5 Worst Combat Roles From History

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war as hell but throughout history there have been certain combat roles which were especially dangerous terrifying or just plain disturbing so just in case you thought that the odds of surviving a battle weren't bad enough here are 5 combat roles from history which show that things could always be worse number 5 the tunnel rats during the war for independence against France Vietnamese forces began digging deep underground tunnels to serve as escape routes and hiding places however against the better supplied and technologically superior American forces during the Vietnam War the Vietcong expanded the network of tunnels which eventually grew to an intricate labyrinths of chambers winding passageways and bunkers which spread for thousands of miles Viet Cong forces would emerge from the underground fortresses to launch lightning-fast hit-and-run raids before melting away to the relative safety of the tunnels before the might of the American war machine could be turned against them knowing that they stood little chance against the US forces on the open ground these kind of guerrilla raids became the Viet congs favored strategy the incredible network of tunnels connected villages that were miles apart and even linked different provinces enabling forces to move between locations unseen and protected underground safe from the intense bombing carried out by the US Air Force on the surface yet these tunnels were not only a place to hide or move around unseen they were also used to store weapons supplies and food and in many places even had air sanitation and cooking facilities along with hospitals print shops and stages for political theater thousands of soldiers spent several years living in the underground tunnels only emerging from the darkness to conduct combat missions to combat this threat the US Army tried flooding the tunnels or using gas to kill or flush out those sheltering within however the sheer size of the tunnels combined with ingenious but simple water locks meant that these attempts had little success the tunnels were spread over several levels with each level separated by a watertight trapdoor which would protect lower levels against gas and flooding and different sections of each level would be sealed off by downward nubbins in the tunnel which would be filled with water preventing gas from spray to the rest of the level the army even tried sending attack dogs into the tunnels to kill the Vietcong soldiers however the dogs were quickly destroyed by the numerous traps lining the tight passageways it was decided that the only way to destroy the tunnels and chambers was to send in specialized soldiers to clear them out and blow them up one by one the tunnel rats were born consisting of soldiers from the US Australia and New Zealand the tunnel rats were usually volunteers who were tasked with descending into the tunnels to kill or capture Viet Cong soldiers retrieve any intelligence and destroy or disable the tunnels where possible the men chosen needed to be small and thin to stand a better chance of making their way through the tight confines of the passageway and all of them were highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat a skill which they were expected to rely on regularly as the limited space made larger weapons in practical upon discovering the camouflaged access holes which led to the tunnels the tunnel rats would check the area for any booby traps before descending into the darkness below the first man would be load in armed with just a pistol bayonets and a flashlight where he would search the immediate areas for traps before being joined by a second man the man taking point would have the perilous task of moving forward in the darkness usually with his flashlight off so as not to alert enemy soldiers who may be lurking ahead of him he had to be acutely aware of booby traps which would often line the tunnel disarming them where possible while the second man planned the tunnels demolition every inch of the tunnel could prove deadly with the Viet congs favoured traps including bamboo tubes containing poisonous snakes which by Richter tripwires and small holes in the tunnels which enemy soldiers hiding on the other side would plunge spears through impaling the tunnel rat as he crawled past the men senses were constantly on alert as they desperately strained to hear the sound of a man breathing ahead smell his sweat or see any movements which might indicate that death was near it's hard to imagine the terror of being trapped in a dark suffocating tunnel knowing that any one you might encounter in this hellish underworld would gladly kill you in an instant in the heat and dirt the men would crawl forward inch by inch often covering hundreds of yards prepared to fight for their life at every turn clearing the tunnel and setting the explosives could take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours depending on the size of the complex and how much resistance the men met however to the tunnel rats every minute - felt like an eternity unsurprisingly very few of the tunnel rats would survive the war and each soldier knew that every trip into the subterranean labyrinth of tunnels and caverns was likely to be his last yet still the men pressed on number four the galley rower before the advent of the steam engine seafaring vessels had two options when it came to propulsion the freebets unreliable winds or pure human brute force