USSBayonne (PF-21),c. 1951.
History
United States
Name	Bayonne
Namesake	City ofBayonne, New Jersey
Reclassified	PF-21, 15 April 1943
Builder	American Ship Building Company,Cleveland,Ohio
Yard number	1013
Laid down	6 May 1943, as PG-129
Launched	11 September 1943
Sponsored by	Mrs. Hannah Gallagher
In service	22 September 1944
Out of service	6 October 1944
Commissioned	14 February 1945
Decommissioned	2 September 1945
Fate	Transferred to theSoviet Navy, 2 September 1945
Acquired	Returned by Soviet Navy, 14 November 1949
Recommissioned	28 July 1950
Decommissioned	31 January 1953
Honors & awards	6battle stars,Korean War
Fate	Transferred toJapan Maritime Self-Defense Force, 31 January 1953
Stricken	1 December 1961
Acquired	Returned by Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, 27 June 1967
Fate	Sunk as a target, 1 March 1968
Soviet Union
Name	EK-25[1]
Acquired	2 September 1945
Commissioned	2 September 1945
Fate	Returned to United States, 14 November 1949
Japan
Name	Buna
Acquired	31 January 1953
Renamed	YAC-11, 1 February 1965
Reclassified	Auxiliary stock craft (YAC), 1 February 1965
Decommissioned	31 March 1965
Fate	Returned to United States, 27 June 1967
General characteristics
Class & type	Tacoma-class frigate
Displacement	1,430 long tons (1,453 t) light 2,415 long tons (2,454 t) full
Length	303 ft 11 in (92.63 m)
Beam	37 ft 11 in (11.56 m)
Draft	13 ft 8 in (4.17 m)
Propulsion	2 × 5,500 shp (4,101 kW) turbines 3 boilers 2 shafts
Speed	20knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement	190
Armament	3 ×3"/50 dual purpose guns (3x1) 4 x40 mm guns (2×2) 9 ×20 mm guns (9×1) 1 ×Hedgehoganti-submarine mortar 8 × Y-gundepth charge projectors 2 × Depth charge tracks

USSBayonne (PF-21), aTacoma-classfrigate in commission in 1945 and from 1950 to 1953, thus far has been the only ship of theUnited States Navy to be named forBayonne, New Jersey. She later served in theSoviet Navy asEK-25 and in theJapan Maritime Self-Defense Force asJDSBuna (PF-14),JDSBuna (PF-294) and asYAC-11.

Bayonne was laid down under aMaritime Commission contract (MC hull 1487) on 6 May 1943, atCleveland, Ohio, by theAmerican Ship Building Company andlaunched on 11 September 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Hannah Gallagher. She was placed in non-commissioned service on 22 September 1944, for a voyage toBaltimore, Maryland, where she arrived on 2 October 1944, and was placed out of service on 6 October 1944. Upon the completion of herfitting-out, she wascommissioned at Baltimore, on 14 February 1945.

Bayonne moved south toHampton Roads,Virginia, at the end of February 1945 and, on 3 March 1945, put to sea bound forGuantánamo Bay,Cuba, whence she conducted hershakedown training. On 3 April 1945, she departed the Guantánamo Bay operating area and, after stops atKingston,Jamaica, andNew York City, entered thePhiladelphia Navy Yard atPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania, for post-shakedown repairs. She completed repairs early in May 1945 and on 7 May 1945 headed for New York City. Arriving the following day,Bayonne remained there for almost two months.

Selected for transfer to theSoviet Navy inProject Hula, a secret program for the transfer of U.S. Navy ships to the Soviet Navy atCold Bay in theTerritory of Alaska in anticipation of theSoviet Union joining thewar against Japan,Bayonne got underway on 3 July 1945 and steamed via thePanama Canal toBremerton,Washington, where she entered thePuget Sound Navy Yard for a short period of repairs. During the last week of August 1945, she proceeded to Cold Bay and soon began the training of her new Soviet crew.^[2]

Following the completion of training for her Soviet crew,Bayonne wasdecommissioned on 2 September 1945 at Cold Bay and transferred to the Soviet Union underLend-Lease immediately along with hersister shipUSS Poughkeepsie (PF-26). Commissioned into the Soviet Navy immediately,Bayonne was designated as astorozhevoi korabl ("escort ship") and renamedEK-25^[1] in Soviet service. She soon departed Cold Bay bound forPetropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union. Too late forWorld War II service with the Soviet Navy,EK-25 served as a patrol vessel in theSoviet 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 theUnited States Department of State that theUnited 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-25 among them. Negotiations for the return of the ships were protracted, but on 14 November 1949 the Soviet Union finally returnedEK-25 to the U.S. Navy atYokosuka,Japan.^[4]

Reverting to her old name,Bayonne was placed in thePacific Reserve Fleet and remained inactive at Yokosuka until recommissioned there on 28 July 1950 for service in theKorean War.

On 11 September 1950,Bayonne leftKobe, Japan, in company withTask Group (TG) 90.7, bound for the west coast ofKorea. On 15 September 1950, she screened theamphibious force whenUnited Nations forceslanded atInchon. She continued service in Korean waters for the next 16 months, making voyages to Japan intermittently for repairs and liberty. Until the end of August 1951,Bayonne continued to serve with TG 90.7; after that she operated with TG 92.1 in the waters nearWonsan andSongjin on Korea's east coast.

Bayonne was decommissioned at Yokosuka on 31 January 1953.

In October 1953, the United States loanedBayonne to Japan for service in theJapan Maritime Self-Defense Force, which named herJDSBuna (PF-14) (ぶな (PF-14); "fagus crenata").^[5] The JMSDF reclassified her asPF-294 on 1 September 1957.^[5] The U.S. Navy struck her name from theNavy list on 1 December 1961 and transferred her to Japan outright in August 1962.Buna was reclassified as an "auxiliary stock craft" (YAC) and renamedYAC-11 on 1 February 1965.^[5] Decommissioned on 31 March 1965, she was returned to the United States on 27 June 1967 for disposal and sunk as a target on 1 March 1968.

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  Korean Service Medal with sixbattle stars

The U.S. Navy awardedBayonne six battle stars for her service in the Korean War.

 This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.

• Photo gallery of USSBayonne at NavSource Naval History
• hazegray.org: USSBayonne
• "The Naval Database: JMSDF Kusu class patrol frigate (PF294) Buna" (in Japanese). Retrieved22 September 2014.

• Tacoma-class frigates
• Ships built in Cleveland
• 1943 ships
• World War II frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States
• Tacoma-class frigates of the Soviet Navy
• World War II frigates of the Soviet Union
• Cold War frigates of the Soviet Union
• Cold War frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States
• Korean War frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States
• Tacoma-class frigates of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
• Ships sunk as targets
• Maritime incidents in 1968
• Ships transferred under Project Hula

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