In transport, tunnels can be connected together to form a tunnel network . These can be used in mining to reach ore below ground, in cities for underground rapid transit systems, in sewer systems, in warfare to avoid enemy detection or attacks, as maintenance access routes beneath sites with high ground-traffic such as airports and amusement parks, or to extend public living areas or commercial access while avoiding outdoor weather.
Tunnel networks were sometimes developed during siege warfare, even dating back to classical antiquity. Starting with a single tunnel being dug to undermine a wall that might be detected by the defenders and met with counter-tunnels, leading to tunnel warfare. Defenders might first create a series of underground listing posts to preempt such mining attacks.
Any time the use of trenches becomes extensive, this naturally leads to connecting them with tunnel networks for safe passage both along the trench lines and with rear areas. In World War I, when given enough time and resources, the underground components of the defenses could become more extensive than those above ground.
The French Maginot Line, constructed from 1929 to 1939, was a chain of fortresses, bunkers, retractable turrets, outposts, obstacles, and sunken artillery emplacements, all linked by an extensive shell-proof tunnel network. It included underground barracks, shelters, ammo dumps and depots, and even had its own underground narrow gauge railways.
The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting tunnels located in the Củ Chi District of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Củ Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War, and were the Viet Cong's base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968.
The tunnels were used by Viet Cong soldiers as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous North Vietnamese fighters. The tunnel systems were of great importance to the Viet Cong in their resistance to American forces, and helped to counter the growing American military effort.
The Vịnh Mốc tunnels are a tunnel complex in Quảng Trị, Vietnam. During the Vietnam War it was strategically located on the border of North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The tunnels were built to shelter people from the intense bombing of Son Trung and Son Ha communes in Vinh Linh county of Quảng Trị Province in the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone. The American forces believed the villagers of Vinh Moc were supplying food and armaments to the North Vietnamese garrison on the island of Con Co which was in turn hindering the American bombers on their way to bomb Hanoi. The idea was to force the villagers of Vinh Moc to leave the area but as is typical in Vietnam there was nowhere else to go. The villagers initially dug the tunnels to move their village 10 metres underground but the American forces designed bombs that burrowed down 10 metres. Eventually against these odds, the villagers moved the village to a depth of 30 metres. It was constructed in several stages beginning in 1966 and used until early 1972. The complex grew to include wells, kitchens, rooms for each family and spaces for healthcare. Around 60 families lived in the tunnels; as many as 17 children were born inside the tunnels.
The tunnels were a success and no villagers lost their lives. The only direct hit was from a bomb that failed to explode; the resulting hole was utilized as a ventilation shaft.
Three levels of tunnels were eventually built.
During the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, the Israeli military uncovered and destroyed 32 cross-border tunnels that went on for miles beneath Gaza and reached into Israeli territory. According to intelligence officials, Israeli engineers are developing a system that could detect and destroy cross-border tunnels for which the Israeli government has reportedly spent more than $250 million since 2004. [1] [2] [3] [ needs update ]
A network of caves beneath the cities of Mosul and Badana were built by ISIS. The terrorist group avoids battlefield engagements, preferring to hide in such tunnels safe from satellite detection, drone strikes and artillery, managed to maintain supply lines and communication with other areas under their control. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
The Viet Cong was an armed communist organization and movement in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Formally organized as the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, it fought under the direction of North Vietnam against the South Vietnamese and United States governments during the Vietnam War. The organization had both guerrilla and regular army units, as well as a network of cadres who organized and mobilized peasants in the territory the Viet Cong controlled. During the war, communist fighters and some anti-war activists claimed that the Viet Cong was an insurgency indigenous to the South, while the U.S. and South Vietnamese governments portrayed the group as a tool of North Vietnam. According to Trần Văn Trà, the Viet Cong's top commander, and the post-war Vietnamese government's official history, the Viet Cong followed orders from Hanoi and were practically part of the People's Army of Vietnam, or North Vietnamese army.
The tunnel rats were American, Australian, New Zealander, and South Vietnamese soldiers who performed underground search and destroy missions during the Vietnam War.
Tây Ninh is a province in the Southeast region of Vietnam, with the capital at the town of Tây Ninh.
The Iron Triangle was a 120 square miles (310 km2) area in the Bình Dương Province of Vietnam, so named due to it being a stronghold of Viet Minh activity during the war. The region was under control of the Viet Minh throughout the French war in Vietnam and continued to be so throughout the phase of American involvement in the Vietnam War, despite concerted efforts on the part of US and South Vietnamese forces to destabilize the region as a power base for their enemy, the communist North Vietnamese–sponsored and–directed South Vietnamese insurgent movement, the Viet Cong (VC).
The Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone was a demilitarized zone at the 17th parallel in Quang Tri province that was established as the dividing line between the two countries i.e. North Vietnam and South Vietnam from 22 July 1954 to 2 July 1976 when Vietnam was officially divided into the two military gathering areas, which was intended to be sustained in the short term after the First Indochina War.
