The War at Sea

The War at Sea On 2nd August 1964 a minor naval incident precipitated a long and bloody war, hedged with political as well as military overtones. North Vietnamese MTBs attacked the US destroyer Maddox in error in what became known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. It gave rise to retaliatory attacks by aircraft from the USN carrier Ticonderoga resulting in the Vietnam War.

During the Vietnam War, four Australian ships came under the command of the US Seventh Fleet. The fleet gave considerable support with coastal fire, aircraft strikes and maintained a naval blockade over the war years. Four Australian vessels served in Vietnam and all were awarded the Battle Honour Vietnam 1964-73, these vessels in order of their deployment were HMAS Hobart, Perth, Brisbane, Vendetta.

On 17th June 1968 USAF aircraft attacked HMAS Hobart killing two men, several other ships were attacked including the USS Boston and USS Edson, USCGC Point Dume and PCF12. Boston was hit but only Hobart sustained fatalities from the three missiles which hit her. More information can be found regarding this incident on this site The Gun Plot - HMAS Hobart attacked by US Airforce June 1968 Vietnam.

We hope to find more information about Australian Naval involvement that we can add to this page.

No.723 FAA Squadron

During the Vietnam War, the Fleet Air Arm Squadron No.723 deployed aircraft to Vietnam and this was formed as RAN Helicopter Flight, Vietnam. During the war years their bases were:

Nowra, August 1967
Vung Tau, 16th October 1967
Camp Blackhorse (Xuan Loc, Long Khanh Province), Late December 1967.
Camp Bearcat (25 miles north-east Saigon in Bien Hoa Province), 23rd November 1968.
Dong Tam, 6th September 1970.

Throughout this time they were equipped with the UH-1B Iroquois (Huey). The flight was withdrawn from Vietnam on 8th June 1971 and disbanded eight days later.

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