- Australian landing ship medium Brudenell White (AV 1354)
The Australian landing ship medium "Brudenell White " (AV 1354) was a
United States Navy landing ship medium which was later sold toAustralia and operated by theAustralian Army .The ship was built by the Brown Shipbuilding Company in
Houston, Texas and was commissioned into the United States Navy (USN) as USS "LSM-477" on3 April 1945 . She was assigned to thePacific Theater of Operations and performed occupation duty following the end of the war. She was decommissioned on15 May 1946 and laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet.The ship was purchased by the Australian Army on
16 July 1959 and was named "Brudenell White" (AV 1353) in honour of the AustralianWorld War II generalBrudenell White . The ship was one of four LSMs operated by the newly formed32nd Small Ship Squadron ,Royal Australian Engineers and was refitted in Japan before she arrived in Australia on31 December 1959 . From 1960 to 1970 she performed routine duties in support of the Australian Army, and carried equipment between ports inAustralia ,New Guinea ,Malaysia andNew Zealand .The ship made her first deployment to a war zone in September 1970 when she sailed to
Vung Tau inSouth Vietnam . She operated in South Vietnamese waters for about a month and returned to Sydney in November. She commenced a second voyage to South Vietnam in March 1971 but this was cancelled while she was en-route."Brudenell White" was decommissioned on
30 September 1971 when the 32nd Small Ship Squadron was disbanded. She was sold to Pacific Logistics in September 1971 and was renamed "Paclog Utility". The ship sunk when she struck a mine off the coast ofCambodia while being towed to her new operators there.References
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