During the Vietnam War, soldiers from special units of the USA, Australia, and New Zealand were nicknamed "tunnel rats." Their task was to find, explore, and destroy tunnels on enemy territory. This was an extremely dangerous job, as soldiers faced numerous traps underground.

Among the servicemen of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment was Alexander Ilyin, the son of Russian white émigrés. He was born in Shanghai in 1945, and after the Maoists came to power, his family moved to Australia. At the age of 20, Ilyin joined the army.

The Vietnamese tunnels were a complex network of underground passages that housed important facilities, field hospitals, warehouses, barracks, kitchens, and even cinemas for screening propaganda films. Ilyin recalled having to crawl hundreds of meters, feeling the floor and walls in search of mines, tripwires, and stakes. Sometimes the Vietnamese would deliberately leave poisonous snakes and spiders at the entrances.

Years later, Ilyin remembers one tense incident. Their regiment knew that Soviet instructors were helping the Vietnamese. One day, intelligence reported the appearance of a light-haired European in the enemy regiment. Everyone was sure it was a Soviet officer, and an order was given to capture him alive. The Australians set up an ambush, waiting for his appearance.

"I thought, God forbid, he comes out right in front of me," Alexander Ilyin recounted. "I am also Russian, but in Australian uniform." He did not want to shoot or capture his compatriot. However, the European did indeed come out to Ilyin's position, and he had to neutralize him. Fortunately, it turned out to be a Swedish correspondent filming the war from the Vietnamese side. "I felt an immense relief," Ilyin recalled.

Now, the Russian Australian lives in Sydney and heads the local association of Vietnam War veterans.