Brown-water navy
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A brown-water navy or riverine navy, in the broadest sense, is a
Brown-water navies are contrasted with seaworthy
History
River Thames
The river Thames was a regular thoroughfare for the Sovereign until the middle of the 19th century. Monarchs would be rowed up and down the river in a Royal barge, with transport and security organised by the King's Bargemaster. The barges were operated by the Royal Watermen, drawn from the ranks of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen. In 1798, Watermen and other groups of river tradesmen on the River Thames voluntarily formed associations of River Fencibles. These were officially drawn together in 1803 as the "Corps of River Fencibles of the City of London". Members of the Corps escorted the barge carrying the body of Lord Nelson along the Thames in small boats during his state funeral in 1806. The Corps of River Fencibles was eventually disbanded in 1813.[1]
Habsburg and Ottoman Empires
Both the
Napoleonic Wars
After losing its blue-water fleet in the
Mexican–American War
During the
The city of Tampico was poorly defended and offered a base for operations for the conquest of the state of Tamaulipas. For these reasons Tampico became the next target for seizure by American naval forces. Commodore David Conner directed that it be attacked in late October 1846 and those plans were captured by General Antonio López de Santa Anna. Santa Anna directed that Tampico be almost abandoned and his forces be moved up river to Pánuco. This move was completed by 28 October. The bar at the mouth of the Pánuco River was only eight feet and hindered the movement of American ships up the river. The wife of the former American consul at Tampico sent word to Conner that the river was rising and that the town had been abandoned. Conner's forces crossed the bar on 14 November and began shelling the town. Almost immediately the remaining garrison at Tampico surrendered and Conner learned that the troops stationed there had retreated to Pánuco 25 miles upstream from Tampico. After Conner's ships moved to Pánuco and several days of naval bombardment, the Mexican forces at Pánuco surrendered. The American Army quickly occupied Tampico and used it for a staging point for a planned attack on Veracruz.[3]
American Civil War
The U.S. Navy during the
Paraguayan War
After the end of the American civil war the next major military conflict in the world was the Paraguayan War (1864–1870). In this the Brazilian brown-water navy, which comprised large ironclads as well as river monitors, had a crucial role.
The natural water highway to the
Six vessels of the Brazilian ironclad squadron eventually succeeded in dashing past Humaitá in an incident known as the Passage of Humaitá, an event considered as nearly impossible. Although it could not operate far beyond its military forward base, nevertheless, Brazilian domination of the river meant that Paraguay could no longer resupply the fortress, and eventually it was starved out and captured by the land forces in the Siege of Humaitá.
Even after Humaitá was captured − which took more than two years – the Paraguayans improvised further strongpoints along the river, further delaying the Allies (the
U.S. gunboat diplomacy in China
Save for an occasional river patrol boat, the United States' river ironclad navy was all but abolished at the end of the American Civil War. Yet the concept of a river defense force lived on in countries and regions where rivers enabled the U.S. to project its military presence, allowing it to protect its foreign interests abroad. U.S. river boats (gunboats) of the
Second Sino-Japanese War
During the
Indochina War
During the First Indochina War, the French Navy created the Dinassaut (naval assault divisions), in 1947, to operate in the waters of the Mekong and Red rivers, conducting search and destroy missions, against communist guerillas and river pirates. They succeeded the river flotillas created in 1945, by the request of General Leclerc. The Dinassaut served until the end of the conflict in 1955, and its concept would be latter adopted by the United States Navy in the Vietnam War.
Ten Dinassauts were created, with five based in
The role of the Dinassaut was to transport, land and support the infantry, to patrol the watercourses and to assure the supply of the isolated posts.
The sailors that served in the Dinassaut were referred as the "Navy in Khaki", in comparison with the sailors that served in the ocean that were referred as the "Navy in White".[7][8]
Portuguese Colonial War
In Portuguese service, the brown-water navy has been often referred as the "Naval Dust" (Portuguese: Poeira Naval), for its use of a large number of small vessels, in comparison with the conventional blue-water navy that uses a smaller number of larger vessels. In several historical periods, the Portuguese Navy had to develop riverine forces to operate in then-Portuguese colonies in Asia, South America and Africa.
