Thread: Argentina’s attack on Gibraltar

Would never have come off - the UK ship would have been operating in a condition called "Op Awkward" specifically looking for and countering this type of attack.

Garry

Originally Posted by 101RRS

Would never have come off - the UK ship would have been operating in a condition called "Op Awkward" specifically looking for and countering this type of attack.

Garry

As a Diver I suspect the only really effective way to keep divers away from a ship in harbor is either constant Sonar pings ( not fun close up underwater promise) or constant hull searches with mugs like me in the water.

Countering Divers is a lot hard than it might appear. re breathers mean no bubble trail. I would give the Argentinean crew odd on honestly Sharing with the very naughty diving boys now.

Originally Posted by 101RRS

Would never have come off - the UK ship would have been operating in a condition called "Op Awkward" specifically looking for and countering this type of attack.

Garry

As well as the following, when in Vang Tau harbour, Sydney and escorts carried out Op Awkward. While on the Vampire, we had our engine room main circulating pumps going flat out, and ran port and stbd main engines ahead and astern, port ahead , stbd astern, and vice versa. Vampire had a clearance diving staff of about three, with what were called cuff rate ships divers supplementing them, and forming the teams that searched the hull. Whilst there in '68/69?, upper deck sentries reported a diver sighted off the bow, and the system swung into action. As my mate, who was a cuff rate diver said " rather nervously. " Scare charges were thrown about at random,[ stopped when our divers went in , of course] upper deck sentries actually put one up the spout, [ which made our intrepid cuff rates even more nervous. ] My mate said visibility in the muddy waters was zero, the tidal flow very fast, and everything was carried out by touch. But he said the most frightening thing was the South Vietnamese patrol boats racing around the ship, firing their 50 calibre machine guns randomly in the water. My mates and I were on watch in B Boiler room, sitting on the bottom plates. It paid not to have a vivid imagination. One little extra the Vampire had, from memory, was the ships boat circling the ship with an armed team, towing long weighted lengths of barbed wire. Happy days.

Operation AWKWARD

While at anchor in Vung Tau, self-protective measures, collectively known as Operation STABLEDOOR, were employed by Australian and US ships. These measures provided a level of protection against the threat of waterborne attack. The RAN’s well established Operation AWKWARD routines provided an extra layer of protection against enemy sappers. This protection included the posting of armed upper deck sentries, additional lookouts, waterborne patrols and sweeps of the hull and anchor cables by ship's diving teams. Underwater scare charges were also employed as a deterrent against enemy swimmers.

Do any of you remember the Peter Sellers movie "The Mouse that Roared"?

Was it a silent movie, Brian?

I know Peter Sellers played three roles. Speaking about Clearance divers and Vietnam, our CD's played a number of roles. Operation Stable door , mentioned in my earlier post, was the US operation to protect merchant ships and harbours from attacks by VC and NVA sappers. On one such occasion, a mate of mine ,
" Cowboy" Garrett , was mentioned in dispatches for diving in and disarming an NVA mine on a merchant ship alongside. He entered the water a second time after another swimmer was sighted, and discovered a Russian BMP-2 limpet mine, luckily with both safety pins attached. The captured swimmer, an NVA 126 sapper regiment Captain, was interrupted placing the mine by the commotion over the first one. Incidentally, this was the most modern Russian limpet mine, and the first discovered intact.

The RAN Clearance Diving Team in Vietnam | Page 2 of 3 | Naval Historical Society of Australia

These anti-swimmer efforts kicked off in ernest after the Card was attacked at its moorings.

Attack on USNS Card - Wikipedia

Originally Posted by V8Ian

Was it a silent movie, Brian?

Here's a link

The Mouse That Roared - Wikipedia

I was reminded of it by the absurdity of a couple of Argentine frogmen invading a British possession.