USS Long Beach (PF-34)

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For other ships with the same name, see USS Long Beach.

USS Long Beach (PF-34)
History
United States
NameLong Beach
Namesake
Builder
Globe Shipbuilding Company, Superior, Wisconsin
Laid down19 March 1943
ReclassifiedPF-34, 15 April 1943
Launched5 May 1943
Sponsored byMrs. Walter Boyd
Commissioned8 September 1943
Decommissioned12 July 1945
Honors and
awards		4 ×
battle stars
, World War II
FateTransferred to the Soviet Navy, 12 July 1945
AcquiredReturned from Soviet Navy, 1949
FateTransferred to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, 30 November 1953
Stricken1 December 1961
Soviet Union
NameEK-2
Acquired12 July 1945
Commissioned12 July 1945[1]
Honors and
awards		Guards rank and ensign
FateReturned to United States, 1949
Japan
NameShii
Acquired30 November 1953
Decommissioned1967
FateScrapped, 1967
General characteristics
Class and typeTacoma-class frigate
Displacement
  • 1,430 long tons (1,453 t) light
  • 2,415 long tons (2,454 t) full
Length303 ft 11 in (92.63 m)
Beam37 ft 6 in (11.43 m)
Draft13 ft 8 in (4.17 m)
Propulsion
  • 2 × 5,500 shp (4,101 kW) turbines
  • 3 boilers
  • 2 shafts
Speed20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement190
Armament

The second USS Long Beach (PF-34) was a Tacoma-class frigate in commission from 1943 to 1945. She later served in the Soviet Navy as EK-2 and then in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force as Shii (PF-17) and Shii (PF-297) and YAS-44.

Construction and commissioning

Long Beach was

launched on 5 May 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Walter Boyd; and acquired by the Navy and commissioned
on 8 September 1943.

Service history

U.S. Navy, World War II, 1943-1945

Following

shore bombardment duty during cleanup operations against Japanese holdouts in the Biak
area, returning to local operations off New Guinea on 31 August 1944.

On 5 November 1944, Long Beach departed for newly invaded

Leyte guarding a resupply convoy of tank landing ships (LSTs), arriving at Leyte Gulf on 15 November 1944 and returning to New Guinea on 21 November 1944. She steered for home 15 December 1944, calling at Panama and reaching Boston
, on 25 January 1945.

After

Balboa in the Panama Canal Zone. The six patrol frigates arrived at Seattle on 26 April 1945, then got underway again for Kodiak, Alaska on 7 June 1945. Ogden had to return to Seattle for repairs, but Long Beach and the other four frigates arrived at Womens Bay, Kodiak, on 11 June 1945.[2]

On 13 June 1945, Long Beach, Belfast, Glendale, San Pedro, Coronado, and their sister ships USS Charlottesville, USS Allentown, USS Machias, and USS Sandusky got underway from Kodiak for Cold Bay, Alaska, where they arrived on 14 June 1945 to participate in Project Hula, a secret program for the transfer of U.S. Navy ships to the Soviet Navy in anticipation of the Soviet Union joining the war against Japan. Training of Long Beach's new Soviet Navy crew soon began at Cold Bay.[3]

Soviet Navy, 1945–1949

Long Beach was

decommissioned on 12 July 1945 at Cold Bay and transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease immediately along with nine of her sister ships, the first group of patrol frigates transferred to the Soviet Navy. Commissioned into the Soviet Navy immediately,[1] she was designated as a storozhevoi korabl ("escort ship") and renamed EK-2 in Soviet service. On 15 July 1945, EK-2 departed Cold Bay in company with nine of her sister ships – EK-1 (ex-Charlottesville), EK-3 (ex-Belfast), EK-4 (ex-Machias), EK-5 (ex-San Pedro), EK-6 (ex-Glendale), EK-7 (ex-Sandusky), EK-8 (ex-Coronado), EK-9 (ex-Allentown), and EK-10 (ex-Ogden) – bound for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union.[4]

EK-2 entered service with the Soviet

Soviet Far East
.

In February 1946, the United States began negotiations with the Soviet Union for the return of ships loaned to the Soviet Navy for use during World War II. On 8 May 1947,

James V. Forrestal informed the United States Department of State that the United States Department of the Navy wanted 480 of the 585 combatant ships it had transferred to the Soviet Union for World War II use returned, EK-2 among them. Negotiations for the return of the ships was protracted,[5] but the Soviet Union finally returned EK-2 to the United States at Yokosuka
, Japan, in 1949.

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, 1953–1967

For other ships with the same name, see Japanese ship Shii.

Reverting to her former name, Long Beach lay idle at Yokosuka until the United States loaned her to Japan for service in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) in November 1953 as Shii (PF-17) (しい (PF-17), "castanopsis")[6] . On 15 February 1957, the U.S. Navy cancelled the name Long Beach for her so that the name could be reassigned to a new ship, the nuclear-powered

guided-missile cruiser USS Long Beach (CGN-9), which was then under construction. On 1 September 1957, the JSMDF reclassified Shii as PF-297.[6]

Struck from the U.S. Naval Vessel Register on 1 December 1961, Shii was transferred to Japan outright on 28 August 1962 and saw continuous service in the JMSDF until decommissioned and renamed YAS-44 on 3 March 1967.[6]

Awards

  • The U.S. Navy awarded Long Beach four
    battle stars
    for her World War II service.
  • The Soviet Union awarded EK-2 the Guards rank and ensign on 26 August 1945 for her service during World War II Soviet operations against Japan in 1945.

References

  1. ^
    large infantry landing craft (LCI(L)s) and information on p. 27 about the transfer of USS Coronado
    , which Russell says typified the transfer process. As sources, Russell cites Department of the Navy, Ships Data: U.S. Naval Vessels Volume II, 1 January 1949, (NAVSHIPS 250-012), Washington, DC: Bureau of Ships, 1949; and Berezhnoi, S. S., Flot SSSR: Korabli i suda lendliza: Spravochnik ("The Soviet Navy: Lend-Lease Ships and Vessels: A Reference"), St. Petersburg, Russia: Belen, 1994.
  2. ISBN 0-945274-35-1
    , pp 24-25.
  3. ISBN 0-945274-35-1
    , p. 25.
  4. ISBN 0-945274-35-1
    , pp. 27, 39.
  5. ISBN 0-945274-35-1
    , pp. 37-38, 39.
  6. ^ a b c The Naval Database.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Long Beach (PF-34).


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