wires so a victim would fall on them and receive multiple wounds. Others were planted in pits hidden under a rotating platform covered with leaves. Flexible steel spikes in a wooden frame over a pit were another variation. Called a “venus flytrap,” it was almost impossible for a victim to pull his leg out. Jungle warfare made it possible for guerrillas to use a wide variety of deadfalls and other man traps. Another favorite was a poisoned arrow launched by elastic bands made from inner tubes and triggered by a trip wire. Poisoned arrows shot from crossbows, weapons that in east Asia have been used since prehistoric times, killed 20th century soldiers in Vietnam.
Improvised weapons ranging from punji sticks to roadside bombs are weapons American troops may be facing in increasing numbers. United States superiority in “smart” weapons and other high-tech devices makes it unlikely that American forces will be seriously challenged by conventional military organiza-tions. Anyone who thinks that these primitive devices do not constitute a serious challenge should study the Vietnam War.
The simple fact is that while weapons have increased in sophistication and lethality for thousands of years, human beings are still put together the same way. An arrow — arrows will penetrate some forms of body armor that will stop a bullet — can kill an American soldier today just as it could kill a French knight in 1346. A roadside bomb consisting of old artillery shells detonated by a small explosive charge — a weapon that is about as dumb as they come — will kill a person just as dead as the most sophisticated cruise missile.
It is true that few places have the abundance of unguarded caches of artillery shells, bombs, and rockets as Iraq. Every country in the world, however, uses explosives in construction and mining. Any guerrilla organization can steal this material without exerting itself. Gasoline and diesel oil are even easier to obtain. These can be used for a variety of weapons, ranging from the lowly Molotov cocktail to anfo (ammonium nitrate and fuel oil) bombs like the one Timothy McVeigh exploded in Oklahoma City. Ammonium nitrate, the other component, besides fuel oil, of McVeigh’s bomb, is a commonly used fertilizer.
It can easily be obtained in it pure form or leached from brand-name fertilizers.
Ordinary flour can be used to make a bomb that purposely reproduces the kind of explosion that accidentally occurs in grain elevators. The list of household products that can be used to make explosives is amazing. It includes granulated sugar, Vaseline, auto battery acid, swimming pool cleaner, and common matches.
Matchheads alone can make a dangerous explosive. All of these explosives can be used in mines and booby traps; many can also be used as propellants in improvised guns.
Information on making explosives, as well as making improvised guns and rockets has been widely disseminated. There are at least 40 books in print on the subject, one of which is published by the United States Army. This training manual also includes directions for making a slew of homemade weapons.
Guerrillas using such primitive weapons will, of course, try to obtain better ones. The classic way to obtain better weapons is to get them from the enemy. In Vietnam, early in the war, many of the Viet Cong carried M 1 and M 2 carbines that they had apparently obtained from South Vietnamese troops, either by sale or capture. Iraqi guerrillas apparently have not obtained many, if any, American weapons, but the Russian-built weapons they have — especially the Kalashnikov rifles and RPG 7s — make pretty good guerrilla weapons. The biggest handicap the Iraqis have is their generally dreadful marksmanship.
Superior weapons mean that just about any regular force can defeat just about any guerrilla force in a formal battle. That’s why guerrillas don’t fight formal battles. Guerrillas ambush troops on the move, plant mines and other IEDs (improvised explosive devices) on supply routes, and attack isolated bases.
They kill supporters of an occupying power. (Most guerrilla enemies are occupying powers.) Guerrillas gave Napoleon’s armies a terrible time in Russia and Spain. And over time, they’ve gradually become more effective. In South Africa, the British had to flood the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (sometimes called the Tranvaal) with more troops than the entire enemy population. And even then, they didn’t win until they had incarcerated virtually the whole civilian population in concentration camps. A few years later in Africa, the guerrillas of Abd el Krim, with weapons considerably inferior to those of the Afrikaners, drove the Spanish army out of Morocco and came close to doing that to the French. French air power proved to be too effective against guerrillas in an open desert.
In modern times, those within the memory of most living people, guerrillas have gone from success to success. Consider Africa. Almost every nation on that continent, from Algeria to Zambia, is independent because of a successful guerrilla war. In Malaya, the British put down a guerrilla movement, but that was because the movement was limited to members of a despised minority, the Chinese. Most of the population opposed the guerrillas. Mao Zedong, the most successful guerrilla in modern times, compared guerrillas to fish and the population to the sea. The population shelters the guerrillas and keeps them supplied and informed. Until that human “sea” dries up, the guerrillas are a potent force. They have become more potent in recent years because of three things: (1) instant, world-wide communications; (2) the growth of nationalism; and (3) the development of weapons adapted to guerrilla warfare.
Today guerrillas use television and computers to transmit their propaganda and influence global public opinion. The Irish, in their war of independence made international public opinion their most potent weapon, and modern communications have given propaganda even more potential. In the early years of the last century, colonial powers had a relatively easy time because nationalism was largely confined to Europe and the Americas. In other places loyalty was primarily to the tribe or clan. Today, nationalism is visible everywhere, and in many Muslim lands it’s allied with religious zeal. And early in the century, the
“Boers” of South Africa didn’t have trench mortars or rockets to fire at British bases, and Abd el Krim’s Berbers had no anti-aircraft missiles. That’s no longer true of most guerrillas.
All of this means that to fight guerrillas, the major powers are going to have to concentrate on drying up the “sea” in which the guerrilla “fish” swim — convincing the populations of enemy countries that it’s in their interest to join us.
Honorable Mentions
Whenever you choose the most important of anything, be it battles (as in 50 Battles that Changed the World), or weapons, or ice cream, other people will have other ideas. That’s the reason for elections and the existence of horse races. So here are some weapons that had been suggested or otherwise considered as possibilities and the reasons they didn’t make this list. As in the main list, they are presented more or less chronologically.
• The Ax: The ax was probably an important hand-to-hand weapon in the Stone Age. One large prehistoric European group is even called the Battle Ax People. But we have no record of whether or not the Battle Ax People actually used their stone axes in battles or, if they did, how they used them or how much they depended on them. Until recent times, the ax was an important weapon to many people in central Africa, but it was never as important as the spear, which is the first item on the list of 50 weapons. Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, and Russian warriors used axes extensively, but those axes were never more important than swords, spears, and bows. Nor did use of the ax result in any change in the tactics of these northern fighters
• The Sling: Although this weapon proved to be quite decisive for young David and was widely used in antiquity, it was never as decisive as the bow was for either the Eurasian nomads or the English yeomen.
• The Spear-Thrower: This weapon, called a woomera in Australia and an atlatl in ancient Mexico, was a major weapon for many primitive hunting peoples. It’s basically a stick with a hook or notch at one end. The user fits the butt of his spear into the hook or notch. When he throws the spear, he flips up the end of the spear-thrower, which adds velocity to the spear. Most people who used the spear-thrower were hunter- gatherers such as the Australian aborigines or the Eskimos, people who lived in small groups and seldom engaged in what we would call war. The Aztecs of Mexico used spear-throwers in war, but their primary weapons were bows and obsidian-edged clubs. They used their atlatls to throw harpoons to collect victims for sacrifice and cannibal feasts.
• The Siege Tower and the Battering Ram: These devices were used in sieges since
