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Nine Of The Most Infamous Booby Traps Used By The Viet Cong In The Vietnam War ———

The Vietnam War was infamous for the guerrilla warfare.
The American forces were unprepared for it. The Viet Cong were on their home turf and they definitely used this to their advantage when it came to creating and laying Booby Traps. These traps cost the Viet Cong nothing. They mostly used bamboo to make many of them. Bamboo did not register on the mine detectors used by the U.S.
The goal of the traps was to maim – not kill – as this required the soldiers to deal with their wounded comrades, slowing them down. This was made worse by the Viet Cong’s use of secondary traps, which targeted those in their attempt to help the ones injured.
It has been estimated to have been 11% deaths and 17% wounded U.S. troops between 1969 – 1970 as a result of traps and mines. And in 1965 this number was at 70%.
These Booby Traps also had a very devastating psychological effect on soldiers, greatly reducing morale. The American soldiers were already fighting in very difficult jungle terrain, but had to be on guard for the well disguised Viet Cong traps

1 – Bow Trap –

The Bow Trap was a very simple, yet very effective Booby Trap. A bow was pulled back and ready to launch and attached to a trip wire. So when a U.S. soldier set it off the bow released where they were standing resulting to a hit in the middle of the soldier’s body.

2 – Punji Sticks –

These were an extremely common Booby Trap deployed by the Viet Cong. The sharpened bamboo or wooden stakes were coated with feces, urine, or poisonous substances from animals and plants.
Punji Sticks were placed pointing upright at the bottom of a hole. The hole was covered with material to camouflage them. So when a U.S. soldier fell through the flimsy cover over the hole they would land on the spikes at the bottom and suffer injuries to their feet and legs.
This particular Booby Trap could even be made worse by placing the spikes at a downward angle along the sides of the hole. When these extra stakes were added it was very difficult to get the victim out without causing further damage.
This really resulted in the slowing down of the unit while efforts were made in freeing the victim.

3 – Bamboo Whips – Bamboo Whips were another brutal Booby Trap used by the Viet

Cong. A bamboo pole was attached to a trip wire and pulled back with a lot of tension. The pole had spikes on it, so when the trip wire was tripped, whoever tripped it would be impaled by the spikes on the pole as it whipped forward against their body. It’s been reported that the spiked pole could travel up to 100 mph. And just as Punji Sticks, the spikes could be covered in poisonous material to further impact the victim to heal.

4 – Swinging Mace –

The Swinging Mace was operated in a very similar way to the Bamboo Whip.
But rather than being attached to a stick, the spikes were on a heavy clay ball, which was triggered by a trip wire. This was one of the more brutal attacks by the Viet Cong. When the hidden clay ball was triggered, it would use the force of gravity and swing down hitting the soldier and inflicting terrible wounds to a soldier’s upper body.

5 – Tiger Trap –

The Tiger Trap was another Booby Trap that, like the Swinging Mace, caused significant injury to a soldier’s upper body.
The trap was sprung when the victim triggered a trip wire. This caused a plank full of metal spikes to fall on them. This was made all the more brutal by the addition of the weighted bricks or other heavy objects placed on the board.

6 – Snake Pits –

Snake Pits were a trap primarily used within the Viet Cong’s tunnel system
A poisonous snake would be attached to a piece of bamboo and when it was released on the victim the snake would attack. Snake Pits were for the U.S. “Tunnel Rats”. But the Viet Cong would put poisonous snakes in many other locations too.
Bamboo Pit Vipers were a common snake used by the Viet Cong. Within a few minutes of being bitten, the flesh that surrounded the bite became swollen and extremely painful.

7 – Cartridge Trap –

The Cartridge Trap operated in a similar way as the Punji Sticks. It was placed in a hole in the ground. A round of ammunition would be set with a nail underneath, to act as a mock firing pin, and a board placed over the top of the hole to prevent the U.S. soldiers from detecting it. But when they stepped on the board, the soldier’s weight would activate the ammunition and fire it through their foot. The extent of the injury was largely based on the size of the shell. Small shells left soldiers permanently disabled, while the larger shells were fatal.

8 – Grenade-In-A-Can –

As the name indicates, the Grenade-In-A-Can was constructed by placing a grenade, with the safety pin removed, into a can. The can held down the striker lever. A trip wire was attached and when tripped, would pull the grenade out of the can causing it to detonate. This type of trap could either be made with a single can or two cans and a stake. If two were used, they were mounted on the trees on either side of a path with the trip wire running between them.

9 – Rigging War Trophies

These Booby Traps were created based on the fact that the U.S. troops enjoyed capturing flags of their enemies. When the Viet Cong were forced from their bases, they would rig their flags with explosives, which would detonate when the U.S. troops took them down.
The Viet Cong knew the Americans also enjoyed taking other items as war trophies. The Viet Cong rigged them with similar explosives, so if the U.S. troops wanted to take anything from abandoned camps, the explosives would detonate, causing additional casualties.