although sails could harness the power of the wind a calm day would leave you drifting at the mercy of the sea whereas human muscle could always be relied on in the form of galley rowers to prepare your ship whatever the weather contrary to popular belief ancient galley rows tended not to be slaves and were instead freemen who were well respected for that profession the work of the galley rower was skilled and required high levels of training and coordination between each rower and in battle the lives of all on board were Alliant on the talents of the men rowing the galley therefore ancient navies tended to shy away from placing their very survival in the hands of unskilled and unreliable slaves although the work was hard and conditions were tough the job was an honorable one and the men were well treated and respected by their countrymen however the life of the galley rower were changed dramatically between the ancient world and the Middle Ages by the early 16th century the size of galley fleets and individual galleys was becoming much larger meaning that far more oars were needed to feed the ever-growing navies of Europe's nation-states the supply of skilled oarsmen could not keep up with the demand and with new technology and techniques reducing the skill required to perform the job the grim error of the galley slave was born as navies desperately scrambled to crew their galley fleets with whichever unfortunate souls they could seize the practice became especially common in France where the king ordered judges to sentence to the galleys for their crimes instead of issuing the death penalty a minimum sentence of 10 years was issued to criminals found guilty of a variety of different crimes cover for such a sentence was usually considered to be as good as death as men would be unlikely to survive the battles to come all the terrible conditions they had two men draw on the galleys and even if they did survive that was rarely anyone who would check or care to see when your sentence was complete resulting in many galley rowers serving years longer than the term they had originally been given in fact the practice became so widespread that records indicate that as many as 60,000 men were sent to the galleys in France between the years 1680 and 1748 although the men who were sentenced to serve as galley rowers had no doubt heard of the torment such a life might inflict is unlikely that they realized the full horror of what awaited them chained to the benches where they worked the men were condemned to spend the majority of their shorts and miserable existence in the hellish confines of the rowing deck unable to wash or even go to the toilet it was said that a galley could be smelt before it was even seen the terrible stench carried on shore by the wind unable to move and chained to the benches the rowers would often develop sores on their body caused by the friction of the chains as they rode wounds that could easily become infected in the unsanitary conditions resulting in even more deaths how refer to the men in charge the rowers were simply disposable tools and there were always more criminals and captured enemy soldiers ready to replace them even if the men somehow managed to survive these terrible conditions they still had to contend with the greatest danger of all battle on the open seas in the heat of battle the men were not rowing for the victory of their side but for their very survival chained down below the ship and the men's fate were intertwined should the ship sink the Rovers would be pulled down with it to a watery grave as such keeping the men chained during combat acted as the greatest incentive possible encouraging the men to row to the best of their ability as victory was their only chance of survival while it might seem as though capture by the enemy might be the galley save specialist of freedom the fate that awaited the men who survived battle but fell into enemy hands could be even worse Barbary pirates operating out of bases across North Africa were especially feared enemies and any galley slaves who fell into the pirates hands would face a lifetime of slavery with no possibility of release in fact the entire Barbary Coast was home to a thriving slaving industry between 1500 to 1800 and pirates operating out of North Africa terrorized Mediterranean coastal communities and merchant vessels even going so far as to launch land-based raids in the quest to capture even greater numbers of people to be sold for profit many of whom would end their days in the hellish conditions endured by so many thousands of galley slave rowers number 3 flamethrower operator the desire to set your enemy on fire is nothing new and man has done his best to weaponize flame for thousands of years as far back as the 1st century AD Greek fire was deployed in a hand pumped flame thorough type weapon onboard naval ships in an effort to give the Byzantines a combat advantage and around 900 AD the Chinese developed a piston type flamethrower that used a substance similar to gasoline yet the modern flamethrower as we know it was first put to deadly effect during the first and second world wars designed to project a long stream of accurate flame the weapons seemed like an ideal way to break the stalemate of trench warfare either by incinerating enemy soldiers sheltering inside fortifications or causing them to flee for their lives where they could be gunned down while out in the open and exposed during the Second World War the weapon saw widespread use as a way