Вьетнам соғысындағы австралиялық эсминец "Брисбен"

Australian guided missile destroyer

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Brisbane spent the first nine months of her career undergoing exercises in US waters, before sailing for Australia on 28 September 1968. The idea of deploying a RAN combat ship to the Vietnam War was initially hampered by the number of ships available, particularly with commitments to the Far East Strategic Reserve and involvement in the Indonesia Malaysia Confrontation, along with the difficulty of operating and maintaining British designed ships with USN resources. On 14 December 1966, the Australian Cabinet approved the deployment of Hobart as part of increases to Australian military commitment to the conflict. Seven ships were usually stationed on the 'gunline', and attacks fell into two categories: 'unspotted' shelling of areas where North Vietnamese or Viet Cong forces and facilities were known or believed to be, and 'spotted' fire missions in direct support of ground troops. In this role, Brisbane operated under the callsign "Flamboyant". Anti infiltration operations under Operation Market Time, which aimed to stop the logistic supply and reinforcement of Viet Cong units operating in South Vietnam by tracking, intercepting, and searching coastal shipping. RAN destroyers were never formally assigned to Market Time, but the overlap of the gunline and Market Time operational areas meant the ships were often called on to assist by tracking suspicious ships or participating in raids. Escort of USN aircraft carriers involved in Operation Rolling Thunder airstrikes. Sister ships Hobart and had also been involved in shipping interdiction patrols along the coast of North Vietnam as part of Operation Sea Dragon, but this operation had ended by the time of Brisbanes first deployment. Although RAN ships on deployment were expected to fulfil all duties of an equivalent American destroyer, they were forbidden by the Australian government from operating outside the Vietnam theatre on unrelated Seventh Fleet duties (such as the Taiwan Patrol Force, guard ship duties at Hong Kong, or the Space Recovery Program). After the invasion of Cambodia in 1970, RAN ships were also prohibited from entering Cambodian waters. While deployed to Vietnam, the destroyers were placed under the administrative control of Commander Australian Forces Vietnam in addition to that of the Flag Officer Commanding Australian Fleet. Operationally, the RAN vessels were under the command of the United States Seventh Fleet. Arrangements were made to provide logistic support through the United States Pacific Fleet. The deployment of in March 1967 began a pattern of six month deployments for RAN destroyers, with a constant RAN presence with the Seventh Fleet. Australia was the only allied nation to provide naval support to the United States Navy during the Vietnam War.

After time in Australian waters to prepare for wartime service, Brisbane arrived in Subic on 28 March 1969 to be deployed to the Vietnam War. The destroyer was first deployed to naval gunfire support duties, and arrived off the IV Corps operating area on 15 April. On 5 May, Brisbane was ordered to the Gulf of Thailand to provide support for South Vietnamese forces operating near the Cambodian border. The destroyer was relieved on 18 May by Waddell, and sailed to Subic for maintenance. On 10 June, the Australian ship relieved Rupertus and commenced gunline duties in the II Corps Area. En route to Singapore, the destroyer encountered the merchant vessel , which was on fire. On 22 July, near the end of a shore bombardment operation, a premature explosion occurred in the barrel of the forward gun turret; casualties were limited to one sailor with a fractured wrist, but the turret was unusable. On the ship's return to Subic on 3 August, the damaged turret was removed, but as the replacement turret would not arrive until September, Brisbane would complete the deployment with only a single gun turret. After the completion of maintenance, Brisbane returned to duty on 23 August, but instead of gunline duties, was assigned as the head of the escort screen for the aircraft carrier Oriskany. Arriving on 13 October, Brisbane was almost immediately docked for a major refit, which lasted until 15 July 1970. This, combined with the damage to the forward gun turret and other defects, meant that the destroyer only fired 7,891 shells during the six month deployment. The ship was assigned to Military Region 3 for gunfire support duties, and arrived on 5 April. Brisbane was assigned to operate near the Demilitarized Zone. During 3 and 4 May, Brisbane was detached to provide cover for the repatriation of prisoners of war to North Vietnam. On 15 August, the destroyer commenced gunfire support operations off the Demilitarized Zone. The amount of wear had yet to compromise accuracy, and the destroyer was instructed to continue gunfire missions, while the cruiser Oklahoma City and the destroyer Rogers were deployed to the gunline in support of Brisbane; the Australian destroyer only firing if targets were out of the other ships' range or they were otherwise unavailable. During 1971, the Australian government decided to withdraw all forces from Vietnam by the end of the year; Brisbane was the last ship to make a combat deployment to Vietnam, and was not replaced when the deployment ended. Brisbane received the first of two battle honours, "Vietnam 1969–71", for her Vietnam service. Personnel awards for the deployment included 24 Naval Board commendations, two personnel Mentioned in Despatches, and the appointment of the ship's commanding officer as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Brisbane sped ahead and arrived on 31 December, setting up communications between the relief force and Canberra. In addition to facilitating communications, Brisbanes personnel were responsible for clearing sites for helicopters and headquarters, salvaging boats and equipment, repairs of infrastructure, and installation of power generators: on average, 160 of the ship's company went ashore each day. On 9 May, one of the carrier's Sea King helicopters was forced to ditch in the Indian Ocean: Brisbane successfully recovered the aircrew. The ships participated in the naval review at Spithead on 28 June, and Brisbane returned to Sydney on 4 October, entering dock for refit eight days later. Brisbane also earned a second battle honour, "Kuwait 1990–91". During this, a fire broke out in the ship's forward gun turret, which was quickly extinguished.

Brisbane paid off on 19 October 2001. Among the initial ideas for the ship's disposal was a proposal to donate the destroyer to the Australian National Maritime Museum as a replacement for the Daring class destroyer Brisbane was eventually marked for scuttling as a dive wreck off the coast of Queensland. Her bridge and one of her guns were removed and preserved at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, which were incorporated into the post 1945 galleries, which opened in 2007. Brisbane was sunk approximately off the coast of Mudjimba, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, on 31 July 2005 in of water. Brisbane was filled with of concrete, and 38 small charges were detonated to breach the hull. Brisbane sank in two minutes and ten seconds, coming to rest with the keel embedded a metre into the seabed and facing the ocean currents, and the uppermost part of the ship below sea level. The wreck site has been colonised by sponges, soft corals, and hard corals, while over 200 different species of fish have been sighted in the area. In July 2010, the Queensland State Government was forced to step up patrols of the wreck site because people were illegally using the dive exclusion zone as a fishing site. As part of celebrations for the tenth anniversary of Brisbane scuttling, 92.7 MIX FM conducted the world's first live underwater radio broadcast from the wreck on 31 July 2015.