DEATH BY DECEPTION

An Important element in the Viet Cong's guerrilla warfare was the widespread use of booby traps. Ingeniously contrived from readily available materials - sometimes from captured or recovered mines and ammunition - these unseen weapons were often made by old men and women and children. So effective were they that in some areas they were said to account for up to 50 per cent of allied casualties. Australian soldiers on patrol were trained to look for anything that might indicate the presence of a hidden mine or booby trap near by disturbed foliage, an unnatural arrailgement of sticks or stones, and any wires, rope, string or vines that could spring a trap or trigger an explosion. They were also warned against relaxing their vigilance; unwariness when approaching their own base or taking advantage of some shade trees for a rest could result in sudden death or injury.
Apart from the casualties they inflicted, booby traps slowed down the movement of troops by making them wary of every step they took. Men on patrol would walk in the safe footsteps of the man in front, and the one in the lead was quick to develop a "sixth sense" in discovering trip wires.
The booby traps illustrated on this pages. while among those commonly met with by allied soldiers in Vietnam, represent only a small proportion of the ingenious devices used so effectively by the Viet Cong during the war.