Charlottesville was decommissioned on 12 July 1945 at Cold Bay and transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease immediately[1] 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]Charlottesville was designated as a storozhevoi korabl ("escort ship") and renamed EK-1 in Soviet service. On 15 July 1945, EK-1 departed Cold Bay in company with nine of her sister ships – EK-2 (ex-Long Beach), 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-USS Ogden (PF-39)) – bound for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union. EK-1 served as a patrol vessel in the Soviet Far East.[3]
In February 1946, the United States began negotiations for the return of ships loaned to the Soviet Union 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-1 among them. Negotiations for the return of the ships was protracted, but on 17 October 1949 the Soviet Union finally returned EK-1 to the U.S. Navy at Yokosuka, Japan.[4]
Reverting to her former name, Charlottesville was laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet at Yokosuka, and remained idle until the United States loaned her to Japan on 14 January 1953 for service in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, which renamed her JDS Matsu (PF-6) (まつ (PF-6), "pine tree").[5]Matsu was redesignated PF-286 on 1 September 1957.[5] She was reclassified as an "auxiliary service vessel" and renamed YAS-36 on 31 March 1966.[5] Decommissioned on 31 March 1969, she was returned to U.S. custody on 12 July 1972. Her fate thereafter is unknown.
^ abcdeThe Dictionary of American Naval Fighting ShipsCharlottesville article states that Charlottesville was transferred on 13 July 1945 and NavSource Online: Frigate Photo Archive Charlottesville (PF 25) ex-PG-133 and hazegray.org Charlottesville both repeat this, but 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. 39, which includes access to Soviet-era records unavailable during the Cold War, reports that the transfer date was 12 July 1945. 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. According to Russell, Project Hula ships were decommissioned by the U.S. Navy simultaneously with their transfer to the Soviet 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 (PF-38), which Russell says typified the transfer process – indicating that Charlottesville's U.S. Navy decommissioning, transfer, and Soviet Navy commissioning all occurred simultaneously on 12 July 1945.
^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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