The monsoon rain fell so hard that men couldn't see their own hands, which was the only reason some of them survived the next three hours.

The Battle of Long Tan: When 108 Australians Held Against 2,500

In a Vietnamese rubber plantation, a company of diggers fought through hell

108 Australian soldiers survived a 2,500-strong Viet Cong ambush in a monsoon-drenched rubber plantation.

The monsoon rain fell so hard that Sergeant Bob Buick couldn't see his own hands. It was 4:08 PM on August 18, 1966, and Delta Company of the 6th Royal Australian Regiment had walked into an ambush that should have killed them all.

But this story begins two days earlier, on August 16th, when Viet Cong mortars rained down on the Australian base at Nui Dat, killing one soldier and wounding twenty-three. The attack was no accident—it was bait. The communists wanted the Australians to pursue them into the Long Tan rubber plantation, where the 275th Regiment and D445 Provincial Battalion waited with over 2,500 fighters.

Major Harry Smith led his 108 men into the plantation on August 18th, following blood trails from a patrol contact. What happened next would become the most celebrated battle in Australian military history since Gallipoli.

The rubber trees stood in perfect rows, visibility cut to fifty meters. When the first RPD machine gun opened up, Private Allen May fell instantly. Within minutes, Delta Company was surrounded on three sides, facing human wave assaults that crashed against their positions like tide against rock.

💡 The ammunition resupply helicopter took so many bullet holes that mechanics counted over 30, yet pilot Cliff Dohle landed safely—and immediately volunteered for a second run.