were end up in the hospital from punji stick wound infections for every three weeks of combat tiger traps and deadly falls the vietcong troops made sure to keep american soldiers alert by setting up traps wherever and whenever possible take a wrong step and you could suffer significant consequences one of the most notable ones was the tiger trap this death from above device consisted of an 18 inch board with pointy spikes lined with metal and weighted with bricks it was hung from tree branches and triggered by a tripwire stretched across the path or underneath the trap it would fall unexpectedly on an unassuming american soldier's head rendering him unable to continue on his mission the spiked blog was even more destructive it reached 10 feet in length and was often lined with metal spikes the device was set up like a pendulum when triggered it would swing rapidly from side to side targeting multiple soldiers simple spike boards were also used these were placed in a shallow pit and consisted of a treadle board with metal spikes on the front side when a soldier stepped on one the spiked end flew up and struck him in the face or chest at 100 miles per hour some of the spikes were over a foot long another variation the bear trap had spiked slats on both ends of a board when triggered they were clasped together with a rubber band between the spiked slats was a thin bamboo log that when removed would allow the rubber band to slap the device together and impale its victim [Music] the viet cong even resorted to deploying the mace the medieval device consisting of a spiked concrete ball drum or box suspended in a tree on the end of a rope when the tripwire was pulled the mace would swing across the path further trap techniques included the use of bamboo whips grenades and window and door traps historians estimate that booby traps caused 11 percent of american casualties in the vietnam war secretary of state henry kissinger perfectly summarized the problem in 1969 quote the conventional army loses if it does not win the gorilla wins if he does not lose project eldest son although the united states military usually resorted to superior weapons technology for its war strategy the army studies and information group was inspired by the vietcong to try other unconventional warfare methods as part of the effort they devised one of their most devious sabotage techniques during the vietnam war they codenamed it project eldest son the scheme began in 1967 and saw us engineers prying apart 11 565 ak-47 cartridges 556 heavy machine gun cartridges and 1968 motor shells these were reconfigured to explode randomly when the weapons were fired colonel john singlau was the first to propose the macabre ploy he was inspired by the british army which had secretly distributed its own exploding 303 lee enfield rifle rounds to enemy rebels in the second metabello war and the raziristan campaign in the 1930s project eldest son's biggest challenge was placing the tamper devices into the enemy's reach without being detected green berets were viewed as the best option as they had been conducting secret missions behind enemy lines since 1965. these earlier missions included gathering intelligence wiretapping enemy communications kidnapping key enemy personnel ambushing convoys and planting mines as an additional task each team was commissioned to plant or leave behind several eldest son rounds usually as a single round in an otherwise full ak magazine the second part of project eldest son was disseminating false information in the shape of forge documents detailing the rifle's defects these documents cited instances in the chinese armament factories producing faulty artillery and ammunition they also included us intelligence briefs intended to fall into enemy hands one document pretended to be a vietcong report touching on the rumors of exploding ammunition disregarding them as exaggerations and part of a small problem another fake report recognized thousands of issues resulting from poor chinese quality control however it estimated there was only a small quantity of faulty rifles the u.s armed forces radio network knew their signals were being continuously monitored by enemy intelligence they used this to their advantage by advising u.s soldiers to avoid capturing and using the enemy's weapons because of the risk posed by chinese-made bullets the 25th infantry divisions newspaper also warned soldiers of poor quality control and artillery made in communist factories the publication reported some aks had a slight malfunction that would make them blow up when fired despite the warnings some gis had managed to fire captured arms self-inflicting injuries with their own booby traps over 20 deaths were attributed to the project but the american army wasn't looking for a high death toll instead they hoped these fake documents and misleading information would lead to a rift in tension between china and north korea for two years u.s special ops teams spread out across south vietnam laos and cambodia depositing the deadly ammunition into the enemy's supply during that time they managed to go unnoticed by 1969 details about the eldest son began linking in the new york times time magazine and other publications this forced the army to change the code name to italian green and later to pole bean before abandoning the project altogether later that same year you

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Length: 9min 10sec (550 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 20 2020