During the Portuguese Colonial War, from 1961 to 1974, the Portuguese Navy created a brown-water navy to operate in the rivers and lakes of Angola, Portuguese Guinea and Mozambique, against the separatist, communist guerrillas, as well as river pirates. For the organization of their riverine forces, the Portuguese were inspired by the French experience in Indochina with the Dinassaut and by their own historical experience in the operation of river flotillas in support of the Portuguese colonial pacification campaigns in Africa during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Under the local commands of the Navy, the Portuguese created river boat flotillas (esquadrilhas de lanchas) in the
For these riverine forces, the Portuguese Navy conceived five types of vessels: the LFG (large river patrol boats of 200–300
designs, but were modified in order to have a greater mission endurance and to be used for patrolling, fire support and as a mobile base for the Marines. This modifications included the protection of sensitive parts with armor, the installation of 40 mm (LDGs) or 20 mm (LDMs and LDPs) guns and the improvement of the crew accommodations, partially at the expense of the cargo deck.The river boat flotillas were complemented by assault units of Special Marines (fuzileiros especiais) and security units of Marines (fuzileiros). The
Vietnam War
On 18 December 1965, for the first time since the
For coastal duty the
The brown-water
Along with the aforementioned PBRs, other riverine craft included PCFs, ASPBs, and monitors (modified LCMs). Together these craft formed a
The brown-water navy (in conjunction with other efforts, such as Operation Market Time and Operation Game Warden) was largely successful in its efforts to stop North Vietnam using the South Vietnamese coast and rivers to resupply its military and the Viet Cong. The flow of weapons and ammunition came to a virtual standstill during Operation Market Time, from 1965 and 1970.
Brown-water river assault units were formalized in January 1967 with the 2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division arriving under the command of Major General William Fulton. Later that same year, in combination with U.S. Navy Task Force 117 they formed the Mobile Riverine Force. In 1970, for the last time since the Civil War, the Navy stood down the last of its brown-water navy units, as they were turned over to the South Vietnamese and Cambodian governments under the Vietnamization policy.
See also
- United States Navy Riverine Squadron
- Special warfare combatant-craft crewmen
- Navies of landlocked countries
- Insect-class gunboat
- Mississippi Marine Brigade
- Amur Military Flotilla
- Maritime geography
- Operation Sealords
- Serbian River Flotilla
- River Battalion (Croatia)
- Humaitá-class gunboat
- River gunboat
- River pirate
- Green-water navy
References
- ^ https://search.lma.gov.uk/rg_pdf_creator/index.php?research_guide=84 [bare URL]
- ^ Bauer, pp 49–52
- ^ Bauer, pp 52–57
- ISBN 978-0-7425-5098-8.
- ^ "River Defence Fleet and Maritime Police of Manzhouguo, 1932-45". Retrieved 23 March 2020.
- ^ Jowett, Phillip (2004). Rays of the Rising Sun: Japan's Asian Allies 1931-45: China and Manchukuo. Helion & Company.
- ^ In Dictionnaire de la Guerre d'Indochine, pages 83 et 147 à 148
- ^ In revue Bataille, HS n°7, page 70.
- ^ CANN, John P., Brown Waters of Africa (Portuguese Riverine Warfare 1961–1974), Helion & Company 2013
- ^ "The Vietnam War: The Swift Boat vs. the Destroyer". Warfare History Network. 26 August 2015.
- ^ Friedman
Bibliography
- Affield, Wendell. Muddy Jungle Rivers: A river assault boat cox'n's memory journey of his war in Vietnam. 2012, ISBN 0-9847023-0-X
- Bauer, K. Jack (1969). Surfboats and Horse Marines: U.S. Naval Operations in the Mexican War, 1846—48. U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland. No ISBN
- Friedman, Norman (1987). U.S. Small Combatants: an Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland: U.S. Naval Institute. ISBN 0-87021-713-5.
- Steffes, James, ENC, U.S. Navy (ret.) (2005). Swift Boat Down: The Real Story of the Sinking of PCF-19. Bloomington, Indiana: Xlibris. ISBN 159926613X.)
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