USS Rampart (AM-282)

USS ''Rampart'' (AM-282) was an built for the United States Navy during World War II and in commission from 1944 to 1945. In 1945, she was transferred to the Soviet Union and after that served in the Soviet Navy as ''T-282''. She was converted to a naval trawler in 1948 and renamed ''Shkval''.

Construction and commissioning

''Rampart'' was laid down on 24 November 1943 at Chickasaw, Alabama, by the Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation, launched on 30 March 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Frank S. Scott, and commissioned on 18 November 1944.

Service history

U.S. Navy, World War II, 1944-1945

After shakedown in the Gulf of Mexico, ''Rampart'' got underway on 8 December 1944 and arrived at Little Creek, Virginia, on 13 December 1944. She operated out of Little Creek, conducting minesweeping exercises, until 15 January 1945, when she left bound for Casco Bay, Maine, for antisubmarine warfare training.

''Rampart'' then returned to Hampton Roads, Virginia, and got underway on 25 January 1945 for the Panama Canal Zone, reaching Coco Solo Naval Base on 1 February 1945. She transited the Panama Canal and proceeded to San Diego, California, before moving on Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, where she arrived on 24 February 1945.

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, Territory of Alaska, in anticipation of the Soviet Union joining the war against JapanRussell, Richard A., ''Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan'', Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, , p. 39. – ''Rampart'' departed Pearl Harbor on 7 March 1945 in company with three other ships earmarked for Project Hula – her sister ship and the auxiliary motor minesweepers and – bound for Seattle, Washington, which they reached on 19 March 1945.

On 7 April 1945, ''Rampart'' departed Seattle for Kodiak, Alaska. On 14 April 1945, she left Kodiak for Cold Bay, where she arrived on 15 April 1945. She began shakedown training with her new Soviet Navy crew on 24 April 1945, which was completed on 13 May 1945.

Soviet Navy, 1945-1960

Following the completion of training for her Soviet crew, ''Rampart'' was decommissioned on 21 May 1945 at Cold Bay and transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease immediately. Also commissioned into the Soviet Navy immediately, she was designated as a ' ("minesweeper") and renamed ''T-282'' in Soviet service. She soon departed Cold Bay bound for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union, where she served in the Soviet Far East.

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 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. 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.Russell, Richard A., ''Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan'', Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, , pp. 37-38, 39. The Soviets converted ''T-282'' into a naval trawler in 1948 and renamed her ''Shkval'', and never returned her to the United States, although the U.S. Navy reclassified her as a "fleet minesweeper" (MSF) and redesignated her MSF-282 on 7 February 1955.

Disposal

The ship was scrapped in 1960. Unaware of her fate, the U.S. Navy kept ''Rampart'' on its Naval Vessel Register until finally striking her on 1 January 1983.

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rampart (AM-282)
Admirable-class minesweepers
Ships built in Chickasaw, Alabama
1944 ships
World War II minesweepers of the United States
Admirable-class minesweepers of the Soviet Navy
World War II minesweepers of the Soviet Union
Cold War minesweepers of the Soviet Union
Trawlers of the Soviet Navy
Cold War patrol vessels of the Soviet Union
Ships transferred under Project Hula