The Tunnels Of Vietnam

The Underground Villages and tunnels of Vietnam

The tight, cramped tunnels were a crappy place to live, but a brilliant place to
defend. They were used as secret resupply routes and staging areas by
communist insurgents. But for U.S. troops attempting to clear them, they were
a nightmare. It was hundreds of miles of tunnels filled with booby traps and
poisonous animals.

The fighting in Vietnam dated back to the 1940s when corrupt democratic
officials turned the population largely against it. Communist forces preyed
upon this, rallying support from the local population and building a guerrilla
army, recruiting heavily from farming villages. The ruling democratic regime
patrolled mostly on the large roads and through cities because their heavy
vehicles had trouble penetrating the jungles or making it up mountains. By the
time the U.S. deployed troops to directly intervene, regime forces had been
overrun in multiple locations and had a firm foothold across large patches of the
jungle, hills, and villages.

And with the increased size of the tunnel network, new amenities were added.
Kitchens, living quarters, even weapon factories and hospitals were moved
underground. The Viet Cong now had entire underground cities with hidden
entrances. When the infantry came knocking, the tunnels were a defender's
dream.

Each tunnel-digging team typically consisted of 3 men. First, two teams dug
two “dry wells” about 10 meters apart from each other. These “dry wells” were
shafts from the surface down 3 to 5 meters. Once reaching the required
depth, the two teams would dig toward each other underground (and then
downward). In each team, one man dug, another shoveled the earth into
baskets then took them to the dry well where the other team member was
waiting to haul the baskets up to the ground. Each dry well had to be filled
after it had been dug. They used either their hands or old American
shovels stolen from corpses or raided camps.  I can't really say how long
a tunnel took to complete because they had different tunnel lengths on everyone.
However, most digging teams were able to dig about a meter and a half in six
hours.

American soldiers used the term "Black Echo" to describe the conditions within
the tunnels. For the Viet Cong, life in the tunnels was difficult. Air, food, and water
were scarce and the tunnels were infested with ants, venomous centipedes,
snakes, scorpions, spiders, and rodents. Most of the time, soldiers would spend
the day in the tunnels working or resting and come out only at night to scavenge
for supplies, tend their crops, or engage the enemy in battle. Sometimes, during
periods of heavy bombing or American troop movement, they would be forced to
remain underground for many days 

At the time, sickness was rampant among the people living in the tunnels,
especially malaria, which was the second-largest cause of death next to battle
wounds. The sickness was rampant because they were living in cramped spaces
with maybe only a meter or less of their own space. They also only ever made
big meals for everyone in this one village so everyone shared food and water.
Another common cause of death was via their own traps with snakes and live
animals.

Overall the tunnels were a pretty bad place to live and fight in. The tunnels rats
sent down to fight in there often walked away with claustrophobia. North Vietnam
was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea, while South Vietnam
was supported by the United States, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, New
Zealand, and the Philippines. The communists eventually lost the war leaving a
big change in the cold war.