Green on Blue

In the early hours of 17 June 1968 HMAS Hobart was part of a naval task unit operating in the vicinity of Tiger Island north of the demilitarized zone off the east coast of North Vietnam.

An unidentified aircraft was detected approaching the ship from the vicinity of Cap Lay and although evaluated as a ‘friendly’ it continued to close, firing a missile that struck Hobart amidships on her starboard side.
The warhead passed through the main deck, seriously damaging several compartments, while the body of the missile passed through the outer skin of the aft funnel before ending up embedding itself in the forward funnel.

In its passage shrapnel from the disintegrating missile killed Ordinary Seaman Butterworth who was closed up as a lookout on the port side, at the aft end of the flag deck above the bridge.
Able Seaman JR Parker and Ordinary Seaman RF Davidson also suffered injuries.

As Hobart's crew raced to action stations a second and third missile hit the ship.

The second missile entered the transom without detonating, destroying the gunner's store before breaking up in the engineer's workshop and penetrating the after seaman's mess.
The third missile hit the ship in the same area as the first, passing through one of the ship's fan spaces, the missile director equipment room and Tartar checkout room.
Chief Electrician R.H. Hunt was killed in this attack and several sailors injured.

The aircraft was seen to pass over the ship before turning again for what appeared to be a further attack run.

At 8000 yards the crew of Hobart's forward gun engaged the aggressor, firing five rounds in local control, causing it to turn away before being lost to radar south of Tiger Island.
As Hobart's damage control parties made their assessment USS Edson, which was operating in company with Hobart, reported that she too was coming under fire from air launched missiles.

The force consequently cleared the area to the west with Hobart departing the operational area to effect repairs in Subic Bay, Philippines.

En route the ship's company began clearing away debris, finding and collecting pieces of the missiles which were later identified as being of US origin. It transpired that Hobart was one of several ships mistakenly attacked by US 7th Air Force jets on the nights of 16-17 June.

Hobart subsequently arrived in Subic Bay on 19 June where her damaged was assessed.

The destroyer had suffered serious damage to her weapons systems, electrical systems and hull.

The Ikara missile magazine had also suffered heavy damage in the attack and it proved fortunate that it was empty at the time of the attack.

Good post Ken . Lest we forget.

War is a dangerous place . Lots of accidents happen when everything starts moving .

I didn't know about this before now .

WOW interesting story.

Great post.

Wow, had never heard this tragedy. I wonder what type of aircraft attacked, and why so few rather than a whole flight?

Darby wrote:Wow, had never heard this tragedy.  I wonder what type of aircraft attacked, and why so few rather than a whole flight?

Here is one report:

At 0300 the destroyer HMAS HOBART, (CAPT K. W. Shands, RAN), was accidentally attacked by a US Air Force F-4 Phantom fighter, off Cap Lay, Vietnam. The aircraft fired a total of three missiles at HOBART, in two separate attacks. All three missiles hit the ship, and two RAN personnel, Ordinary Seaman R. J. Butterworth, and CPO R. H. Hunt, were killed, and seven others wounded. An enquiry into the incident revealed that due to the darkness, the pilot of the aircraft mistook the radar picture of the ship as an enemy helicopter. [https://www.navyhistory.org.au/17-june-1968/]



Of interest, the Hobart was built in the USA:

HMAS Hobart (II) was one of three improved Charles F Adams Class guided missile destroyers (DDG) built in the United States for the RAN. The destroyers were referred to in the RAN as Perth Class DDGs and their primary role was air defence. Hobart was the second ship of the class and was constructed by the Defoe Shipbuilding Company, Bay City, Michigan, USA.

HMAS Hobart (II) undertook three deployments to Vietnam:

Deployment                                  Commanding Officer                      NGS Callsign    Notes
07 Mar 1967 - 27 Sep 1967           Captain GR Griffiths, DSC, RAN       Royal Purple     Steamed 52,529 miles, expended 9204 rounds of 5-inch ammunition, came under enemy fire on 9 separate occasions.
22 Mar 1968 - 11 Oct 1968           Captain KW Shands, RAN                Royal Purple
16 Mar 1970 - 17 Oct 1970           Captain RC Swan, RAN                   Pacific Ocean

During these deployments, Hobart served as part of the US Seventh Fleet.



This is from the official RAN review:

At approximately 0309 a single aircraft was detected on SPS-52 radar, tracking east from the vicinity of CAP LAY towards TIGER ISLAND The aircraft did not appear to be showing IFF and was therefore given close scrutiny. This was not unique as during the middle watch several aircraft had been detected, not showing IFF initially, which did subsequently. Also on occasions the C.A.P. aircraft were lost as they overflew CAP LAY and it took some time to establish their identity as they recrossed the coast.

I was made aware of this by my mum's husband who was a Chief Petty Office (CPO) RAN and while he did not serve on the Hobart served on several vessels during Vietnam operations and was classed as a Vietnam Veteran.

Thanks for that. Fascinating stuff to me. Sort of boggling that a RIO could mistake a ship blip for a helo, but then again the tech was so much less capable back then. It really is amazing that there weren't more mistakes made between ships and aircraft, let alone air to air BoB incidents.
Wonder what sort of missiles they used. I don't think a Sparrow could go air to ground, maybe bullpup? But then that wouldn't be used vs a helo...

I was wondering about the missile too. My first thought was, "Can't be sparrows, too many hit the target."

irishserb wrote:My first thought was, "Can't be sparrows, too many hit the target."

There were indeed Sea Sparrows, Sparrow 3's to be precise, from the US 7th Air Force.

USS Edson and USS Boston were also fired upon and if my memory serves me well USS Boston was also hit.

The official investigation by the USN in consultation with the RAN concluded these attacks were also related to the sinking of the USN Patrol vessels PCF-12 and PCF-19 two days earlier.

The US paid for all repair works that were concluded @ Subic Bay. COMSEVENTHFLT, Rear Admiral Moore, ran the USN investigation.

Something I just found:

All parts of the missile located onboard had been transferred to the NAVMAG earlier in the week and after careful scrutiny the experts there were able to identify them as portions of at least two SPARROW 3 Missiles which had been supplied to the 7th Air Force at UBON in THAILAND in May.

Wow, this is a new one for me too. It's a shame, but crazy stuff does happen in war.