Citizen Soldiers
: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944-May 7, 1945

Author: Stephen Ambrose
Paperback
528 pages Reprint edition (September 1998) Touchstone Books;
ISBN: 0684848015
Dimensions (in inches): 1.50 x 9.25 x 6.07

Rat Holes –

The Tunnel Fighters of Vietnam

Tom Mangold , John Penycate

There was another kind of war fought in Vietnam, one that took place largely out of sight, in the stinking, vermin-infested tunnels beneath the earth. These battles were not fought with tanks and bombs, but by a handful of courageous individuals who used pistols, knives and their own bare hands to bring the war to a dug-in and determined enemy. This is the riveting story of those American Special Forces, the "Tunnel Rats," and of their struggle to locate, explore and clear more than 200 miles of tunnels created by VC guerrillas in the Cu Chi region outside of Saigon. Drawing heavily upon the heart-stopping eyewitness accounts of both surviving Americans and their former Viet Cong counterparts, nearly every page of this book brings chilling new information about the tunnels, from their initial construction to their elaborate and ingenious defenses, including the use of snakes, spiders and other venomous animals. The Tunnels of Cu Chi also takes a hard look at how the tunnel rats fought both the stubborn VC enemy and their own very genuine fears. Full of nail-biting excitement, this book is a must for anyone interested in this too-long overlooked aspect of the Vietnam War.

39 photos, 4 maps. 320 pages.

"One day a tunnel rat. . . 'entered a tunnel. Suddenly his head touched something like a; big salami; he reached out to push it away, but this long cold thing wound round his neck. He had no time to scream or unsheathe his knife, the snake had already knotted tighter around his neck and badly bit his face. Outside, the other tunnel rats waited for their comrade. At last, the team leader pushed one of them into the tunnel. This man emerged soon after, panting and pale, dragging after him the violet-colored v corpse of the tunnel rat. "

-Nguyen Khac teen, AR VN officer;

"In the Cu Chi tunnels, the VC used to take boxes of scorpions with a tripwire that was a booby trap. You tripped the wire, the box would open, and the scorpions would come into the tunnel. One of my men got stung; he came out screaming and never went back in another tunnel."

-Lt. Jack Flowers