I was privileged to serve in HMAS Vendetta as LS, PO and as a Chief.
The primary source material used is HMAS Vendetta's monthly Reports of Proceedings from August 1965 to February 1966. Other information is gleaned from the Department of Veteran's Affairs repatriation handbook, witness statements and personal recollections.
HMAS VENDETTA DURING THE INDONESIAN CONFRONTATION
During 1965 and 1966 HMAS Vendetta with a ships company of 330, returned to the Far East Strategic Reserve (FESR) for the ships second deployment of the Indonesian Confrontation. This was my third FESR deployment and I was a Leading Seaman Radar Plot in charge of an operations room watch. In the ops room we were in the three watch chow to chow watch keeping system. That is, forenoon watch 0730 to 1200; afternoon 1200 to 1800; first 1800 to midnight and middle watch midnight to 0730. A meal was put on for middle watch at 2330. Normal duties continued when off watch.
The ships company attended the intelligence briefings prior to departing on 11 August. The 18th saw Vendetta and Duchess in Seeadler Harbour, Manus Is, for fuelling before proceeding to the Tawau area (North Borneo). Both ships were darkened and assumed the third degree of Anti Submarine and Anti Aircraft readiness. We rendezvoused and relieved HMA Ships Parramatta and Yarra on the 23rd.
In Singapore a comprehensive briefing on the local situation was given to the command team followed by an intelligence briefing and Vendetta slipped and sailed at 1500 31 August 1965 for East Coast Patrol. During these patrols the ship would anchor during the day and be underway during the hours of darkness. We were operating under Fleet Tactical Instruction 4104 that stated: "In the event of a challenge by an Indonesian warship, allied vessels on patrol are not to provoke action and, if attacked themselves, are to use minimum force necessary to persuade the attacking ship to desist."
(You can draw your own conclusions to where that left us in the event of being fired on.)
On 04 September we did an underway replenishment (fuel) from RFA Wave Sovereign and returned to Singapore on 6th and sailed six hours later for a short notice patrol. During patrols we would have more than 150 surface contacts on the Local Operations Plot; most of them Malay fishing boats but also a lot of merchant shipping (Yarra held the record with 182 contacts) and finding the elusive infiltrator amongst that lot was difficult. No automatic plots or computers, all contacts transferred from a radar display to plot by hand, courses and speed and closest point done with dividers, ruler and speed, time and distance. All contacts had to be assessed for threat and suspect vessels boarded and searched. We carried Malay police to assist our boarding party. The whole of the Malay Peninsula could be reached by canoe from Sumatra.
On the 10th, Vendetta with Duchess sailed from Singapore to Manus Is to escort HMAS Sydney to Cap St Jacques Vietnam. During this passage quarterly full power trials were carried out and both ships refuelled from RFA Gold Ranger off Tawau. On the 14th an appendectomy on a Radio Operator from Duchess was carried out in Vendetta.
At 0600 20 September 1965 the three ships proceeded from Manus for "Operation Tanton". This was HMAS Sydney's second trip to Vietnam and a period of uncertainty with the government determining that Sydney must have two escorts and supported by RAAF air patrols from the Philippines. During the passage to Subic Bay there were several "false alarm" sonar contacts that kept us on our toes until we arrived at Subic Bay and after fuelling we immediately sailed.
The carrier (troop ship) and escorts anchored at the mouth of the Saigon River on the morning of 28th and commenced "Operation Awkward". Ships remained in defence watches, and as ships are at their most vulnerable when unable to manoeuvre the anchor cable was prepared with a dan buoy attached in case we had to part cable and proceed. Ships boats continually patrolled and our divers, at each slack water, carried out bottom searches. During a two day period Vendetta dropped a total of 175 scare charges to deter under water attack (Duchess and Sydney also dropped charges) so there was little sleep. There was a lot of air activity and Vendetta was denied a fire mission at a shore battery and USS Preston, at a distance of eight to 10 cables from us, carried out the bombardment. Our CO, David Leach, was livid at this opportunity being denied us. The three ships proceeded from the Saigon River at 0615 30th and steamed south to clear the "Market Time" patrol area, the escorts fuelled from Sydney and proceeded to Hong Kong, arriving on 03 October, for maintenance. During September Vendetta had spent 26 days at sea and steamed 7,326 nautical miles.
Our time in Hong Kong was cut short as HMS Euryalus had a fire in her tiller flat and had to return to Singapore for repairs to her steering motors. On the 12th we sailed as plane guard for HMS Ark Royal and on the 18th detoured to Subic Bay to deliver a catamaran we had recovered. Vendetta detached on 19th when we rendezvoused with HM Ships Falmouth and Brighton and RFA Tide Spring and after fuelling from RFA Tide Spring we proceeded east to Tawau, fuelling from RFA Tide Reach the following day. Vendetta then relieved the Malaysian ship K.D. Hang Tuah and assumed the duties of Tawau guardship and senior officer. The other ships present in Tawau were HM Ships Woolaston and Lanton, KD Sri Sarawak, Sri Kelantan and Petrel, S.D.M.L. 3507 and RFA Gold Ranger. A RAF Shackelton from Labuan conducted daily searches south of our patrol line. The remainder of the month was uneventful except for the boarding and search of five Kumpits, false alarms caused by large floating logs and fuelling from RFA Gold Ranger on alternative days.
