Cu Chi tunnels – Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam
Historic Cu Chi tunnels of Vietnam was in news because the President of India Pranab Mukherjee visited it on 17 September 2014.Cu Chi tunnel located in the Cu Chi district of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam is one of the most bombed, shelled and devastated areas of world in the military history.
The tunnels are a network consisting of over 200km of tunnels that is connected with one another like a cobweb. From this underground village, the revolutionary forces staged the 1968 general offensive against the US. The tunnels were also used during the Ho Chi Minh campaign in April 1975 to liberate South Vietnam.
The tunnels facilitated communication and coordination between the Viet Cong controlled enclaves, isolated from each other by South Vietnamese and American land and air attacks.
The tunnels have kitchens, food and ammunition storage caches, medic care chambers, meeting chambers, commanding rooms and others. The secret underground passages also allowed the Viet Cong to mount surprise attacks wherever the tunnels went- even within the perimeters of the US military base at Dong Du and to disappear suddenly into hidden trapdoors without a trace.