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Exhibits
USS Sims (DD-409), 1939-1942
USS Sims, lead ship of a class of 1570-ton
destroyers was built at Bath Maine.
Commissioned in August
1939, she served
in the
Atlantic for the
next two-and-a-half
years, taking part in fleet training
exercises, neutrality patrols and "short
of war" operations. She transited
to the Pacific in December 1941,
following the Japanese
attack
on Pearl Harbor.
As a unit of Task
Force 17, built around USS Yorktown
(CV-5), Sims operated
in the Central
and Southern
Pacific during
the first part
of 1942. In
early May,
she was assigned to escort the
oilier USS Neosho (AO-23) as
the U.S. carriers
maneuvered
to confront
a Japanese
force advancing
to attack
Port Moresby,
New Guinea. In the early phases
of the Battle of the Coral Sea,
enemy carrier planes
found the destroyer and oilier
on
May 7, 1942. In an overwhelming
air attack,
USS
Sims was sunk.
The
USS Neosho was badly
damaged and had to
be scuttled.
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