USS Sims (DE-154/APD-50), a of the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

, was named in honor of Admiral

Admiral

Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...

 William Sowden Sims

William Sims

William Sowden Sims was an admiral in the United States Navy who sought during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to modernize the Navy. During World War I he commanded all United States naval forces operating in Europe...

 (1858–1936), who pushed for modernization of the navy. She is the second ship in the United States Navy to be named .

Sims was laid down on 7 September 1942 at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia

Portsmouth, Virginia

Portsmouth is located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2010, the city had a total population of 95,535.The Norfolk Naval Shipyard, often called the Norfolk Navy Yard, is a historic and active U.S...

; launched on 6 February 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Anne H. Sims, and commissioned on 24 April 1943, with Lieutenant Commander

Lieutenant Commander

Lieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...

 Charles G. Raible in command.

Service history

After fitting out, Sims completed her shakedown off Bermuda

Bermuda

Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...

. She was then assigned to Task Group (TG) 21.6 escorting tanker

Tanker (ship)

A tanker is a ship designed to transport liquids in bulk. Major types of tankship include the oil tanker, the chemical tanker, and the liquefied natural gas carrier.-Background:...

s from Curaçao

Curaçao

Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...

 to Derry

Derry

Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...

, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

. After two such runs, the western terminus was changed to New York, and the escort made eight more trips escorting tankers from New York to Derry. In the 20 crossings, only one tanker was sunk by a U-boat

U-boat

U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

.

On 23 September 1944, Sims entered the Boston Navy Yard

Boston Navy Yard

The Boston Navy Yard, originally called the Charlestown Navy Yard and later Boston Naval Shipyard, was one of the oldest shipbuilding facilities in the United States Navy. Established in 1801, it was officially closed as an active naval installation on July 1, 1974, and the property was...

 for conversion into a Charles Lawrence-class high speed transport

High speed transport

High Speed Transports were converted destroyers and destroyer escorts used to support amphibious operations in World War II and afterward. They received the US Hull classification symbol APD; "AP" for transport and "D" for destroyer....

. The work completed, Sims (now designated APD-50) departed Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 on 6 December 1944 for Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

. She served as a training ship there until 24 January 1945 when she put to sea. After transiting the Panama Canal

Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...

, and a brief shakedown period at San Diego, the transport arrived at Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

 on 20 February.

Sims sailed for the Philippine Islands on 5 March and arrived there on the 21st. A week later, the transport stood out of Leyte Gulf

Leyte Gulf

Leyte Gulf is a body of water immediately east of the island of Leyte in the Philippines, adjoining the Philippine Sea of the Pacific Ocean, at . The Gulf is bounded on the north by the island of Samar, which is separated from Leyte on the west by the narrow San Juanico Strait, and on the south by...

 as part of Task Unit 51.13.16, bound for the invasion of Okinawa

Battle of Okinawa

The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...

. Except for two fast convoy

Convoy

A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...

 trips to Ulithi

Ulithi

Ulithi is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about 191 km east of Yap. It consists of 40 islets totalling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest in the world. It is administered by the state of Yap in the Federated States of...

, she remained off Okinawa

Okinawa Island

Okinawa Island is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, and is home to Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture. The island has an area of...

 from 1 April to 27 May. During this period, the ship was part of the anti-aircraft

Anti-aircraft warfare

NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...

 and anti-submarine

Anti-submarine warfare

Anti-submarine warfare is a branch of naval warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, or other submarines to find, track and deter, damage or destroy enemy submarines....

 screen around the island. She shot down an attacking Japanese bomber

Bomber

A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, by dropping bombs on them, or – in recent years – by launching cruise missiles at them.-Classifications of bombers:...

 on 16 April. On 3 and 4 May and again on 13 and 14 May, Sims assisted in the search for survivors of picket destroyers hit by kamikaze

Kamikaze

The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....

 aircraft.

On the evening of 18 May, two kamikaze planes made a combined attack. Both planes, hit by anti-aircraft fire, crashed into the water on her port side with a violent explosion that lifted and shook the entire ship. The shock caused serious oil leaks and considerable damage to machinery and equipment. The crew repaired the damage, and Sims continued patrolling. On the 24th, she was again attacked by a kamikaze. The plane, even though hit by anti-aircraft fire, crashed close aboard to starboard. Sims was sprayed with shrapnel which wounded 11 of her crew. Later that day, a fire and rescue party was sent on board which had been hit by a kamikaze. Fires prevented flooding her magazine, and she had been abandoned. Sims party helped bring the fires under control, and Barry was taken under tow by a tug

Tug

Tuğ is a village in the Khojavend Rayon of Azerbaijan....

. Sims departed Okinawa on 27 May with a convoy which she escorted to Saipan

Saipan

Saipan is the largest island of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of . The 2000 census population was 62,392...

 before continuing on to Leyte

Leyte Island

Leyte is an island in the Visayas group of the Philippines.The island measures about 180 km north-south and about 65 km at its widest point. In the north it nearly joins Samar, separated by the San Juanico Strait, which becomes as narrow as 2 km in some places...

 for damage repairs.

The transport was back on patrol off Okinawa on 26 June. On 14 August, Sims rendezvoused at sea with the Tokyo Bay

Tokyo Bay

is a bay in the southern Kantō region of Japan. Its old name was .-Geography:Tokyo Bay is surrounded by the Bōsō Peninsula to the east and the Miura Peninsula to the west. In a narrow sense, Tokyo Bay is the area north of the straight line formed by the on the Miura Peninsula on one end and on...

 Occupation Force south of Japan. The ship landed a group of British

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 Marines

Royal Marines

The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...

 and Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 personnel at the Yokosuka Naval Base

Yokosuka Naval District

was the first of four main administrative districts of the pre-war Imperial Japanese Navy. Its territory included Tokyo Bay and the Pacific coasts of central and northern Honshū from the Kii Peninsula to Shimokita Peninsula.-History:...

 on 30 August. The following day, she landed a company of United States Marines at the Tateyama Naval Air Station and stood by and took them off again when they were relieved by 8th U.S. Army units on 3 September. Sims then made a voyage to Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima, officially , is an island of the Japanese Volcano Islands chain, which lie south of the Ogasawara Islands and together with them form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The island is located south of mainland Tokyo and administered as part of Ogasawara, one of eight villages of Tokyo...

, after which she operated in the Japanese home waters until 28 November. On that date, she stood out of Tokyo Bay en route to the eastern seaboard of the United States. The transport disembarked 208 passengers at San Diego, California

San Diego, California

San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

, on 17 December 1945, and continued to New York for pre-inactivation overhaul.

Sims was decommissioned at Green Cove Springs, Florida

Green Cove Springs, Florida

Green Cove Springs is a city in Clay County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,378 at the 2000 census. As of 2010, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 6,908. It is the county seat of Clay County....

, on 24 April 1946 and placed in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. She remained inactive until struck from the Navy List on 1 June 1960. Her hulk was sold to the North American Smelting Company, Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...

, on 14 April 1961 and scrapped.

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