Tunnels
The first characteristic of a tunnel complex is normally superb camouflage. Entrances and exits are concealed, bunkers are camouflaged and even inside the tunnel itself, side tunnels are concealed, hidden trapdoors, and dead-ends where used to confuse the attacker. Trapdoors were used extensively, both at entrances and exits and inside the tunnel complex itself. There where several different types of trapdoors, concrete covered by dirt, hard packed dirt reinforced by wire, or a basin type consisting of a frame filled with dirt. This latter type was particularly difficult to locate in that probing would not reveal the presence of the trapdoor unless the outer frame was actually struck by the probe. Trapdoors covering entrances were generally 100 meters apart. Booby traps were used both inside and outside entrance and exit trapdoors.
Tunnels found in the War Zones were generally better constructed than those found in other areas. In some cases these complexes were multileveled, with storage and hiding rooms generally found on the lower levels. Entrance was often gained through concealed trapdoors and secondary tunnels. In the deeper complexes, foxholes were dug at intervals to provide water drainage. These were sometimes booby-trapped as well as containing punji-stakes for the unwary attacker. Average tunnel size was 2-feet wide and 2.5 to 3-feet high. They also used air or water locks that acted as firewalls, preventing blast, fragments or gas from passing from one section of the tunnel to another.
A trained tunnel exploitation team was essential to the expeditions of VC tunnels since untrained people may have missed hidden tunnel entrances, taken unnecessary casualties from concealed mines and booby traps . To facilitate this, teams were trained, equipped and maintained in a ready status to provide immediate assistance when tunnels were discovered.
Hiding
VC attempted to evade and avoid all contact with government forces for any one of many reasons and this was the normal reaction for a VC unit when confronted with a superior government force.
Frequently however, GVN tactics or time/distance considerations made it necessary for the VC to evade by physically hiding in villages, or becoming one of the local population. This article is concerned with this one aspect of VC escape and evasion technique and is especially oriented to the situation presented when search operations were made more difficult because they were conducted in the presence of a friendly or passive populace.
Protection of equipment was equally important, if not more so, than protection of personnel.
Previous Allied attacks on Vimy Ridge in 1914 and 1915 had cost the British and French hundreds of thousands of casualties and had been mostly unsuccessful. The planning and preparations for the attack were extensive, and time consuming. The Canadians were trained rigorously. Models of the trench systems were made and the soldiers were drilled on what they were to do and
This community was spirit was shown in a multitude of ways, for example, through the preparation. Information sheets on the use of public trench shelters were issued by the Borough Engineering and surveyor in 1940. This way of informing the public and making sure that they were aware of what to do illustrates the way in which the community was brought together in an attempt to make sure that nobody was hurt. An array of precautions were put in place, to limit the number of casualties, and in order for this to happen, many underground emergency hospitals were designed, with volunteers from the community helping to run them. The forms of protection that Bexley had in place were obviously useful, as although Bexley had thousands of people with injuries, only 155 people were killed from September 1939 to May 1945.
Patrick M. Malone, the author of the his research book “The Skulking Way of War: Technology and Tactics among the New England Indians,” served as a U.S. Marine during the Vietnam War, where he experienced the opposition forces using guerrilla tactics, such as hiding and using the environment as their advantage and stealthy raid during night time when is completely dark in the jungles of Vietnam. Patrick M. Malone quoted about what Neil Sheehan said of the U.S. military advisors in Vietnam in 1962 all agree on one desire: “They hoped that the guerillas would one day be foolish enough to abandon their skulking ways and fight fairly in a stand-up battle” (Malone 6). The origin meaning of the term “skulking way of war” was primarily to describe
The Chosin Reservoir was a manmade lake where American forces set up defensive positions waiting for the Chinese. The Americans occupied three main villages around the reservoir: Yudam-ni to the west, Hagaru-ri to the south and Hudong- ni to the east. Late in the evening November 27th the Chinese launched surprise attacks from the west and north that successfully cut off the Americans at the Chosin reservoir from their UN allies further south. By November 28 Chinese forces had completely surrounded the Americans. To gain control of the road that lin...
The chat wasn’t the only lasting result of the mining; left in this corner of Oklahoma was also 300 miles of mining tunnels (5). These tunnels were created by a method known as room-and-pillar (1). Large rooms were mined to get access to ...
The insurgents had arrived in the neighboring villages of the camp deep in the night and started grouping together with the Nuristan militia men. Their first step involved evicting the civilians in the village on an impending attack on the Keating combat outpost. Following analysis showed that the villagers might not have moved out of the area during the attack. The attack started at dawn when the insurgent...
