Rare difficult to find and official classified US Army Manual 'Unconvential Warfare Devices and Techniques - Incendiaries' or FM31-200-1, dated May 1966 and published at the height of the Vietnam War, with over 200 pages! Highly interesting, extensive manual describing combustable grenades, self-made bombs, thermite grenades, etc (made by Vietcong) and unconventional warfare. Such manuals would be carried by special units and were at heart of the vietnam operations; the manual is one of the best official references on improvised explosive devices (IEDs) manufacturing, and some of the weapons described in it have been used against U.S. troops by foreign troops. A must-have for the US Vietnam collector, great and difficult to find manual! See also our other interesting miliitary and WW2 items that we offer for auction on catawiki! Vietcong boobytraps The Vietnam War was infamous for the guerrilla warfare American forces were largely unprepared for. The Viet Cong were on their home turf and used this to their advantage when it came to creating and laying booby traps. Not only were these traps cost effective, but the materials used to construct many of them didn’t register on the mine detectors used by the US. The goal of the traps was to maim – not kill – as this required soldiers to deal with their wounded comrades, slowing them down. This was made worse by the use of secondary traps, which targeted those attempting to help the injured. It’s alleged that 11 percent of deaths and 17 percent of US troops wounded between 1969-70 were the result of traps and mines. In 1965 alone, this number was at 70 percent. These booby traps also had a devastating psychological effect on soldiers, greatly reducing morale. They were already fighting in difficult jungle terrain, but also had to be on guard for well-disguised Viet Cong traps.