Automatic Ambush

[DMZ-LT]

Did everybody use automatic ambushes ? We always set up automatic ambushes at night using claymores. Take a claymore and a battery and three plastic spoons wrap bare commo wire around two spoons. Insert the other spoon , attached to a trip wire , between the two wired spoons. When the unwired trip wire spoon was removed the two wired spoons came in contact and sent a charge to the electric blasting cap that set off the claymore. Had a guy get killed one morning going to get his automatic and tripped his own claymore

[Andy]

We always picked out a spot where we could set up good old fashion claymores which we banged the the standard way. Also tried to find a spot fairly open so we could throw frags and they wouldn't come bouncing back, that was about it.

We also had a bad accident when an FNG brought in a claymore and didn't remove the blasting cap. Very bad ju-ju.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[Bill Farnie]

We never messed with claymores like that. Like Andy, set them up the old fashioned way with a clicker but we did take frags , tie trip wire to it, pull the pin and VERY carefully put it in an empty C-rat can. We used to do this when we setup what we called a stay behind ambush.The company would leave a NDP but leave a squad and set an ambush. Charlie would come into the NDP scrounging and BANG!!!!

[Packo]

Lt,

Same same Andy and Frisbee. Didn't mess with the claymores like that. Sometimes we fragged our claymores, but not very often. Too friggin' dangerous and truthfully, never had any claymores turned around on us. Actually, I never ever talked to anybody that actually did have a claymore turned on them. Only time we ever fragged a claymore as at the LZ. Sure right about frags and open spaces. Got to a point I didn't carry them very often.

Packman

[39mto39g]

We had this LT that loved to make explosives so sencitive that the only way to disarm them was to set them off.
He would do shit like take a smoke gernade blasting cap (instant) and put it into a hand gernade and straighten the pin and pull it all the way out except half the pin right at the end.
He put 6 gernades with pins pulled in a empty law . put it up in a tree and tie it off to another tree, when tripped it would fall and swing toward the tree it was tied off to, dropping gernads along the way. He made a booby trap out of a hand held flare, Took all the stuff out of it and filled it with c-4, when someone hit the plunger. they had a rud awakening. I could go on but I wouldn't want to give you ideas.

Ron

Yep.They were in common use by the boys in 2/47th in '70 cept that I heard them called "mechanical"ambushes more often than "automatic".If conditions allowed,an AP would set out two on trails or in natural funnel areas in an "L" pattern with 3 or 4 claymores along the long side of the "L" and one at the end pointing down the trail or funnel area.The claymores were linked with det. cord so they went off simultaneously.A single or double trip wire was strung near the middle of the mech. ambush in an effort to get a whole squad in the killzone before it was set off.Various tripwire setups were used and the 3 spoon approach was popular as was useing a single spoon and clothes pin.
After setting out 1-3 mech. ambushes the AP set up as a conventional ambush nearby where they could either cover or rapidly move to the mech. ambush sites quickly and police up.

Grenades used in booby-traps often had their issue fuses removed and the fuse from a smoke grenade inserted in it's place so that it went off instantly when the lever flipped off.It was considered a very bad idea to recover grenades set up like this for fear that they might get mixed up with normally fused grenades.

[SuperScout]

That's the same-same name we used in 2-47th (Mech) as well, in 1967! My favorite tactic was to find a well used VC trail, and to set up a mechanical ambush using a 9 volt battery taped to aregular mouse trap. The killer bar on the mouse trap was taped almost completely over with electrical tape leaving only a small bare spot that served as a contact point. A c-ration spoon with a small hole in the handle was inserted under the killer bar, and a trip wire tied to the spoon, with the wire then stretched across the trail. Hit the wire, spoon's out, contact is made, and instantaneously, the VC ranks are depleted, ever so slightly. We usually opted to blow the claymores, rather than try to retrieve all the paraphenalia.

SS-

Thought that was the case.Wasn't for sure though just when they into common use so I figgured I'd best stick with what was going on while I was there.

[PHO127]

Wire up dud arty shells and bombs around probable LZ spots in Cambodia and Laos with a peice of Bamboo and a carved slit in the middle then would put two pieces of metal on each side of the slit and wire to the dud shell. The genius was that they did not connect batteries to them but it would be detonated by the static Electricity of the roter blades. They did not have to worry about tripping their own booby traps. I have seen the same setup with bamboo used with batteries as a pressure or trip detonator. We used to drop a full M16 mag every once and awhile with 1 bullet pulled and the case filled with C-4. Also did AK bullets this way. Once we got 11 NVA with a 2 claymore Automatic, as close as we could tell, it was the entire squad.

[DMZ-LT]

If possible would stack up Nva bodies and put a frag with a smoke fuse under the first guy we stacked up . Loved to hear it blow.