USS Glendale
{{short description|Tacoma-class patrol frigate}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= USS Glendale and USS Gallup.jpg |Ship caption=USS Glendale (PF-36), left, with her sister ship {{USS|Gallup|PF-47}} on 29 October 1951, during the ceremony for their transfer to the Royal Thai Navy. }} {{Infobox ship career |Ship country=United States |Ship flag={{USN flag|1951}} |Ship name= Glendale |Ship namesake=City of Glendale, California |Ship builder=Consolidated Steel Corporation, Wilmington, California |Ship laid down= 6 April 1943 |Ship identification=*PG-144
}} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=yes |Ship launched= 28 May 1943 |Ship sponsor=Miss Shirley Schlichtman |Ship commissioned= 1 October 1943 |Ship decommissioned= 12 July 1945 |Ship honors=5 × battle stars, World War II |Ship fate=Transferred to the Soviet Union, 12 July 1945 }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=yes |Ship acquired=Returned by Soviet Union, 16 November 1949 |Ship recommissioned= 11 October 1950 |Ship decommissioned= 29 October 1951 |Ship honors=
|Ship fate=Transferred to the Royal Thai Navy, 29 October 1951 }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=yes |Ship struck=20 November 1951 }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country=Soviet Union |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Soviet Union|naval-1935}} |Ship name= EK-6 |Ship acquired=12 July 1945 |Ship commissioned=12 July 1945 |Ship decommissioned= |Ship struck= |Ship fate=Returned to United States, 16 November 1949 }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country=Thailand |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Thailand|naval}} |Ship name=Tachin |Ship namesake=Tha Chin River |Ship acquired=29 October 1951 |Ship commissioned= |Ship decommissioned=22 June 2000 |Ship struck= |Ship fate=Preserved |Ship status=On display as a memorial at the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School, Nakhon Nayok, Thailand, since 9 July 2001 |Ship identification=PF-1; later reclassified PF-411 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Ship class= {{sclass|Tacoma|frigate}} |Ship displacement=*{{convert|1430|LT|t|0|abbr=on}} light
|Ship length= {{convert|303|ft|11|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam= {{convert|37|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship draft= {{convert|13|ft|8|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship propulsion=*2 × {{convert|5500|shp|0|abbr=on}} turbines
|Ship speed= {{convert|20|kn|lk=in}} |Ship range= |Ship complement=190 |Ship armament=*3 × 3"/50 dual purpose guns (3x1)
|Ship armor= |Ship notes= }} |
USS Glendale (PF-36), a {{sclass|Tacoma|frigate|0}} patrol frigate, is the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Glendale, California. In commission in the US Navy from 1943 to 1945, and from 1950 to 1951, she also served in the Soviet Navy as EK-6 from 1945 to 1949 and in the Royal Thai Navy as Tachin (PF-1) from 1951 to 2000.
Construction and commissioning
Originally classified as a patrol gunboat, PG-144, Glendale was reclassified as a patrol frigate, PF-36, on 15 April 1943. She was launched on 28 May 1943, at the Consolidated Steel Corporation shipyard in Los Angeles, California, sponsored by Miss Shirley Schlichtman and commissioned on 1 October 1943.
Service history
=World War II, 1944-1945=
Following shakedown off Southern California, Glendale departed San Diego, California, on 12 January 1944 and reached Cairns, Australia, on 17 February 1944. Until late 1944, she served as an anti-submarine and anti-aircraft escort ship based in New Guinea, protecting arriving and departing merchant ships.
In September 1944, Glendale took part in the assault on Morotai Island, departing Humboldt Bay, New Guinea, on 14 September 1944 to escort merchant ships to the island. She returned to Humboldt Bay on 24 September 1944 to continue escort assignments between New Guinea and the Philippine Islands.
On 5 December 1944, Glendale was escorting a convoy from Hollandia to Leyte in the Philippines when attacking Japanese aircraft sank SS Antoine Saugrain, a cargo ship laden with valuable radar materiel, and severely damaged the merchant ship {{SS|Marcus Daly}}. Glendale brought the rest of the convoy safely into Leyte the next day.
Glendale departed Leyte on 8 December 1944 bound for the Atlantic Ocean and moored at Boston, Massachusetts, on 24 January 1945.
