On This Day

1960-1975 > Vietnam era

August 26, 1964

The Royal Commission’s report on the loss of HMAS VOYAGER, (Daring class destroyer), was tabled in Parliament.

July 4, 1964

Units of the 16th Minesweeping Squadron, comprising HMA Ships Curlew, Gull, Hawk, Ibis, Snipe and Teal, commenced anti-infiltration patrols off the coast of Borneo. The vessels were rotated on patrol until the confrontation ended in December 1966

June 26, 1964

HMAS Quiberon paid off to Reserve. Quiberon was sold on 15 February 1972 for breaking up to Fujita Salvage Company Limited of Osaka, Japan, for $68,260. On 10 April 1972 the Japanese tug Sumi Maru No 38 left Sydney for Japan with Quiberon and another former RAN vessel, Tobruk (I), in tow.

May 25, 1964

HMAS SYDNEY sailed from Sydney with troops and equipment for Malaya as a part of Operation Granite to support the region during the Indonesian Confrontation.

HMAS DERWENT was the first Ship of the RAN to fire a guided missile when she launched a Seacat.

May 8, 1964

HMAS DUCHESS, (CAPT I. M. Burnside, RAN), was commissioned into the RAN.  DUCHESS, (as HMS DUCHESS), was laid down in John I Thornycroft & Co Ltd, Southampton, England, on 2 July 1948, and launched on 9 April 1951. DUCHESS served with the RN 1952-1964, and was made available to the RAN as a temporary replacement for HMAS VOYAGER.

May 1, 1964

The Minister for the Navy, Mr. F. C. Chaney, announced the dispatch of the HMA Ships HAWK and GULL, (minesweepers), to Singapore, for operations during the Indonesian-Malaysian confrontation.

April 30, 1964

The River class, (modified type 12 frigate), destroyer escort, HMAS DERWENT, was commissioned. DERWENT was laid down at Williamstown Naval Dockyard, VIC on 16 June 1959, and launched on 17 April 1961. Lady Burrel, (Wife of VADM Sir Henry Burrel, Chief of the Naval Staff), performed the launching ceremony.

April 25, 1964

The former Z Special Force vessel HMAS KRAIT, arrived in Sydney. She had been sold after the war, and was later found in Borneo employed as a timber carrying vessel. A campaign was started to bring her back to Australia, and she was subsequently bought by public subscription. She was operated by the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol, (NSW Section), for many years but eventually found a home at the Australian National Maritime Museum in the late 1990’s.

April 19, 1964

HMS DUCHESS, (Daring class destroyer), arrived in Sydney on loan to the RAN as a replacement for HMAS VOYAGER. DUCHESS was later purchased outright by the Australian Government.

April 17, 1964

The first of three Bell Iroquois helicopters ordered for the RAN were received by the Fleet Air Arm.

The FAA entered a period of uncertainty in the early 1960s with the announcement that fixed wing naval aviation was to cease. Rotary-wing operations would remain taking on Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) duties, a role far-removed from the tasks of 723 Squadron and its comparatively rudimentary Sycamores. Consideration turned to a replacement for the Sycamores with the Westland P531 Wasp emerging as the preferred option.

However, the Wasp’s high performance characteristics left little room for error and made it impractical as a trainer. The Minister for the Navy, Senator John Gorton, was instead convinced to purchase the American Bell UH-1B Iroquois utility helicopter, an aircraft which became an icon of the Vietnam conflict. The first Iroquois came into service in May 1964.

 

March 9, 1964

First Bell UH-1B/1C Iroquois delivered to the RAN. Members of the Royal Australian Navy flew several variants of this aircraft in both the gunship and utility configuration as part of the RAN Helicopter Flight Vietnam and with 9 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force

 

March 6, 1964

HMAS Moresby officially commissioned under the command of Commander John Osborn, RAN, at Garden Island in Sydney

February 25, 1964

The first Royal Commission into the loss of HMAS VOYAGER, in a collision with HMAS MELBOURNE, was convened in Sydney.

February 21, 1964

HMAS Barcoo was decommissioned for the final time. The frigate had travelled 342,579 nautical miles during her career.

February 13, 1964

The Australian Prime Minister, Mr. R. G. Menzies, announced the setting up of a Royal Commission to inquire into the loss of HMAS VOYAGER. The decision was a precedent, the normal procedure was to convene a naval court martial.

February 10, 1964

HMAS MELBOURNE, (aircraft carrier), and HMAS VOYAGER, (destroyer), collided in a night exercise off Jervis Bay. VOYAGER sank with a loss of 82 lives. The GC was awarded posthumously to CPO Jonathon Rogers, DSM, for conspicuous bravery in rescue following the collision. The subsequent inquiries and two Royal Commissions into the cause of the collision shook the RAN to its foundations.

January 10, 1964

Seacat missile systems were fitted in HMA Ships PARRAMATTA, YARRA, STUART, and DERWENT, (destroyer escorts).

January 6, 1964

RADM O. H. Becher, CBE, DSO, DSC and Bar, was appointed Flag Officer Commanding Her Majesty’s Australian Fleet. RADM Becher was one of the most highly decorated permanent officers of the RAN.

January 3, 1964

HMAS ANZAC, (destroyer), landed parties to fight bushfires on Tasman Island.

November 4, 1963

S. Landau was appointed as Secretary of the Department of the Navy. He held this position until 1973, when the Department of the Navy was subsumed into the Department of Defence.

October 17, 1963

A sub lieutenant and four midshipmen were drowned when a whaler from HMAS SYDNEY, (aircraft carrier), was swamped off Hayman Island, in the Great Barrier Reef.

October 4, 1963

The Australian Government placed orders for two Oberon class submarines with Scott’s Shipbuilding, Scotland.

September 20, 1963

The 16th MCM Squadron with 6 Bird class minesweepers deploy as part of Operation GARDENING, a minesweeping task to clear a channel into Tonolei Harbour in Bougainville, where US aircraft had dropped a large number of magnetic mines in 1943. This was the RAN’s biggest minesweeping operation for 16 years.

August 15, 1963

HMAS Warrego paid off, one week short of her 23rd birthday, having steamed 440,978 miles since commissioning on 22 August 1940. In the post war period Warrego made a significant contribution to the survey of Australian waters, steaming some 271,000 miles on post war survey duties alone. She was replaced in the fleet by HMAS Moresby (I), which commissioned in March 1964.

August 9, 1963

The Minister for Defence, Senator J. Gorton, announced that the Australian Minesweeping Squadron would sweep mines in Bougainville waters.