to assault heavy defended positions such as bunkers and pillboxes where the soldiers sheltering inside could be burnt alive or flushed out by the intense flames with the stream of flammable liquid able to bounce off walls and ceilings thus reaching blind spots and hard to reach spaces there truly was no hiding from the weapon and the appearance of flamethrowers on the battlefield gave the side using them a distinct psychological advantage as the enemy would be demoralized and terrified at the thought of the horrendous death that he might suffer in the Pacific campaign flame throwers were credited with saving allied lives as they enabled the deep caves and bunker complexes that Japanese were sheltering in to be cleared out from a distance the deadly flames either burning alive the unfortunate men inside or simply consuming all of the available oxygen suffocating anyone left untouched by the fire yet the flamethrower operators didn't have things or their own way and undertaking this role was a highly risky and stressful proposition there were a variety of deadly risks associated with using flamethrowers in combat the equipment itself was heavy and impaired mobility making moving around a combat zone a slower and therefore more dangerous task the weapon usually had a short burn time and used fuel quickly meaning missing your target could leave you exposed to an enemy who might not take too kindly to the fact that you just tried to burn him alive a fact which meant that the chances of you being taken prisoner alive were slim and in many cases frame Theroux operators were summarily executed by the opposite side the weapon itself was highly visible making its will their prime target for enemy fire in particular from snipers and should the bullets miss your body they could very well hit the flammable liquid inside the weapons tanks causing you and friendly soldiers nearby to be engulfed in flames suffering a horrific and fiery death at the hands of your own weapon if this wasn't bad enough the range of the weapon compared to rifles was relatively low and to be effective the operator would need to get close to their target further increasing the risk of being hit although the odds of flamethrower operators being engulfed in flames are not as high as Hollywood has led us to think due to the fuel mixture being somewhat difficult to light with a bullet the risk was still very much real and was likely to be constantly haunting the man operating the flamethrower causing him to be under a permanent state of stress this mental stress would have likely been something that slowly ground the individual down as each battle was spent to witnessing the terrible results of your handiwork seeing men engulfed in flames screaming in pain and slowly dying knowing that it was you who caused this suffering the endless stream of charred bodies and the smell of burning human flesh undoubtedly had a huge psychological impact upon the flame thorough operator and combined with the constant danger you were in would have been enough to tip even a balanced individual over the edge with such risks associated with the use of the flamethrower the weapons were soon phased out as many of the disadvantages could be removed by mounting the weapons on armored vehicles and since 1978 they have not been used in the u.s. arsenal and for good reason a study of one Marine Corps flamethrower unit which was deployed to Iwo Jima found that the operators suffered a massive 92% casualty rate with one military statistician estimating their average lifespan during the battle to be just four minutes number two you boat crewmen during both world wars the German u-boat operated as a highly feared and deadly killing machine that were skillfully used by his crew to launch attacks on unsuspecting allied warships and merchant convoys which were supplying the British war effort in fact they were so effective that they came close to single-handedly turning the entire second world war in the favor of Germany by nearly choking off desperately needed supplies coming in to mainland Britain during the Battle of the Atlantic the u-boats reign of terror on the high seas oars only brought to an end by the development of improved sonar locating devices and rapid advancements in anti-submarine warfare which made finding the u-boats and destroying them a far more realistic strategy the men selected to crew the u-boats were the cream of the crop and the chosen few who made it through the rigorous screening process were generally intelligent and skilled young men who wore the uniform with great pride however it's unlikely that many of the young recruits knew the reality of the life which was awaiting them deep beneath the waves each patrol could last as long as six months during which time crewmen were unable to bathe shave or even change their clothes due to the limited availability of fresh water despite a deodorant being provided it's not hard to imagine the stench of the stale air with dozens of unwashed men cramped together in a tiny confined space with space so limited the crew often had to resort to hot bunking where as soon as a bunk became available another man would crawl into the still warm bed to take his turn at attempting to get some rest privacy was a long-forgotten luxury and the constant coming and going of crew meant that a restful sleep was nearly impossible to achieve the claustrophobic confines of the vessel provided little opportunity for his crew to enjoy simple everyday acts like stretching your legs