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History | |
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Builder | Bath Iron Works |
Laid down | 15 July 1937 |
Launched | 8 April 1939 |
Sponsored by | Mrs. William S. Sims |
Commissioned | 1 August 1939 |
Stricken | 24 June 1942 |
Fate | Sunk by Japanese aircraft in Battle of Coral Sea on 7 May 1942 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Sims-class destroyer |
Displacement |
|
Length | 348 ft, 3¼ in, (106.15 m) |
Beam | 36 ft, 1 in (11 m) |
Draft | 13 ft, 4.5 in (4.07 m) |
Propulsion | High-pressure super-heated boilers, geared turbines with twin screws, 50,000 horsepower |
Speed | 35 knots |
Range | 3,660 nautical miles at 20 kt (6,780 km at 37 km/h) |
Complement | 192 (10 officers/182 enlisted) |
Armament |
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Armor | None |
USS Sims (DD-409) was the lead ship of her class of destroyers in the United States Navy during World War II. She was the first ship to be named for William Sims, an Admiral who pushed for the modernization of the Navy. [1]
Sims was laid down on 15 July 1937 by Bath Iron Works Corporation in Bath, Maine. She was launched on 8 April 1939, sponsored by Mrs. Anne Erwin Sims, and commissioned on 1 August 1939. [2] [1]
After shakedown training in the Caribbean and post-shakedown availability in the Boston Navy Yard, Sims joined the Atlantic Squadron at Norfolk, Virginia on 2 August 1940. The destroyer operated with the Neutrality Patrol in Caribbean and South Atlantic waters. In November–December 1940, Sims patrolled off Martinique. On 28 May 1941, the ship arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, and began operating from there. She sailed for Iceland on 28 July with an American task force. In August, the destroyer patrolled the approaches to Iceland. In September–October, the ship made two North Atlantic patrols. Sims had been attached to Destroyer Squadron 2 (DesRon 2) since she began making Neutrality Patrols. [1]
With the outbreak of war on 7 December 1941, DesRon 2 became part of Task Force 17 (TF17) formed around Yorktown. The task force sortied from Norfolk on 16 December 1941 for San Diego, California. From there, it sailed as part of a convoy taking Marines to Samoa, arriving on 23 January 1942. [1]
At the time, it was believed that the Japanese would attack Samoa to sever Allied communications with Australia. To thwart such a move, a carrier raid against Japanese bases in the Marshall Islands was planned. The Yorktown task force was to strike the islands of Mili, Jaluit, and Makin, while another force centered on Enterprise was to hit Kwajalein, Wotje, and Maloelap. [1]
TF 17 departed Samoa on 25 January, with Sims in the screen. At 1105 on 28 January, she sighted an enemy bomber. At 1114, a stick of four bombs fell approximately 1,500 yards astern, straddling the wake of the destroyer. The next day, the two carrier forces and a bombardment group attacked the islands and withdrew. [1]
Sims, with TF 17, sailed from Pearl Harbor on 16 February to attack Wake Island. Shortly after departing, their sailing orders were changed, and they proceeded to the Canton Island area. Canton is a small island on the Honolulu-New Caledonia air route, and it was thought to be endangered by the Japanese. [1]
By early March, the Japanese had occupied Lae and Salamaua on the north coast of New Guinea. To check this drive, a carrier strike was launched on 10 March from Lexington and Yorktown. Sims remained near Rossel Island in the Louisiade Archipelago with a force of cruisers and destroyers to protect the carriers from enemy surface ships. Sims next operated in the New Caledonia-Tonga Islands area. [1]
In late April 1942, a Japanese task force was assembled to begin operations in support of Japanese moves towards Australia. This consisted of a covering group to protect landing forces on Tulagi and Port Moresby and a striking force to eliminate Allied shipping in the Coral Sea. Shōhō was attached to the covering force, and Shōkaku and Zuikaku were the striking force under command of Admiral Takeo Takagi. The American ships were divided into task forces centered on Lexington and Yorktown. Sims was ordered to escort USS Neosho. The task force refueled on 5–6 May and then detached Neosho and Sims to continue to the next fueling point. [1]
On the morning of 7 May, a search plane from the Japanese striking force sighted the oiler and destroyer and reported them to Admiral Takagi as a carrier and a cruiser. Takagi ordered an all-out attack. At 0930, 15 high level bombers attacked the two ships but did no damage. At 1038, 10 attacked the destroyer, but skillful maneuvering evaded the nine bombs that were dropped. A third attack against the two ships by 36 Val dive bombers was devastating. Neosho was soon crippled and burning aft as the result of seven direct hits and one plane that dived into her. [1]
Sims was attacked from all directions. The destroyer defended herself as best she could. Three 250-kilogram (551 lb) bombs hit the destroyer. Two exploded in the engine room, and within minutes, the ship buckled amidships and began to sink, stern first. As Sims slid beneath the waves, there was a tremendous explosion that raised what was left of the ship almost 15 feet (4.6 m) out of the water. Chief R. J. Dicken, in a damaged whaleboat, picked up 15 other survivors. They remained with Neosho until they were rescued by Henley on 11 May. Sims was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 24 June 1942. [1]
Sims received two battle stars for World War II service. [1]
The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the battle was the first naval action in which the opposing fleets neither sighted nor fired upon one another, attacking over the horizon from aircraft carriers instead.
USS Yorktown (CV-5) was an aircraft carrier that served in the United States Navy during World War II. Named after the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, she was commissioned in 1937. Yorktown was the lead ship of the Yorktown class, which was designed on the basis of lessons learned from operations with the converted battlecruisers of the Lexington class and the smaller purpose-built USS Ranger.