After overhaul, Glendale got underway from Casco Bay, Maine, on 28 March 1945 as part of Escort Division 25 – which also included her sister ships {{USS|Long Beach|PF-34|2}} (the flagship), {{USS|Belfast|PF-35|2}}, {{USS|San Pedro|PF-37|2}}, {{USS|Coronado|PF-38|2}}, and {{USS|Ogden|PF-39|2}} – bound for Seattle, Washington, via the Panama Canal. The six patrol frigates arrived at Seattle on 26 April 1945. They got underway again for Kodiak in the Territory of Alaska on 7 June 1945. Ogden had to return to Seattle for repairs, but Belfast and the other four frigates arrived at Womens Bay, Kodiak, on 11 June 1945.Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, {{ISBN|0-945274-35-1}}, pp 24-25.
On 13 June 1945, Glendale, Long Beach, Belfast, San Pedro, Coronado, and their sister ships {{USS|Charlottesville|PF-25|2}}, {{USS|Allentown|PF-52|2}}, {{USS|Machias|PF-53|2}}, and {{USS|Sandusky|PF-54|2}} 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 Glendale{{'}}s new Soviet Navy crew soon began at Cold Bay.Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, {{ISBN|0-945274-35-1}}, p. 25.
=Soviet Navy, 1945–1949=
Glendale 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. This was the first group of patrol frigates transferred to the Soviet Navy. When her commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Ambrose Simko, handed Glendale over to the Soviet Navy, he as well as the commanding officers of the other nine transferred patrol frigates received custom daggers made for each of them as gifts from the Soviets. Commissioned into the Soviet Navy immediately, Glendale was designated as a storozhevoi korabl ("escort ship") and renamed EK-6 in Soviet service. On 15 July 1945, EK-6 departed Cold Bay in company with nine of her sister ships – EK-1 (ex-Charlottesville), EK-2 (ex-Long Beach), EK-3 (ex-Belfast), EK-4 (ex-Machias), EK-5 (ex-San Pedro), 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. EK-6 served as a patrol vessel in the Soviet Far East.Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, {{ISBN|0-945274-35-1}}, pp. 27, 39.
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 Navy 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-6 among them. Negotiations for the return of the ships was protracted, but on 16 November 1949 the Soviet Union finally returned EK-6 to the U.S. Navy at Yokosuka, Japan.Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, {{ISBN|0-945274-35-1}}, pp. 37-38, 39.
=Korean War, 1950–1951=
Reverting to her old name. Glendale was recommissioned into the U.S. Navy on 11 October 1950 for service in the Korean War. In December 1950, the ship patrolled off Hungnam, Pusan, and Inchon, Korea, in support of United Nations forces fighting ashore. On 29 October 1951, she was decommissioned again and transferred along with her sister ship {{USS|Gallup|PF-47}} to the Government of Thailand. The U.S. Navy struck Glendale from the Navy List on 20 November 1951.
=Royal Thai Navy, 1951-2000=
The ship served in the Royal Thai Navy as HTMS Tachin (PF-1), later reclassified PF-411. She was decommissioned on 22 June 2000 at Sattahip Naval Base.
Museum ship
File:Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School, Thailand 02.jpg
Dismantled and transported by truck to the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School in Nakhon Nayok Province, Thailand, Tachin was re-assembled and has been on display there since 9 July 2001 with all her original armament intact.
Awards
The U.S. Navy awarded Glendale five battle stars for her World War II service and four battle stars for her Korean War service. She also received the Korean Presidential Unit Citation for her actions during the Korean War.
References
{{DANFS|https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/g/glendale.html}}
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{navsource|12/08036|USS Glendale}}
- [http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/patrol/pf36.htm hazegray.org: USS Glendale]
{{Tacoma class patrol frigate|others}}
{{Project Hula ships}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Glendale (PF-36)}}
Category:Tacoma-class frigates
Category:Ships built in Los Angeles
Category:World War II frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States
Category:Tacoma-class frigates of the Soviet Navy
Category:World War II frigates of the Soviet Union
Category:Cold War frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States
Category:Cold War frigates of the Soviet Union
Category:Korean War frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States
Category:Tacoma-class frigates of the Royal Thai Navy