Originally classified as a "coastal minesweeper," AMc-128, Bombard was reclassified as a "minesweeper," AM-151, on 21 February 1942. She was
laid down on 7 December 1942 at
Tampa,
Florida, by the
Tampa Shipbuilding Company, Inc.,
launched on 23 February 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Vivian Broadwater, and
commissioned on 31 May 1944.
Service history
U.S. Navy, World War II, 1944-1945
After
shakedown training, Bombard transited the
Panama Canal at the end of July 1944. From there, she voyaged directly to
Samoa, departing the
Panama Canal Zone on 1 August 1944 and arriving at
Tutuila on 29 August 1944. On 2 September 1944, she left Tutuila and made stops at
Pearl Harbor,
Territory of Hawaii, and
San Francisco,
California, before arriving in the waters of the
Territory of Alaska at the end of the first week in November 1944.
Minesweeping exercises, patrols, and
convoy escort missions kept her busy until the summer of 1945 when, having been selected for transfer to the
Soviet Navy in
Project Hula – a secret program for the transfer of U.S. Navy ships to the Soviet Navy at
Cold Bay, Alaska, in anticipation of the
Soviet Union joining the
war against Japan – she began familiarization training for her new Soviet crew at Cold Bay.[4]
Soviet Navy, 1945-1963
Following the completion of training for her Soviet crew, Bombard was
decommissioned on 19 July 1945[1] at Cold Bay and transferred to the Soviet Union under
Lend-Lease immediately.[1] Also commissioned into the Soviet Navy immediately,[1] she was designated as a tralshik ("minesweeper") and renamed T-336[3] in Soviet service. She soon departed Cold Bay bound for
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union, where she served in the
Soviet Far East.[4]
In February 1946, the United States began negotiations for the return of ships loaned to the Soviet Union for use during World War II, and 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. Deteriorating relations between the two countries as the
Cold War broke out led to protracted negotiations over the ships, and by the mid-1950s the U.S. Navy found it too expensive to bring home ships that had become worthless to it anyway. Many ex-American ships were merely administratively "returned" to the United States and instead sold for scrap in the Soviet Union, while the U.S. Navy did not seriously pursue the return of others because it viewed them as no longer worth the cost of recovery.[5] The Soviet Union never returned Bombard to the United States, although the U.S. Navy reclassified her as a "fleet minesweeper" (MSF) and redesignated her MSF-151 on 7 February 1955.
Disposal
The Soviet Navy struck T-336 from its vessel register in 1963.[2] Unaware of her fate, the U.S. Navy kept Bombard on its
Naval Vessel Register until finally striking her on 1 January 1983.
^
abcdefgThe
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting ShipsBombard article states that the U.S. Navy decommissioned and transferred Bombard on 18 July 1945, and
NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive Bombard (MSF 151) ex-AM-151 ex-AMc-128 and
hazegray.org Bombard repeat this. However, more recent research in 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 19 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 and commissioning by 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 Bombard's U.S. Navy decommissioning, transfer, and Soviet Navy commissioning all occurred simultaneously on 19 July 1945.
^
abNavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive Bombard (MSF 151) ex-AM-151 ex-AMc-128 and
hazegray.org Bombard state that the ship probably was scrapped in 1956, but more recent research in 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, reports that the ship's Soviet name was T-336 and states that T-336 was stricken in 1963. 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, p. 40., also states that T-526 – a Soviet name previously attributed to Bombard but now identified as belonging to the former
USS YMS-435 – was stricken in 1956, and this confusion over the identity of the two ships may have led to the confusion over their striking dates.
^
abNavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive Bombard (MSF 151) ex-AM-151 ex-AMc-128 and
hazegray.org Bombard state that Bombard was named T-526 in Soviet service, but more recent research in 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. 39-40, which includes access to Soviet-era records unavailable during the
Cold War, finds that the ship's Soviet name was T-336, while an
auxiliary motor minesweeper, the former
USS YMS-435, also transferred in 1945, had the Soviet name T-526. 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.
^
abRussell, 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.
^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.