USS Enterprise (CV-6) was a Yorktown-class carrier built for the United States Navy during the 1930s. She was the seventh U.S. Navy vessel of that name. Colloquially called "The Big E", she was the sixth aircraft carrier of the United States Navy. Launched in 1936, she was one of only three American carriers commissioned before World War II to survive the war. She participated in more major actions of the war against Japan than any other United States ship. These actions included the attack on Pearl Harbor — 18 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers of her air group arrived over the harbor during the attack; seven were shot down with eight airmen killed and two wounded, making her the only American aircraft carrier with men at Pearl Harbor during the attack and the first to sustain casualties during the Pacific War — the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, various other air-sea engagements during the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Enterprise earned 20 battle stars, the most for any U.S. warship in World War II, and was the most decorated U.S. ship of World War II. She was also the first American ship to sink a full-sized enemy warship after the Pacific War had been declared when her aircraft sank the Japanese submarine I-70 on 10 December 1941. On three occasions during the war, the Japanese announced that she had been sunk in battle, inspiring her nickname "The Grey Ghost". By the end of the war, her planes and guns had downed 911 enemy planes, sunk 71 ships, and damaged or destroyed 192 more.
USS Lexington (CV-2), nicknamed "Lady Lex", was the name ship of her class of two aircraft carriers built for the United States Navy during the 1920s. Originally designed as a battlecruiser, she was converted into one of the Navy's first aircraft carriers during construction to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which essentially terminated all new battleship and battlecruiser construction. The ship entered service in 1928 and was assigned to the Pacific Fleet for her entire career. Lexington and her sister ship, Saratoga, were used to develop and refine carrier tactics in a series of annual exercises before World War II. On more than one occasion these included successfully staged surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The ship's turbo-electric propulsion system allowed her to supplement the electrical supply of Tacoma, Washington, during a drought in late 1929 to early 1930. She also delivered medical personnel and relief supplies to Managua, Nicaragua, after an earthquake in 1931.
USS Hornet (CV-8), the seventh U.S. Navy vessel of that name, was a Yorktown-class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy.
The second USS Astoria (CL/CA-34) was a New Orleans-class cruiser of the United States Navy that participated in both the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway, but was then sunk in August 1942, at the Battle of Savo Island. Astoria was the first New Orleans-class cruiser to be laid down but launched after and received a hull number higher than the lead ship New Orleans.
USS Monaghan (DD-354) was the last ship built of the Farragut-class destroyer design. She was named for Ensign John R. Monaghan. Monaghan was laid down on November 21, 1933 at the Boston Navy Yard, and launched on January 9, 1935. She was sponsored by Miss Mary F. Monaghan, niece of Ensign Monaghan, and commissioned on 19 April 1935. During the next few years Monaghan operated primarily in the North Atlantic, training US Navy personnel who served in World War II. Monaghan was present during the Pearl Harbor raid on December 7, 1941. She participated in the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway in 1942. Monaghan was sunk in Typhoon Cobra east of the Philippines in 1944.
USS Pensacola (CL/CA-24) was a cruiser of the United States Navy that was in service from 1929 to 1945. She was the lead ship of the Pensacola class, which the navy classified from 1931 as heavy cruisers. The third Navy ship to be named after the city of Pensacola, Florida, she was nicknamed the "Grey Ghost" by Tokyo Rose. She received 13 battle stars for her service.
USS Walke (DD-416) was a World War II-era Sims-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy, named after Rear Admiral Henry A. Walke USN (1809–1896). Walke operated with the Neutrality Patrol in the Caribbean before World War II and fought in the Pacific Theater during the war before being sunk in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.
USS Portland (CL/CA–33) was the lead ship of the Portland class of cruiser and the first ship of the United States Navy named after the city of Portland, Maine. Launched in 1932, she completed a number of training and goodwill cruises in the interwar period before seeing extensive service during World War II, beginning with the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942, where she escorted the aircraft carrier Yorktown and picked up survivors from the sunken carrier Lexington. She screened for Yorktown again in the Battle of Midway, picking up her survivors as well. She then supported the carrier Enterprise during the initial phase of the Guadalcanal Campaign later that year, and was torpedoed during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. The torpedo inflicted heavy damage which put her out of action for six months as she was repaired in Sydney, Australia, and later San Diego, California.
USS Hughes (DD-410) was a World War II-era Sims-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy.
USS Anderson (DD-411) was a Sims-class destroyer in the United States Navy. She was named for Rear Admiral Edwin Alexander Anderson, Jr., a Medal of Honor recipient.
USS Sigsbee (DD-502), a Fletcher-class destroyer, was a ship of the United States Navy named for Rear Admiral Charles D. Sigsbee (1845–1923).
USS Neosho (AO-23) was a Cimarron-class fleet oiler serving with the United States Navy, the second ship to be named for the Neosho River in Kansas and Oklahoma.
USS Monssen (DD-436), a Gleaves-class destroyer, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for Mons Monssen, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions aboard USS Missouri (BB-11) in 1904. Commissioned in 1941, the destroyer saw service during World War II in both Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Monssen was sunk at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on 13 November 1942.
The third USS Worden (DD-352) was a Farragut-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II. She was named for John Lorimer Worden.
USS Lardner (DD-487), a Gleaves-class destroyer, was the second United States Navy ship to be named for Rear Admiral James L. Lardner, a Naval officer during the American Civil War. Lardner received 10 battle stars for World War II service.
USS Harrison (DD-573) was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy. She was second Navy ship of that name.
USS Healy (DD-672) was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy.
USS Russell (DD-414) was a World War II-era Sims-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy, named after Rear Admiral John Henry Russell. She was among the most decorated US Naval vessels of World War II.