Project Hula

But after 1939, the two countries turned their attention elsewhere – Japan to focus on the Second Sino-Japanese War in China and the Soviet Union to the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.

[3] During a meeting with United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union Averell Harriman in October 1944, Stalin finally offered to enter the war against Japan, but not until three months after the surrender of Germany, whenever that might be.

[4] As part of MILEPOST, the Chief of the Soviet Main Naval Staff, Admiral Vladimir Alafuzov, and the deputy commander of the U.S. Military Mission in Moscow, Rear Admiral Clarence E. Olsen, agreed on 20 December 1944 to a list of a dozen types of ships and aircraft the United States would transfer to the Soviets.

[4] In early January 1945, the commander-in-chief of the Soviet Navy, Admiral Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov, suggested that the United States establish the location for the transfer of ships and training of crews in the Territory of Alaska's Aleutian Islands, where the presence of only a very small civilian population would help to assure the security of the program, which was to be conducted in strict secrecy to avoid alerting the Japanese and perhaps provoking Japan into launching an attack against the Soviet Union.

King, contacted the Commander of the North Pacific Force, Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, to alert him that the United States planned to transfer approximately 250 ships and craft to the Soviet Union between April and December 1945, and that about 2,500 personnel would be present at any given time at the transfer site with a two-week cycle of personnel turnover; he also inquired as to whether Dutch Harbor could accommodate such a program.

[6] During a meeting with King at the Yalta Conference on 8 February 1945, Kuznetsov stated that Dutch Harbor was the Soviet Union's first choice, and Kodiak its second.

[7] King officially established the transfer-and-training program as Project Hula in mid-February 1945 and ordered Fletcher to commence the rehabilitation of the United States Army facilities at Cold Bay's Fort Randall, which had been closed in November 1944.

[18] As the plan was finalized, the United States was to transfer 180 ships – 30 Tacoma-class patrol frigates (U.S. Navy hull classification symbol PF), 24 Admirable-class minesweepers (AM), 36 auxiliary motor minesweepers (YMS), 30 large infantry landing craft (LCI(L)), 56 submarine chasers (SC), and four floating workshops (YR) – to the Soviet Union, by 1 November 1945, training about 15,000 Soviet Navy personnel to operate them.

Before leaving Washington, Maxwell recommended an increase in the number of Russian-language translators to be assigned to Cold Bay and urged that the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships ensure that each ship to be transferred had all of its authorized equipment loaded and installed and no equipment not authorized for transfer aboard before arriving at Cold Bay.

[21] Arriving at Cold Bay on 19 March 1945, and newly promoted to captain, Maxwell took command of the naval base there the following day.

He found that an advance party under his second-in-command, U.S. Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander John J. Hutson, had already established Detachment 3294's Antisubmarine Warfare Department.

He also discovered that the naval facilities required more rehabilitation than he had been led to believe, so he moved his command into Fort Randall, which had been closed since November 1944, and set about readying its facilities to support Project Hula, including the establishment of housing, classrooms, movie theaters, a radio station, and a softball field; the selection of instructors for courses in radio and radar operation, engineering, gunnery, minesweeping, damage control, and landing craft operation; and the procurement of radios, radars, minesweeping gear, gyrocompasses, engines, movie projectors, and training films and other educational tools.

A further difficulty was damage to the wooden-hulled ships – the auxiliary motor minesweepers (YMS) and submarine chasers – in the rough seas in the training area.

[10] However, poor repair work and supply problems in Seattle plagued the submarine chaser program, and Maxwell was forced to arrange for submarine chasers assigned to duty in the U.S. Navy's 13th Naval District to substitute for some of those originally scheduled for transfer in order to meet a deadline of having all ships transferred by 1 October 1945.

[29] As Stalin had promised, the Soviet Union declared war against Japan on 8 August 1945, exactly three months after the capitulation of Germany, and began an offensive against Japanese forces in Northeast Asia the next day.

Although an armistice halted combat between the other Allies and Japan on 15 August 1945 (14 August on the other side of the International Date Line in Cold Bay) and Japan formally surrendered to the Allies aboard the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945, Soviet offensive operations continued until 5 September 1945, by which time Soviet forces had overrun the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in Manchuria, the northern half of Korea, the Japanese province of Karafuto on the southern half of Sakhalin Island, and the Kuril Islands.

Despite the Soviet Union's now-overt participation in the war, Project Hula remained secret and subject to strict censorship.

The last four patrol frigates transferred remained at Cold Bay for additional training and shakedown before departing for the Soviet Union in the final Project Hula convoy on 17 September 1945.

