William S. Sims was
an aide to President Theodore Roosevelt, president of the Naval War
College, and overall commander of American destroyers and later all
U.S. naval forces in European waters during World War I.
The first destroyer
to bear his name was DD-409, launched on 8 April 1939 and commissioned
on 1 August 1939. Her first duty was with Destroyer Squadron Two on
Neutrality Patrol in the Caribbean and South Atlantic. November and
December 1940 found her patrolling the waters off Martinique. By the
following spring, however, she was operating out of Newport, Rhode
Island, and then, in the summer, went on to Iceland with an American
task force. She was at sea in the North Atlantic on two lengthy
patrols that carried her through October 1941. In early November 1941,
she and the MORRIS (DD-417), HUGHES (DD-410), MUSTIN (DD-413), HAMMANN
(DD- 412), RUSSELL (DD-414), WALKE (DD-416), O=BRIEN
(DD-415), and ANDERSON (DD-411) escorted Convoy WS-124, an
all-American-ship convoy transporting British Commonwealth troops from
Great Britain to Nova Scotia, the first leg of a major troop movement
destined ultimately for Basra in the Near East.
Following Pearl
Harbor, her mission changed. She and the HUGHES, RUSSELL, and WALKE of
Destroyer Squadron Two joined the carrier YORKTOWN (CV-5) and Task
Force 17 bound for San Diego. There, they picked up a convoy carrying
marines to Samoa. Subsequently, Task Force 17 joined the ENTERPRISE
Task Force 8 and its destroyer escort including the BALCH (DD-363),
MAURY (DD-401), FANNING (DD-385), RALPH TALBOT (DD-390), GRIDLEY
(DD-380), McCALL (DD-400), DUNLAP (DD-384), and BLUE (DD-387) and
continued on to strike Japanese bases in the Gilbert and Marshall
Islands. The YORKTOWN, with the SIMS in her screen, left Samoa on 25
January 1942. At 1114 on the 28th, the destroyer was under attack. The
enemy’s four bombs fell harmlessly, however, straddling the
destroyer’s wake 1,500 yards astern.
Task Force 17 was off
the north coast of New Guinea in early March to halt Japanese
incursions on that island with a carrier strike on 10 March. The SIMS
remained near Rossel Island in the Louisiades with a force that
included the cruisers ASTORIA, AUSTRALIA, CHESTER, CHICAGO, HOBART,
MINNEAPOLIS, NEW ORLEANS, and PORTLAND and the destroyers MORRIS,
ANDERSON, HAMMANN, RUSSELL, WALKE, PERKINS (DD-377), PHELPS (DD-360),
DEWEY (DD-349), AYLWIN (DD-355), FARRAGUT (DD-348), MONAGHAN (DD-354),
and WORDEN (DD-352) to protect the carriers YORKTOWN and LEXINGTON
(CV-2) from enemy surface ships. She then moved on to operate in the
New Caledonia-Tonga Islands area.
By early May 1942, the Coral Sea was the
target of a major Japanese offensive consisting of one task force to
cover troops landing on Tulagi and Port Moresby and a second task force,
led by the carriers SHOKAKU and ZUIKAKU, to strike at Allied shipping in
the area. In the Coral Sea for refueling were Task Force 17, made up of
the YORKTOWN, SIMS, MORRIS, HAMMANN, ANDERSON, WALKE, and PERKINS; and
Task Force 11, with the LEXINGTON, PHELPS, DEWEY, AYLWIN, FARRAGUT, and
MONAGHAN. With confrontation imminent, the two task forces were combined
and on 6 May, the SIMS was ordered to escort the oiler NEOSHO (AO-23)
out of the area as the rest of the task force headed for Tulagi. The
SIMS and the oiler continued to the next fueling point. On the morning
of 7 May, a Japanese search plane mistakenly identified the two ships as
a carrier and a cruiser and brought down an all-out attack on the
American vessels.
Fifteen high level
enemy bombers appeared in the skies over the two ships at 0930, but
their bombs did no damage. A little over an hour later, ten more bombers
attacked the SIMS, but her captain's
skillful maneuvering evaded the nine bombs that were dropped. Soon after
came a third devastating attack by thirty-six dive bombers. The NEOSHO
was soon a blazing wreck after seven direct hits and a plane that
crashed into her.
Attacked from all directions, the SIMS’s gunners put up a good defense
but could not prevent three 500-pound bombs from getting through. Two
exploded in the engine room and within minutes, the ship buckled
amidships and began to sink, stern first. As she slid beneath the waves,
a tremendous explosion raised what was left of the ship almost fifteen
feet out of the water. Chief R. J. Dicken, in a damaged whaleboat,
picked up other survivors. They remained with the NEOSHO, and the
smoking hulk eventually drew the destroyer HENLEY (DD-391) to her on 11
May. The HENLEY picked up fourteen men from the SIMS and 109 from the
tanker. |