Operation Crimp, also known as the Battle of the Ho Bo Woods, was a joint US-Australian military operation during the Vietnam War, which took place 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of Cu Chi in Binh Duong Province, South Vietnam. The operation targeted a key Viet Cong headquarters that was believed to be concealed underground, and involved two brigades under the command of the US 1st Infantry Division, including the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment which was attached to the US 173rd Airborne Brigade. Heavy fighting resulted in significant casualties on both sides, but the combined American and Australian force was able to uncover an extensive tunnel network covering more than 200 kilometres, at the cost of 8 Australians and 14 Americans killed and 29 Australians and 76 Americans wounded.
Tunnel warfare involves war being conducted in tunnels and other underground cavities. It often includes the construction of underground facilities in order to attack or defend, and the use of existing natural caves and artificial underground facilities for military purposes. Tunnels can be used to undermine fortifications and slip into enemy territory for a surprise attack, while it can strengthen a defense by creating the possibility of ambush, counterattack and the ability to transfer troops from one portion of the battleground to another unseen and protected. Also, tunnels can serve as shelter from enemy attack.
Lê Công Vinh is a former Vietnamese footballer. He was part of the Vietnam national team from 2004 to 2016 as an attacker. Considered one of the greatest players in Vietnamese football's history, Công Vinh achieved the highest scores of all time in the Vietnam national team, and received three Vietnamese Golden Ball Awards.
Củ Chi is a rural district of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Vịnh Mốc is a tunnel complex in Quảng Trị, Vietnam. During the Vietnam War it was strategically located on the border of North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The tunnels were built to shelter people from the intense bombing of Son Trung and Son Ha communes in Vinh Linh county of Quảng Trị Province in the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.
Tunnel Rats, also known as 1968 Tunnel Rats, is a 2008 German-Canadian war suspense film written and directed by Uwe Boll. The film is based on the factual duties of tunnel rats during the Vietnam War. In a documentary for the film, Boll revealed the film did not have a script, and instead the actors improvised their lines.
The railway system in Vietnam is owned and operated by the state-owned Vietnam Railways. The principal route, the single track North-South Railway running between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, accounts for 1,726 kilometres (1,072 mi) of the network's total length of 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi). The national railway network uses mainly metre gauge, although there are several standard gauge and mixed gauge lines in the north of the country.
Hố Bò woods are located in Bình Dương Province 20 km north of Củ Chi, 4 km to the west of the Iron Triangle and the Saigon River and some 56 km northwest of Saigon. The woods consist of rubber plantations, sparse to dense woods, and open rice paddies with some extremely large dikes, some 1–2 metres high. The woods were used by the Viet Cong (VC) as a base area during the Vietnam War.
The North–South railway is the principal railway line serving the country of Vietnam. It is a single-track metre gauge line connecting the capital Hanoi in the north to Ho Chi Minh City in the south, for a total length of 1,726 km (1,072 mi). Trains travelling this line are sometimes referred to as the Reunification Express, although no particular train carries this name officially. The line was established during French colonial rule, and was completed over a period of nearly forty years, from 1899 to 1936. As of 2005, 191 of Vietnam's 278 railway stations were located along the North–South line.
Hồ Xá is a township and capital of Vĩnh Linh District, Quảng Trị province, Vietnam.
Vietnamese units of measurement are the largely decimal units of measurement traditionally used in Vietnam until metrication. The base unit of length is the thước or xích. Some of the traditional unit names have been repurposed for metric units, such as thước for the metre, while other traditional names remain in translations of imperial units, such as dặm Anh for the English mile.
Hamas, the governing authority in the Gaza Strip, has constructed a sophisticated network of military tunnels since it seized control of the Strip in 2007. The tunnel system branches beneath many Gazan towns and cities, such as Khan Yunis, Jabalia and the Shati refugee camp. The internal tunnels, running some dozens of kilometres within the Gaza Strip, have several functions. Hamas uses the tunnels to hide its arsenal of rocketry underground, to facilitate communication, to permit munition stocks to be hidden, and to conceal militants, making detection from the air difficult. Hamas leader Khalid Meshal said in an interview with Vanity Fair that the tunnel system is a defensive structure, designed to place obstacles against Israel's powerful military arsenal and engage in counter-strikes behind the lines of the IDF. He admitted that the tunnels are used for infiltration of Israel, but said that offensive operations have never caused the death of civilians in Israel, and denied allegations of planned mass attacks on Israeli civilians.
Nguyễn Công Phượng is a Vietnamese professional footballer who plays as a forward or an attacking midfielder for J1 League club Yokohama FC and the Vietnam national team.
The abdication of Emperor Bảo Đại took place on 25 August 1945 and marked the end of the 143-year reign of the Nguyễn dynasty over Vietnam ending the Vietnamese monarchy. Bảo Đại abdicated in response to the August Revolution. A ceremony was held handing power over to the newly established Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which was established during the end of World War II in Asia as Vietnam had been occupied by French and later Japanese imperialists.