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.
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