USS Gallup, PF-47
A city in New Mexico.
Builder: Consolidated Steel Corp, Los Angeles, CA
Length: 303' 11"
Beam: 37' 6"
Draft: 12' 8" fl
Displacement: 2,230 tons
Propulsion: 2-shaft VTE, 3 boilers
Range: 9,500 nm at 12 knots
Top speed: 20 knots Complement: 190
Armament: 3 x 3"/50; 4 x 40mm (2x2); 9 x 20mm; 1 x Hedgehog, 8 x depth charge projectors; 2 x depth charge racks. For those frigates fitted out for weather patrol duty, the after 3-inch gun was removed and a weather balloon hanger was added aft.
History:
Gallup was launched 17 September 1943 by the Consolidated Steel Corp., Los Angeles, CA, and was sponsored by ENS Helen McMahon NNRC. She was commissioned 29 February 1944 at San Pedro, CA, under the command of LCDR Clayton M. Opp, USCG.
Following conversion work at Newport Beach CA, and shakedown out of San Pedro and San Diego, she departed the latter port 1 June 1944 for the Pacific war zone. Conducting antisubmarine patrol en route, she arrived at Noumea, New Caledonia, 21 June, and continued her escort and patrol duty in the waters of New Caledonia, New Guinea, and Australia until 12 October with Escort Division 43. On 17 August she bombarded enemy strongholds to support landings on Biak Island at Blue Beach, north of Wardo River by units of the 41st Infantry Division. She continued to fire until the troops had completed their landing and secured the beach. Again, on 25 August, Gallup lent support to the conquest of Biak by shelling the beaches between Menoerar and Cape Warari as the Army and Navy continued the successful New Guinea offensive.
Departing Hollandia 12 October 1944 Gallup was part of the screen for the vast task force which returned General MacArthur to the Philippines. On the 17th she shelled the beach area of Dinagat, and the next day she swept the channel into Leyte Gulf, PI, as U.S. forces poised for the invasion. She then began antisubmarine and antimine patrol near Black Beach, screening vessels engaged in landing operations. Stationed most of the time off Desolation Point, she collected tide and hydrographic information, served as dispatch boat and as escort through the cleared channel in Leyte Gulf. Guided incoming ships and convoys through the channel, and served as harbor entrance control vessel during landing operations. She performed these duties, most of the time in gusty, stormy weather, with Bisbee (PF--46), LCI(L)--843 and LCI(L)--344, before being sent on an escort mission to Humbolt Bay 28 November, touching San Pedro Bay and Kossol Roads, Manus, en route. On 3 December she left for the West Coast stopping to drop men at Seeadler Harbor, Admiralty Islands, and Pearl Harbor. She arrived in San Francisco on Christmas Day 1944.
Departing San Francisco 9 January 1945, Gallup steamed via Seattle to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, where she arrived on the 20th. She patrolled the North Pacific until she decommissioned at Cold Bay, Alaska
26 August. The next day she was transferred to the Soviet Union under lend-lease. She was commissioned into the Soviet Navy as EK-19, and patrolled the Far East. Returned by the Soviet Union at Yokosuka, Japan 14 November 1949, Gallup lay at Yokuska Navy Yard until she recommissioned 18 October 1950, Lt. Cmdr. William W. Boyd, Jr., USN, in command.
After shakedown off Sagami Wan, she got under way with Bisbee 23 November for Hungnam, Korea. There she relieved Hoquiam (PF--5) as harbor entrance control vessel, escorting ships when directed, guarding the channel against unfriendly ships, preventing friendly vessels from entering mined areas, and performing search and rescue services to the many refugees flooding through there.
On 19 December Gallup left for Pusan where she performed antisubmarine patrol on the approaches to the harbor, before leaving 31 December for Sasebo. Japan. On 29 January 1951, she returned to Korea, this time to Kansang and Kosong, for the purpose of feinting an amphibious assault to divert Communist forces and conducting a preassault bombardment on the installation at these points.
Gallup continued to operate out of Sasebo, making screening escort, patrol, and guide tours to Pusan, Wonsan, Chonjin, Korea, and Sangley Point and Subic Bay, PI. She helped in the bombardment of Wonsan 23--25 February 1951 as U.N. forces seized the harbor islands, and then served as harbor entrance control vessel and flycatcher (anti-small-boat, antiswimmer, anti-suicide craft). Returning to Yokosuka 14 March, she entered drydock there for extensive hull repairs. She continued similar duty afterward until she returned to Yokosuka 6 October.
Gallup decommissioned and was transferred under M.D.A.P. to Thailand at Yokosuka, 29 October 1951 and served the Thailand Navy as Prasae. Gallup received two battle stars for World War II service and three battle stars for the Korean War.
Sources:
The Coast Guard At War, Transports and Escorts, Vol. V, No. 1.
Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922-1946. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1992, pp. 148-149.
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. III, p. 11.
Richard A. Russell. Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan. [The U.S. Navy in the Modern World Series, No. 4.] Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center/U.S. Government Printing Office, 1997, pp. 39-40.