During November seven of us were detached in exchange for seven members of the 1st Bt Scots Guards. We found ourselves in two groups, four at Company Base 26 (Serudong Ulu), and the remainder (including myself) at Company Base 27 (Serudong Laut) about 13 miles up the Sungei Serudong (river) from Wallace Bay and 3000 yards from an Indonesian base. Our many activities included an overnight patrol, assisting with ferrying troops along the river to their patrol start point and small arms shoots. We had a stand to when a flare went off opposite the base and that night a 105mm shoot was carried out. Several other members of Vendetta's ships company were detached to the Tawau Assault Group.
Vendetta continued counter incursion patrols until 16th when HMS Lincoln took over as guardship and we sailed for Singapore via Balembangan Is. where we picked up a Royal Artillery survey party and their Gemini. 39 days after departing Hong Kong we arrived in Singapore and had steamed 25,000 miles since leaving Sydney with only one self maintenance period of seven days. On 26 November 1965 our cooks baked a special birthday cake HMAS Vendetta was seven years old.
We sailed for Malacca Straits patrol on 29th and on the following night captured the Indonesian coaster Mutiara off Cape Rachado. KD Sri Perlis took charge of the captured vessel whilst we took the Indonesian prisoners inboard and Vendetta proceeded inshore to hand them over to the Malay authorities and then resumed patrol. The RFA Eddyrock provided us with fuel and two days later we returned to Singapore.
December was another busy month with 24 days at sea. We had a break from patrol on the 8th when we took part in anti submarine exercises with HM Submarine Ambush, HMS Blackpool and helicopters from HMS Ark Royal. The following day two Indonesian warships were sighted, one Riga and one Kronstadt. Following night patrols Vendetta anchored off Loyang on 12 December and Banyan parties were landed on Pulau Serangoon for a day on the beach. However due to further Indonesian warship activity this was soon curtailed and with everyone re-embarked we sailed with dispatch to the Singapore Straits and on arrival sighted two Indonesian Skoris and a Riga. Shortly after the Riga class destroyer, Kakiali, run aground on Helen Mar reef. Throughout the night Vendetta patrolled the St Johns/Tanjong Ayam area and then proceeded to photograph the stranded Riga before spending the day doing AA tracking and firing exercise.
On the 14th Vendetta proceeded to Malacca Straits patrol fuelling from RFA Wave Sovereign while underway and then topping up two days later at anchor. During this period we exercised during the day (mainly sonar and ASW procedures carrying out non firing urgent attacks) as well as patrolling day and night. On the 21st we had a fast passage to Singapore with Vendetta maintaining 30.5 knots for two hours. Three days later we moved to a buoy and ammunitioned then sailed at 0900 Christmas Eve in time to see ALRI Kakiali under tow having been refloated. Patrolling continued until the 29th when we were relieved by HMS Manxman.
On New Years Day 1966 Vendetta sailed in company with HMS Albion for Hong Kong. Around midday we were detached to search for lighter that was reported adrift. We found the lighter at anchor and rejoined Albion. By the evening of the 2nd increasing seas and wind made it impossible to keep up the carrier's high speed of advance so we proceeded independently. The sea and wind worsened during the night and it became one hand for self and one hand for the ship with most of the time spent hanging on with both hands with one foot on the deck and the other on a bulkhead. We finally berthed at HMS Tamar on the 5th and remained in Hong Kong until the 15th when we sailed with Albion for Singapore, exercising whilst on passage. We berthed on HMS Nubian on the 18th and on the 20th sailed to escort Albion and embarked troops Borneo. The ships exercised continually during the passage with helicopters doing rocket and machine gun firing at Vendetta's splash target and S.S.11 missile firings at a radar reflecting target. During this passage we were kept on our toes with both ships darkened, a night underway fuelling with a 30 degree alteration of course was carried out. On Sunday 23rd both ships arrived off Tawau and the changeover between the 1st Scots Guards and Green Jackets was completed by 1700 and both ships proceeded to Singapore arriving on the 28th. Vendetta sailed the following day for a two day patrol of the East Coast and Straits.
During February Vendetta carried out weapon training, escorted HMS Albion to Borneo, took part in "Exercise Millstream" and carried out anti-infiltration patrols. We sailed for our last patrol at 1530 04 February 1966. On our last morning we caught an Indonesian Sampan with a crew of three and their cargo handed the catch over to the police and then proceeded to no.6 berth and berthed on Duchess sailing at 1800 for "Exercise Millstream".
On clearing the swept channel we were joined by HMNZS Taranaki. Anti submarine exercises followed a light jackstay transfer from HMS Triumph and then we detached with Albion until the 12th. On the 13th we rendezvoused with HMS Dido and HMS Chichester for a night encounter exercise. This was successfully executed with contact being made with the "enemy" after a 27 knot dash with complete radar and radio silence. Vendetta rejoined the major units for the main tactical exercise phase being kept busy with submarine contacts. The Flag Officer transferred to Vendetta by light jackstay from HMS Plymouth and then transferred to HMS Lincoln. On the 24th the fleet berthed in Singapore Naval Base and at 2200 on the evening of the 24th Vendetta with Duchess in company sailed for Darwin arriving on the 28th. In seven months HMAS Vendetta, the Gloucester Cup holder as the most efficient unit in the RAN, had steamed nearly 50,000 nautical miles, spent 79% of this time at sea and had only three weekends in harbour.
A total of 87 warships (RAN, RN, RMN, and RNZN) were tasked to the confrontation. Between 17 August 1964 and 14 September 1966 Australia provided HMA Ships Curlew, Derwent, Duchess, Gull, Hawk, Melbourne, Parramatta, Snipe, Supply, Vampire, Vendetta and Yarra all of which completed more than one deployment, while Ibis and Teal had one deployment from 23 August 1964 to 03 February 1966.
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