Did the US and Soviet navies really come close to blows in the Indian Ocean in 1971?
Upvote:5
As a former crewman of the USS White Plains, I can attest that the Russians subs would have had a hard time blocking and surrounding anybody, because before we caught up with the Enterprise Task Force, we passed up two Russian subs in the Malacca straits ourselves and left them behind. The Russian admiral is full of hooey.
Upvote:11
I was a navy journalist (JO3), working in the Public Affairs Office onboard Enterprise when we entered the Indian Ocean in December of 1971. We departed Yankee Station on the tenth of December 1971 and arrived at the Straits of Mallaca on the 12th. We never operated near Hong Kong during that WESTPAC cruise.
We issued several press releases during our time in the Indian Ocean. None of them mentioned the presence of Soviet warships within sight of the ship. Russian "Bear" bombers made two fly-bys over the course of the operation, closely shadowed by F-4 Phantoms from our air wing. The only casualties during that time was a COD flight headed for the ship that went down about halfway enroute. No survivors.
Upvote:15
The narrative states that Enterprise was off the coast of Viet Nam on Dec 10, 1971. The way I recall the situation, Enterprise was in the area of Hong Kong and it was more like Dec 20 or close there about. I was on one of the other ships in the task force and we were off the coast of Viet Nam. We were transferring our cargo to other ships because we were supposed to spend Christmas in Hong Kong. We started steaming toward the Singapore Straits about sundown. When we woke up the next morning, Enterprise had caught up with us. We all steamed into the Indian Ocean together. I don't recall if the Russians were already there or if they came along a little later, but I was quite impressed with the number of missile launchers they (the Russians) had and our armament consisted of old destroyers with 5" guns. We spent what seemed like an eternity out there. The only redeeming event was that we received mail on Christmas Day from the USS White Plains. If you have never spent 60+ days underway, mail would seem insignificant; but, we had already spent a month off the coast of Viet Nam. Tensions were high. Nobody surrounded anyone, but with tensions on such a high level, it wouldn't have taken much for the situation to escalate and the world as we know it today would be significantly different.
More post
- π Why did the film "The Longest Day" have the "cricket" training scene if the Allies received no intelligence about the hedgerows in Normandy?
- π How would 19th century Janissaries remedy the Ottoman empire?
- π Is there a location to find the personnel roster of the No. 300 Polish Bomber Squadron during WW2?
- π Is there evidence of extensive Viking presence in North America?
- π Why were the Yellow River dyke repairs delayed?
- π Why and how were east Brandenburg, Pomerania and Silesia taken away from Germany after WW2?
- π Lenin Jacket Picture: What's the story?
- π What was the main diet of pre-agricultural Asians?
- π Were the North Vietnamese close to collapse in 1972?
- π What was it like for a coastal village to experience a Viking raid in around the tenth century?
- π How did Milton know about Egyptian gods like Osiris, Isis and Orus?
- π How many Reichsmarks would a piano lesson have cost in Germany during 1930 - 39?
- π The original Lord Haw Haw's life in exile (Ireland)
- π Were union disputes the only reason for low female employment in WWI German factories?
- π How much do we know about Emperor Ashoka?
- π Marriage for executioners in Medieval times
- π How difficult would be to watch a p**n movie in US/UK before the WW II?
- π How did Japanese small boats win against Mongolian ships?
- π Was there any politization of "hard" science (math, physics, chemistry, biology) in the Asian communist countries?
- π How did CeauΘescu survive the condemnation of the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968?
- π When did F become S in typeography, and why?
- π Was the year 2000 a really peaceful time in history for the West?
- π Were the 1940-42 RAF bombing raids over Germany unescorted?
- π What do we know about the character of William Adelin, son of Henry I?
- π How were middle ranking Nazis known to the allies before the end of the war?
- π What is the etymological origin of the Marsi, the ancient Italic people?
- π Was the secession of the Confederate states illegal?
- π Who were the exponents of what Marx dismissed as 'German socialism'?
- π Barbarian Army sizes and how they compare to Medieval times
- π How many Romans would use an average-sized balneum every day?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- π Did the US and Soviet navies really come close to blows in the Indian Ocean in 1971?
- π Why did the Soviet Union close its borders and restrict travel abroad?
- π How close did Germany come to interdicting Soviet oil shipments from the Caucasus in 1942?
- π Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- π When and why did the use of the lifespans of royalty to limit clauses in contracts come about?
- π Where did the βvikings wear helmets with hornβ stereotype come from and why?
- π When the Portuguese began the exploration of the West African Coast, did they believe the Indian Ocean was an enclosed sea?
- π Did the U.S. and Soviet Union have a submarine battle in 1968?
- π Did Churchill and Roosevelt know about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, or the following secret pacts between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union?
- π Why did Stalin and the Soviet leadership have Leon Trotsky assassinated?
- π How close did the US come to removing the Electoral College in 1970?
- π Did the Founding Fathers of the USA really make a distinction between a Republic and a Democracy (and despised the latter)?
- π Did the US government officially apologize for Indian Removal Act and Native American Indian genocide?
- π How close did the French come to digging a canal across the Isthmus of Kra in the 1880s?
- π What alternate north-south supply routes did the Soviet Union have when the Volga and Stalingrad were under attack?
- π Why did Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Breznev wear military uniforms when Lenin and the later Soviet leaders did not?
- π Did Viet Nam suffer a famine any time during the 1980s? And if not, how close was it to famine?
- π How did the Soviet Union officially justify the need for foreign travel and emigration restrictions?
- π When did the <input> tag come about, and in what web browser?
- π Did West Russia really have a rock shortage in WW2? And if so, what was the cause?
- π Why did Black and Asian immigrants from the Empire not come to Britain in substantial numbers until after WW2?
- π Did teenagers in the USA in the 1960s and 1950s really engage in dangerous, reckless driving to this extent?
- π How and Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse?
- π Did syphilis, polio, hepatitis, and encephalitis come to general world from the Americas?
- π Did any European/American settlements in the Ohio Country survive the French and Indian War?
- π Did France send ships to the Indian Ocean in 1971 in support of Pakistan?
- π Do NKVD files say that during WWII, Soviet leadership knew about the rape of Soviet women liberated from labour camps and did nothing to stop it?
- π Did the Chief of Soviet General Staff really say this?
- π After the Mongol Empire fell, did China really turn away from math and physics?
- π Where did the masquerade ball come from and what was its original concept?