or exercising and the men would often go weeks without catching a glimpse of the sky feeling the Sun on their skin or breathing in fresh air the day was split into three eight-hour shifts one for sleeping one for regular duties and one for miscellaneous tasks yet the day provided little variety and the work could be mind-numbing the monotonous fresh food supplies were quickly depleted leading to a diet consisting of bland canned food that would be eaten every day for months yet these Spartan living conditions were simply minor annoyances when compared to the unending terror of life during combat missions and the prospect of a sordid and grisly death as see as the war dragged on and the Allies grew more adept at hunting down and destroying you bows the crewmen's chances of survival plummeted in fact some estimates put the casualty rates for u-boat crews as high as 75% with average life expectancies as short as three months as more and more of the boats fail to return from duty the crews began to come to terms with the likelihood that they too would soon be entombed inside the vessel they lived and worked on either drowning a seawater burst through the submarines hull burning up in a fiery explosion or suffocating as the damaged vessel sank to the seabed either way dying on board a u-boat was likely to be slow painful and terrifying yet just as bad as death itself was the constant fear of it that the men had to live with submerge for nearly 24 hours per day for fear of being spotted by the enemy the hunters had now become the hunted as Allied forces relentlessly searched for any u-boats still lurking beneath the waves the near constant state of terror the prospect of being discovered must have been mentally exhausting and the entire world must have seemed as though it was out to get them as heavily armed warships proud the surface while all around them was the unforgiving cold sea waiting to burst in and drown them at any moment is likely that for many u-boats crewmen the last thing they would have experienced was the sound of sonar pings followed by the trail of exploding depth charges getting closer and closer until finally the walls around them caved in flooding the vessel with icy seawater and entombing the terrified men on the ocean floor for eternity number one the penal battalion for as long as wars have been fought criminals and other undesirables have been viewed as useful but disposable cannon fodder men of little worth who will not be missed and can therefore be used to undertake dangerous missions or carry outs unpleasant tasks that are beneath regular soldiers organized into penal battalions these outfits of the Damned faced a short life of misery and suffering followed by an almost certain death on the front lines during the days of the Roman Republic legions consisting of criminal slaves and even those in financial debt were used against Hannibal's invading Carthaginian army during the Second Punic War the condemned men promised freedom in exchange for victory as the Republic forward for it's very survival centuries later Napoleon would utilize penal units in combat as a way to deal with the disciplinary problems amongst his conscripted soldiers with any man who refused to fight being sent to a punishment battalion where he would face harsh treatment and be disposed off in suicide attacks and other missions with low chances of survival and with manpower shortages becoming an ever greater problem during the later years of the Napoleonic Wars even hardened criminals began being conscripted into the penal units as a way to bolster the Army's fighting potential yet it's during the second world war that penal battalions were most infamously used by both the German and Soviet armies deployed into the meat grinder that was the Eastern Front on a truly staggering scale prior to the war the Germans had used soldiers who were deemed to be disruptive to general morale but otherwise worthy of service in specialised penal units however with the war turning against them all types of prisoners convicted soldiers and even hardened criminals were conscripted into the ranks in a desperate bid to stave off defeat used to carry out the most dangerous and back-breaking tasks the doomed men were kept in line by officers and military police units as well as the promise that should they serve with bravery they might be allowed to return to regular army units in reality they had little choice in the matter for refusal to carry out that often suicidal missions would result in summary execution of the original sentence which for those men on death row would mean a swift bullet to the back of the head or a deadly encounter with the hangman's noose only by fighting on might they have a sliver of a chance at surviving the war once the condemned men arrived at their designated unis they would be used and abused given the most labor-intensive and dangerous tasks which could involve clearing minefields attacking heavily defended positions to soften up the enemy for the real soldiers waiting behind them or being thrown into hopeless battles used as cannon fodder to defend a chosen location where they would sacrifice their lives to buy just enough time for regular army units to escape before the position was overrun in fact the odds of survival for these missions were so bleak that they would often be referred to as journey to heaven missions a black humor term which effectively describes how the men viewed the penal units chance of making it back alive the combat