page_title: USS Milwaukee (CL-5)
section_title: Soviet service
hierarchical_section_title: USS Milwaukee (CL-5) / Service history / Soviet service
caption_attribution_description: English: The Soviet light cruiser Murmansk (formerly USS Milwaukee (CL-5)) off Lewes, Delaware (USA), on 8 March 1949, just prior to being turned to U.S. Navy control. Note the Soviet Navy flag on the stern, the hull painted with Soviet Navy fashion, with a white stripe at waterline, and the Vought OS2U Kingfisher plane on the catapult.
context_page_description: USS Milwaukee (CL-5) was an Omaha-class light cruiser built for the United States Navy during the 1920s. The ship spent most of her early career assigned to the Asiatic and Battle Fleets. In 1941 she was assigned to the Neutrality Patrol until she was refitted in New York in late 1941. She escorted a troop convoy to the Pacific in early 1942 before returning to the South Atlantic where she patrolled for German commerce raiders and blockade runners. In November, she intercepted one of the latter, but it scuttled itself before it could be captured. In 1944 she was temporarily transferred to the Soviet Navy and commissioned as Murmansk. The ship was returned by the Soviets in 1949 and sold for scrap in December.
context_section_description: On 20 April, the ship was transferred on loan to the Soviet Northern Fleet in Murmansk. She was commissioned in the Soviet Navy as Murmansk and performed convoy and patrol duty in the Arctic Ocean for the remainder of the war. Afterward, she became a training ship and participated in the 1948 fleet maneuvers.  On 16 March 1949, Milwaukee was transferred back to the United States. She was the first of 15 American warships returned by the Soviet Union. She entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 18 March 1949, and was sold for scrapping on 10 December to the American Shipbreakers, Inc. of Wilmington, Delaware.
caption: Murmansk off Lewes, Delaware, 8 March 1949
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