Sims (DD 409) off Boston Navy Yard, May 1940, with two quadruple torpedo tube mounts.
USS Sims (DD 409) was the name ship of the 1,570-ton destroyer class. Built at Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine with Hughes, she was commissioned 1 August 1939. Attached to DesRon 2, she operated in the Atlantic for the next 30 months, participating in fleet training exercises, neutrality patrols and “short of war” operations.
USS Neosho

USS Neosho (AO 23), lost with Sims.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, she and her squadron were transferred to the Pacific. Early in 1942, as a unit of Task Force 17, Sims operated in the Central and Southern Pacific escorting Yorktown (CV 5). In early May, she was assigned to escort oiler Neosho (AO 23) as Yorktown and Lexington (CV 2) maneuvered to confront a Japanese force advancing to attack Port Moresby, New Guinea.

In the early phases of the resulting Battle of the Coral Sea on 7 May, enemy carrier aircraft found the destroyer and oiler. An overwhelming air attack sank Sims and damaged Neosho so badly that she was scuttled.


Source: Naval Historical Center including Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.