Rubber Band Grenade

The Rubber Band Grenade was a booby trap set by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam war. To make this device, the soldier would remove the pin of a hand grenade and wrap a strong rubber band around the lever, holding it in place. This trap was then hidden in a hut. United States soldiers would torch Vietnamese huts regulary to prevent them from being inhabited again. When a hut with the grenade trap would be torched, the rubber band on the grenade would melt, arming the grenade and blowing up the hut. This would often wound US soldiers with burning bamboo and shrapnel.