David Morgan

1967; 1968; 1969; 1970; 1971;

Royal Australian Navy (RAN)
missiles

The Royal Australian Navy’s three Guided Missile Destroyers (DDGs). [L-R] HMAS Brisbane, HMAS Hobart and HMAS Perth. Photo by David Morgan. Australia’s largest naval commitment to the Vietnam War was the provision of destroyers, on rotation, to serve on the ‘gunline’ – delivering naval gunfire support for ground forces – with the US 7th Fleet. HMA Ships Hobart, Perth and Brisbane all served on multiple six-monthly rotations between 1967 and 1971. The Daring Class destroyer, HMAS Vendetta served one tour of duty on the gunline. The Australian vessels emerged from the gunline largely unscathed but the requirements of operational service placed heavy demands on ships’ companies. Gunline destroyers needed to be constantly available to provide support to shore-based forces and to conduct off-shore patrols. Hobart and Perth were also involved in Operation Sea Dragon along the North Vietnamese coast between 1966 and 1968. Ships serving on Sea Dragon interdicted enemy attempts at seaborne infiltration and resupply along the North Vietnamese coast from the Demilitarized Zone to the Red River delta near Hanoi and often came under heavy and accurate fire from shore-based batteries. For the ships of the RAN serving in the waters off Vietnam, these operations were among the most dangerous of the war. In one tragic incident two members of Hobart’s crew were killed when the ship was mistakenly attacked by a US aircraft.

Images hosted by: Salt Lake Community College

still image

reformatted digital

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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

Original version: Collection with various creators donated by Bernie Weisz; Archival digital version: SLCC Digital Archives. CREATIVE COMMONS Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License.

JPG Files downloaded from Facebook Profile with permission of the Profile Owner, then processed using Photoshop to generate archival TIFFs.

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