ships among United States forces. Post-war Following her refit, which concluded in October 1945, Arunta was sent to Japan to serve with the British Pacific Fleet (BPF) as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. She remained in Japanese waters until March 1946, and returned in mid-December after a cruise through Papua New Guinea and the Philippines for a second deployment with the BPF, which lasted until early April 1947. In June 1948, Arunta visited several Melanesian islands. At the end of 1949, the destroyer prepared for a modernisation refit, which started in 1950. The refit involved upgrading or replacing several of the destroyer's weapons and sensor systems. Although the modernisation was intended to take less than six months, it took two years, by which time their modifications had already become obsolete. On 11 November 1952, Arunta was reclassified as an anti-submarine destroyer, and re-entered service. She spent all of 1953 in Australian waters, and in January 1954 sailed to Korea to support the United Nations enforcement of the June 1953 armistice which ended the Korean War. Arunta returned to Australia in August, and remained there until May 1955, when she joined a flotilla of RAN and Royal New Zealand Navy vessels sailing to Malaya for exercises with the BPF. Instead of returning home in late June, Arunta and Warramunga were refitted at Singapore before becoming the first Australian ships to serve with the Far East Strategic Reserve, which they operated with until December. Arunta was deployed to northern Australia for a cruise during March and April 1956, and visited Norfolk Island and the Pitcairn Islands in June, before arriving in Sydney on 14 June for preparations to be decommissioned. Decommissioning and fate After being prepared for placement in operational reserve, Arunta paid off to reserve on 21 December 1956. During her career, she had sailed . The destroyer was maintained until 1 November 1968, when she was sold to the China Steel Corporation of Taipei for breaking up as scrap metal. Arunta was taken under tow by the Japanese tug Tokyo Maru on 12 February 1969. On 13 February, the ship began to take on water; although there were attempts to stop the flooding, it was decided that recovery would be impossible, and Arunta was allowed to capsize and sink off Broken Bay. Footnotes Citations References Further reading External links Tribal-class destroyers (1936) of the Royal Australian Navy Ships