Tunnels.

This is coolbert:

Here is an interesting article written by the eminent British military historian, John Keegan.

Writing about the recent war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Keegan reiterates what I have mentioned before in a previous blog entry.

How those connected tunnel complexes and fighting positions give a definite advantage to the Hezbollah fighters. Allow Hezbollah "troops" to survive a bombardment relatively unscathed. Sort of like what the Japanese were able to do on Iwo Jima. And later, the Viet Cong [VC] in their war with American forces.

[it is reputed the Hezbollah used the services of professional engineers to develop and plan their tunnel fortifications. Same as did the Japs on Iwo!!]

Keegan specifically cites the VC example. The enemy in Vietnam had YEARS to build those tunnel complexes they used, such as at Cu Chi. Constantly lengthening, improving, expanding, maintaining. Think of the simple math. If you dig three feet a day, using teams of diggers, you have a thousand foot tunnel [s] dug in a year. Six years or so, and the complex will be a mile long. Dig a bunch of such tunnels, and you have fortifications of impressive size.

American forces in Vietnam used some novel ways to deal with the tunnels as used by the VC.

* Shaped charges were used to demolish the tunnels using a minimum of explosive.

* Persistent chemical agent [tear gas] was sprayed on tunnel walls, the tunnels being left intact. Future movement inside the tunnels would "stir-up" the persistent agent, releasing the tear agent. Life would become very uncomfortable quickly.

* "Tunnel rats". Specially selected and equipped troops of small stature but of great courage, who would enter the tunnel complex to hunt down enemy troops and extricate anything of intelligence value. Equipped with hearing protection, goggles, gas mask, knee pads, .22 caliber pistols, and various forms of lighting to see their way around.

[small stature was a requirement to be a "tunnel rat". The average Vietnamese man was SMALLER than the average American woman. Entrances/exits from tunnels were deliberately made small by the VC so that a westerner could not enter. A Vietnamese man could only enter by placing his hands over his head as he crawled through. A tight fit for him, much less for an oversize American man!!]

* Smoke generators. Smoke would be introduced into an entrance/exit, hopefully emerging at other locations and revealing other concealed entrances/exits.

* Dowsing sticks [??]. Results of the dowsing sticks is uncertain.

Tunnels allow the unconventional combatant on the modern battlefield to survive and endure massive bombardment, all the while providing fighting positions from which to conduct an effective defensive form of combat [defense is the stronger form of combat - - Clausewitz.].

coolbert.