On This Day

1960-1975 > Vietnam era

November 22, 1967

First Operational Grumman Tracker S2E aircraft delivered to the RAN. (One non flying S2A and one non flying S2E had been delivered in 1966 for training)

November 17, 1967

The Attack class patrol boat HMAS ATTACK, (LCDR R. J. R. Pennock, RAN), the lead vessel of the Attack class patrol boats, was commissioned. ATTACK was laid down in Evans Deakin Yard, Brisbane, in September 1966, and launched on 8 April 1967. Mrs Lilyan Chan, (Mayoress of Darwin), performed the launching ceremony. She was transferred to the Indonesian Navy on 22 February 1985, and renamed KRI SIKUDA.

November 13, 1967

The Attack class patrol boat HMAS AITAPE, (LCDR W. S. G. Bateman, RAN), was commissioned. AITAPE was laid down in Walker’s Yard, Maryborough, QLD, in November 1966, and launched on 6 July 1967. Mrs Maloat Paliau, (Wife of the Member for Manus in the PNG House of Assembly), performed the launching ceremony. She was gifted to the PNGDF in November 1974.

November 2, 1967

HMAS PERTH, (guided missile destroyer), attacked enemy supply craft and a boat-building yard, on the Son Giang River, Vietnam.

PO R. A. Donne, (RAN Clearance Diving Team 3), was wounded by shrapnel while making safe a 75-mm recoilless rifle round, wired as a booby trap, at Vung Tau, Vietnam.

October 31, 1967

HMAS Melbourne departed from San Diego for the return journey to Australia after a journey to collect new FAA aircraft. She visited Pearl Harbor and Suva en route, and arrived in Jervis Bay, where the Skyhawks were landed, on 21 November. She arrived in Sydney the following day where the Trackers were landed.

October 30, 1967

The RAN-chartered MV JEPARIT, (general-purpose bulk carrier), sailed from Sydney on her 10th voyage to Vietnam. The ship was commissioned on 11 December 1969, following industrial stoppages. JEPARIT was paid off, and returned to her owners on 11 March 1972, having completed 17 return voyages to the war theatre.

October 24, 1967

HMAS PERTH, (guided missile destroyer), sank three enemy supply junks north of the Demilitarised Zone in Vietnam.

October 18, 1967

HMAS PERTH, (guided missile destroyer), was hit by Viet Cong batteries north of the Demilitarised Zone. Four of PERTH’s crew were wounded in the action.

October 16, 1967

The first contingent of the RAN Helicopter Flight, led by LCDR N. Ralph, RAN, arrived in Vietnam. The flight operated with the US 135th Assault Helicopter Company, and flew turbojet Bell Iroquois helicopters as troop carriers and gunships in support of ground operations.

October 10, 1967

The guided missile destroyer HMAS PERTH, (CAPT P. H. Doyle, RAN), engaged enemy artillery batteries south of the demilitarised zone in Vietnam.

September 26, 1967

HMAS Perth (II) arrived off the coast of Vietnam on her first deployment as Australia’s contribution to the US 7th Fleet operation during the Vietnam War. As a unit of the US Navy’s Operation SEA DRAGON, Perth was tasked with firing on enemy shore positions and engaging small coastal craft carrying supplies

September 18, 1967

A memorial to US Submariners who lost their lives in submarines operating out of Fremantle, WA, during WWII, was unveiled at that port by RADM Herman J. Kossler, USN.

September 8, 1967

The guided missile destroyer, HMAS PERTH, (CAPT P. H. Doyle, RAN), joined the US Seventh Fleet, for operations against North Vietnam.

August 26, 1967

Four members of Clearance Diving Team 3 participated in an unsuccessful assault on strong enemy positions on the banks of a channel near Nui Truong Phi, Vietnam. The force was carried in five motorised junks escorted by patrol boats. As it neared the landing place it came under intense enemy fire. The divers blew up two US patrol boats previously captured by the Viet Cong, before the force was withdrawn. AB D. C. Trompp was wounded in the action and became the first RAN casualty in the Vietnam War.

August 25, 1967

816 Squadron decommissioned while preparations were made to receive its new Grumman S-2E/G Tracker aircraft.

August 18, 1967

HMAS PLATYPUS, the new RAN submarine base, was commissioned at Neutral Bay, Sydney, conjointly with the Australian Fourth Submarine Squadron.

August 11, 1967

HMAS OXLEY, (Oberon class submarine), the first of eight to be built in Greenock, Scotland for the RAN, arrived in Brisbane.

August 10, 1967

Two RAN Clearance Divers drowned in a night exercise off Jervis Bay, NSW. Their bodies were recovered on 28 August.

August 4, 1967

The second inquiry into the HMAS MELBOURNE, (aircraft carrier), and USS FRANK E. EVANS, (destroyer), collision, continued in Sydney.

August 2, 1967

HMAS HOBART, (guided missile destroyer), with US Ships ST PAUL and BLUE, were fired on by North Vietnamese coastal batteries near Cap Bang, Vietnam. Enemy shells landed within 50 metres of the Australian destroyer.

July 29, 1967

Surgeon LEUT L. Barnett, RAN, of HMAS HOBART was transferred by helicopter to the burning USS FORRESTAL in the Gulf of Tonkin, to treat casualties after an accidental explosion claimed 134 lives and injured many more. Later in the day HOBART went alongside the FORRESTAL to supply fire-fighting equipment and medical supplies.

July 26, 1967

Delivery of the RAN’s first ten Skyhawks, eight A4Gs and two TA4Gs, began

July 18, 1967

The second inquiry into the causes of the collision between HMAS MELBOURNE, (aircraft carrier), and HMAS VOYAGER, (Daring class destroyer), opened in Sydney.

July 14, 1967

The Minister for Defence, Mr Allen Fairhall, responded to the US request by announcing that the RAN would provide eight pilots, four observers, 24 maintenance personnel, four air crewmen and six support staff to serve as part of the US Army’s 135th Assault Helicopter Company (AHC). This detachment would become known as the Royal Australian Navy Helicopter Flight Vietnam (RANHFV).

July 6, 1967

HMAS HOBART, (guided missile destroyer), and USS EDSON, fired on a petroleum store, sank two large enemy landing craft, damaged four more, scattered a truck convoy, and disrupted North Vietnamese communications in a whirlwind attack near Don Hoi, Vietnam.