Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

HMAS Brisbane (II)

Extract from navy.gov.au (www.navy.gov.au)  Click here for a detailed chronology of Brisbanes serice in the RAN

HMAS Brisbane (II) was the third  of three improved Charles F Adams Class guided missile destroyers (DDG) built in the United States for the RAN; her sister ships were HMA Ships Perth (II) and Hobart (II). The destroyers were referred to in the RAN as Perth class DDGs and their primary role was air defence. Seen by many as one of the most successful acquisitions in the post-World War II era, the ships had vastly increased capabilities in all warfare areas, but particularly air defence, and command and control.

Built in the USA 1965-67, and commissioned on 16 December 1967, and sailed to Australia on 28 September 1968.

In January 1969 Brisbane's crew began preparing for the ship's first deployment to the Vietnam War. She departed Sydney for Vietnamese waters on 20 March 1969 and arrived at Subic Bay, Philippines, on 31 March. After a brief work-up, she arrived in Vung Tau, South Vietnam, on 15 April and conducted her first naval gunfire support (NGS) mission that evening; a night harassment mission in the Vinh Binh province 70 miles south of Saigon.

Brisbane's NGS missions typically involved conducting one or more spotted missions during the day followed by a harassment fire mission of about four hours duration at night. She remained in the area south of Saigon until 8 May when she was assigned to support an operation on the island of Phu Quoc near the Cambodian border. She departed Vung Tau on 18 May to return to Subic Bay for maintenance followed by rest and relaxation visits to Manila, Philippines, and Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

She returned to the area of operations (AO) on 10 June where she joined USS Rowan in support of Task Force South. Over the course of four days the two destroyers conducted 189 NGS missions mostly aimed at intelligence targets or Viet Cong base camps.Brisbane then conducted operations south of the Demilitarized Zone in company with the cruiser USS St Paul, and later in an area northeast of Phan Thiet before departing the AO on 29 June for a maintenance period in Singapore.

Brisbane returned to the gunline on 15 July operating off Phu Yen and Binh Dinh provinces. On 22 July she suffered a premature explosion in the barrel of Mount 51 injuring Leading Seaman Lenton Benfield and rendering the gun unserviceable. Benfield was landed ashore and returned to Australia for medical treatment.

The destroyer maintained a routine program of exercises, training and maintenance until early 1971 when she departed for her second deployment to Vietnam on 16 March. This proved to be the RAN's last gunline deployment. She arrived in Subic Bay, via Manus Island, on 28 March and arrived in the AO on 5 April. Her first period on the gunline was comparatively quiet conducting multiple NGS missions in the regions known as Military Regions 3 and 4, south of Phan Thiet.

She visited Singapore, Subic Bay and Cebu City in late April and early May before returning to the gunline on 15 May to relieve USS Floyd B Parks as the commander of TU 70.8.9, marking the first time an RAN officer held the position of Gunline Commander. She operated just south of the Demilitarized Zone until joining the destroyer screen for the aircraft carrier, USS Kitty Hawk, on 31 May. She departed the AO on 12 June for Hong Kong where her stay was interrupted by Typhoon Freda. She returned to the gunline on 24 June once again operating in Military Regions 3 and 4, and visited Subic Bay and Hong Kong before returning to the gunline for her final stint in Vietnamese waters on 15 August. This period was spent near the Demilitarized Zone where there was a marked increase in enemy activity and a commensurate increase in NGS missions.

Brisbane departed the gunline for the last time on 5 September for Hong Kong and, later, Subic Bay. Following a brief period of maintenance and exercises in Subic Bay, she arrived back in Sydney, via Manus Island and Brisbane, on 15 October marking the end of the RAN's combat role in the Vietnam War. Over the course of her two deployments to Vietnam, Brisbane had steamed nearly 70,000nm and fired over 15,000 rounds of 5-inch ammunition. The ship earned high praise from the Commander of the US Navy's 7th Fleet who said that that the ship's crew had attained "a most enviable reputation for extreme dedication and true professionalism, which was in keeping with the fine tradition established by a long series of predecessors".

Her performance during the year was recognised with the awarding of the Duke of Gloucester's Cup for 1971.

Brisbane (II) was next called to action nearly 20 years later.  She arrived back home in Sydney on 6 August 1990, where an unscheduled upgrade began to better prepare the destroyer for a potential operational deployment to the Arabian Gulf.

On 10 August 1990 the then Prime Minister RJ Hawke affirmed Australia's commitment to send RAN warships to the Persian Gulf as part of a Multinational Naval Force assembling to enforce sanctions on Iraq following its invasion of neighbouring Kuwait. Under the Australian codename Operation DAMASK, HMA Ships Adelaide (II), Darwin and Success (II) were the first to sail, with Brisbane and Sydney (IV) tipped to follow later.

A number of Brisbane's on board systems were upgraded. Besides satellite communications equipment and electro-optical surveillance systems, these improvements included; new electronic warfare equipment; better chaff decoy rounds; radar absorbent material (RAM) panels to reduce the ship's radar cross section; and extra firefighting and damage control equipment. To improve efficiency of boarding operations the old sea boats were replaced with two new rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIBs) which were to prove their worth during subsequent boarding operations in the Gulf. The most prominent structural change was the installation by dockyard workers of a pair of Phalanx Close-in-Weapons Systems (CIWS) for greater protection against missile attack.

HMAS Brisbane decommissioned on 19 October 2001 in front of approximately 1700 guests marking the end of the DDG era in the RAN. More than 7000 officers and sailors served in Brisbane during her service life. Brisbane now lies as a dive wreck 4.2 miles off Point Cartwright on the Queensland coast and forms the centrepiece of the 'Ex-HMAS Brisbane Conservation Park'.