"[34] During the 142 days between the commencement of training activities at Cold Bay on 16 April 1945 and the transfer of the last four ships there on 4 September 1945, U.S. Navy Detachment 3294 trained some 12,000 Soviet Navy personnel – about 750 officers and 11,250 enlisted men – and transferred 149 ships and craft – 28 patrol frigates (PF), 24 minesweepers (AM), 30 large infantry landing craft (LCI(L)), 31 auxiliary motor minesweepers (YMS), 32 submarine chasers (SC), and four floating workshops (YR) – at Cold Bay.

[16] Popov, reported to Maxwell at Cold Bay in late August 1945 that LCI(L)s transferred under Project Hula played an important role in the Soviet assault on the Kuril Islands just ten days after arriving at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and that other Project Hula ships had taken part in Soviet operations against the Japanese in northern Korea and on southern Sakhalin Island.

[38] Subtracting the five former LCI(L)s lost in combat and an auxiliary motor minesweeper that sank in 1945, 143 Project Hula ships were subject to return to the United States.

Negotiations over the Department of the Navy's other major focus, the 25 surviving former LCI(L)s, dragged on longer, but in the end the Soviets returned 15 of them to the United States in 1955.

[39] By 1957, the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence reported that of the 149 Project Hula ships, only 18 of those still in Soviet custody – nine minesweepers (AM), five submarine chasers (SC), and the four floating workshops (YR) – remained serviceable.

The Tacoma -class patrol frigate USS Hoquiam (PF-5) at Mare Island Navy Yard , Vallejo , California , on 14 June 1944. Transferred at Cold Bay, on 16 August 1945, she became EK-13 in the Soviet Navy , and was returned to the United States in 1949. The patrol frigates were the largest, most heavily armed, and most expensive ships transferred in Project Hula. [ 8 ]
The minesweeper USS Admirable (AM-136) was transferred at Cold Bay, on 19 July 1945, becoming T-331 in the Soviet Navy. [ 9 ]
Rear Admiral Boris Dmitrievich Popov , commander of the 5th Independent Brigade of Soviet Navy Ships at Cold Bay, cuts a cake while his counterpart, Captain William S. Maxwell (right), commanding officer of U.S. Navy Detachment 3294, at Cold Bay, and overall commander of Project Hula, and members of their staffs look on during a party in Popov ' s honor on Memorial Day , 30 May 1945, probably at Dutch Harbor . [ 10 ]
Rear Admiral Popov speaks aboard an Admirable -class minesweeper during the ship ' s transfer ceremony, probably on 21 or 22 May 1945. [ 11 ]
A Soviet Navy signalman (left) receives training from a U.S. Navy signalman at Cold Bay in 1945. [ 12 ]
The U.S. Navy auxiliary motor minesweeper USS YMS-143 when new in February 1943. Transferred at Cold Bay, on 17 May 1945, she became T-522 and took part in the Soviet conquest of the Japanese province of Karafuto on southern Sakhalin Island between 11 and 25 August 1945. T-522 served in the Soviet Navy until stricken in July 1956, and dismantled for spare parts. [ 13 ]
The large infantry landing craft USS LCI(L)-551 in May 1945, flying her colors at half-mast in honor of the recently deceased President Franklin D. Roosevelt . Transferred to the Soviet Navy at Cold Bay, on 29 July 1945, she became DS-48 and took part in the Soviet invasion of the Kuril Islands . The Soviet Union returned her to the United States in 1955. [ 14 ]
The large infantry landing craft USS LCI(L)-585 and USS LCI(L)-591 at Cold Bay, in the spring of 1945, awaiting transfer to the Soviet Navy , in which they became DS-45 and DS-35 , respectively. The Soviets returned LCI(L)-585 to the United States, in 1955; DS-35 was sold for scrap in the Soviet Union. [ 10 ]
The submarine chaser USS SC-1011 off Terminal Island , California, in July 1943. Transferred at Cold Bay, on 17 August 1945, she served as BO-327 in the Soviet Navy until stricken in 1955. [ 15 ]
The floating workshop USS YR-74 was not among the Project Hula ships, but the United States transferred four YRs identical to her at Cold Bay in the summer of 1945. [ 16 ]
The U.S. flag is lowered aboard LCI(L)s as the U.S. Navy decommissions them for immediate transfer to the Soviet Union, at Cold Bay,on 9 June 1945. [ 17 ]
The Soviet naval ensign is raised aboard the LCI(L)s at Cold Bay, as they are commissioned into the Soviet Navy, immediately after their transfer on 9 June 1945. Redesignated desantiye suda (DS) or "landing ship," these craft saw action against Japanese forces during the Soviet campaign in northern Korea in August–September 1945. [ 17 ]