records of these units seems to have been mixed the desire to win back their freedoms and rights as citizens coupled with the often hopeless situation they found themselves in men that the men were often willing to fight to the bitter end however when fighting anywhere other than the Eastern Front the men tended to simply surrender at the first possible opportunity many of the units also had little prior military training and although effective against unarmed civilians and poorly trained partisans they stood little chance against veteran Red Army units one of the most infamous of these units was the 36 Grenadier division of the waffen-ss the unit was originally formed of convicted poachers who were selected for their ability as woodsmen and were used to hunt and kill partisans in occupied territories yet the unit soon grew recruiting from prisons across the Reich in an effort to weaponize Germany's most dangerous and insane men turning them loose on the conquered lands of the east the unit quickly gained a reputation for extreme brutality towards civilians falling under the command of Oskar Dirlewanger a convicted child molester whose atrocities are said to have been so extreme that's other SS commanders openly voice to their displeasure at his methods yet despite this example of truly hardened criminals being conscripted the majority of the 50,000 men who were thought to have been deployed in penal units by the German army were simply petty criminals soldiers who had displayed an unwillingness to fight or simply those unfortunate enough to have been deemed undesirable for any number of reasons however this number is dwarfed by the estimated four hundred and thirty thousand men who were used in penal battalions by the Soviet Army where such units were arranged into a formidable yet disturbingly expendable force in an effort to install discipline and halt the panicked retreats caused by the German offensive into the Soviet Union Stalin issued the infamous order number two to seven in July 1942 which would lead to a massive increase in the size of the Red Army's penal units the order became widely known as the not one step back order and effectively banned the use of retreat as a military tactic from now on anyone found to be retreating would face severe punishment which could include on-the-spot execution many of the soldiers who ran afoul of this new directive found themselves shipped into the Red Army's penal battalions with the first batch of disgraced officers demoted to the lowest rank and sent to meet German troops near the Volga River of 929 men sent into battle that day only 300 would still be living three days later giving a taste of the terrible losses these units would suffer in the coming years of war the punishment was supposed to be temporary but the disgraced soldier could redeem himself through heroic actions or by suffering an injury in battle however in reality this promise of redemption was usually just lie told to ensure that the men did not answer open revolt the men sent to the penal units had been earmarked for death one way or another and were unlikely to survive the war the NKVD secret police units who commanded the penal battalions viewed the men with disdain as common cannon fodder to be expended in battle kept under armed guard the unis would be sent to where the fighting was fiercest only given weapons at the very last moment before being ordered to put Vance and attack they would usually be sent against heavily defended German positions where they would be used to wear down the enemy in an effort to enable regular army units to break through or simply sent out in large groups to determine the enemy's location strength and capabilities fire the resulting weapons fire and speed in which they were wiped out there are even reports of them being dressed in dark uniforms instead of snow camouflage in an effort to draw enemy fire away from the regular Red Army units faced with such terrible odds retreat might seem like the sensible approach however behind the Penal units for soldiers known as barrier troops which were specialized forces tasked with gunning down anyone running away from the fighting leaving the doomed men with nowhere else to go but forwards into near certain death even if my son miracle they survived the encounter there were always more battles to be fought more missions to carry out unsurprisingly penal battalions would often be wiped out to the last man in an attack and very few of the nearly half a million men who served in such units are thought to have escaped the war with their lives so those are my choices for 5 of the worst combat roles of all time let me know which role you thought sounds the worst in the comments below and I'll see you again on the next video

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Channel: Unknown5

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Rating: 4.7654352 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, documentaries, history, historical, history videos, unknown5, top 5, top 10, top 15, top 20, The Tunnel Rats, Galley Rower, U-boat, submarine, Battalion, vietnam, galley, navy, Flamethrower, ancient history, modern history, worst jobs, pirates, unknown 5, video, top lists, list videos, entertainment, education, educational videos, countdown

Id: TyzQ-bVaqPU

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Length: 25min 36sec (1536 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 24 2017

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