From early in the war, in May of 1914, Blunden recalled his experience in the trenches of France. Structured with sandbag walls, the Old British Line in which the men were stationed was only a frail comfort, as the trenches were often only one row deep with no additional protection against debris caused by artillery shells. Communication between the between the front line and the Old British Line was provided some covered by through the Cover Trench, although Prior’s account of returning from The Island, the front line, states that he had to pause every two minutes to lay in a ditch along the road to avoid the infamous German machine guns. The Germans bombarded the Cover Trench with heavy fire and large shells over the farmhouse and its residents, including children. Because the Germans were known for using gas, Blunden and his men underwent training to prepare for attacks. After completing this course, he was sent to the dugout near Cuinchy Keep, which was described as “dirty, bloodthirsty and wearisome,” primarily due to the number of mines which had already been exploded, and that it was not completely finished. However, when fighting in the trenches, “There was nothing for it but to copy experience, and experience was nothing but a casual protection.”
LZs were often limited due to rough terrain such as swamps, dense jungle, and mountains. This gave the enemy an advantage because they could dedicate surveillance teams or set up ambushes in potential LZs. When time permitted, scout helicopters conducted aerial reconnaissance on potential LZs along with alternate LZs if the enemy or terrain made the primary LZ unusable (Tolson, 1973). Different INFIL and EXFIL routes were determined while scouting potential LZs. Scout helicopters were careful not to make too many turns in fear of burning the
The Underground Railroad was not a real railroad with a train but a network of meeting places in which African slaves could follow to Canada where they could free. Those who helped were at risk of the law but got the satisfaction of knowing that they were helping those who did not deserve to be treated like less than everyone else. People who escaped had to take care, they were creative with giving instructions and the way they escaped their owners but if they were caught the punishment was not very humane.
In the beginning of World War One the common outlook on warfare was that of a primarily mobile and open method of attack. Trench warfare was thought to be a temporary phenomenon which would be replaced by infantry and cavalry skirmishes. No one had predicted that only after a couple of months of open and mobile warfare, the November of 1914 would begin four years of static trench warfare.
It is a given that our culture will vary differently than of one that dwells in the tunnel. In prehistoric time, the underground was seen as a place of safety, much like it is seen today for the mole people. Throughout literature, the underground man, as Toth explains, is extreme, withdrawn and isolated. He is self exiled from human society and only maintains as much contacted as needed to survive. He believes in nothing and is often filled with rage and anguish (177). Many of the tunnel dwellers share many of the same practices and use of material objects key to their survival like eating rodents, using loose electrical wires for electricity, finding water through leaky pipes and cardboard and garbage for building a home. They all share the same knowledge and ideas of how live in the tunnels. They evolve by the changes in their environment and learn how to change to better protect themselves from predators like outsiders or from the dangers of trains. They have norms like we do but what they considered to be a norm, is what we may see as a folkway. Some may even develop their own language so others in their group can understand them. The nature of this counterculture and its formation shows that our society has the ability to create various countercultures that can either show how we excel or fail as a society. However it does show that if we were to
The underground railroad was a network of northerners that helped slaves reached the north and Canada for safety from their plantation. It was secret and railway terms were used to describe system as a way to hide the real nature of the operation. The underground railroad extended from Maine to Nebraska but was most concentrated in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indian, New York, and The New England States. More of the more specific spots were Detroit, Michigan, Erie, Pennsylvania, Buffalo and New York.
The Underground Railroad was a series of safe houses, meeting places, and passageways that were used to help
When focusing on the positives of the uses of trenches one can say they provided protection to the soldiers. With the use of heavy artillery and machine guns, trenches provided an area where men would be shielded from enemy fire. Black stated that trenches were also used to provide shelter for “reserve troops.” However, the trenches did not provide much comfort for the men living in them. Robert Graves relates in his narrative that the trenches were made from bricks, ammunition boxes, and corpses. Graves, later in his narrative also states that life in the trenches depended on the battalion and the moral of those living in them. Some trenches were not unbearable whereas others were encompassed with depression. Black states that trench life was often atrocious. In many cases soldiers were exposed to wet conditions that attracted vermin and frostbite. As well as, according to Graves, “trench feet” a condition soldiers got if they slept through the night without warming their feet in their wet boots. However, life in trenches also posed another
My dwelling is far from being a pleasant and attractive, but it suffices. The vast space in the Underdark allows for a large structure to be built. Unfortunately, building such a place will require time and extraneous work. Precious time that can be used to search for sparse necessities and such a grander place will only attract unwanted attention. This poverty stricken area also lacks the materials required for such project. Regretfully, I’ve been forced to build my home on higher grounds and within the tunnels. The entrance,