Following shakedown off California, Long Beach departed San Diego, on 12 January 1944 for Cairns, Australia, arriving there on 17 February 1944. After towing two LCSs from Milne Bay, New Guinea, to Cape Sudest, New Guinea, she departed on 16 March 1944 escorting the dock landing shipUSS Carter Hall to the landings on Manus in the Admiralties. Returning to Cape Sudest on 18 March 1944, Long Beach screened ships around New Guinea, and on 19 April 1944 took part in the invasion of Aitape. She sailed for the Schoutens on 6 August 1944 for patrol and 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.
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]
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, United States Secretary of the NavyJames 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.
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 cruiserUSS 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.
^ abAccording to Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN0-945274-35-1, which includes access to Soviet-era records unavailable during the Cold War, Project Hula ships were commissioned into the Soviet Navy simultaneously with their transfer from the U.S. Navy; see photo captions on p. 24 regarding the transfers of various 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.
^Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN0-945274-35-1, pp 24-25.
^Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN0-945274-35-1, p. 25.
^Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN0-945274-35-1, pp. 27, 39.
^Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN0-945274-35-1, pp. 37-38, 39.
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