The Sumner was built at Kearney, New Jersey in the fall of 1943, and was commissioned January 26, 1944. In September, after a long trial period in the Atlantic, she reported for combat to CincPac at Pearl Harbor. As part of the famous Third Fleet she operated in the Philippines with the fast carriers and new battleships in their air strikes against the Japanese. Then in November 1944, she joined the seventh Fleet operation in Philippine waters.
On the night of 2-3 December, 1944 theSumner, with sister ships U.S.S. Moale and U.S.S. Cooper, was assigned the task of intercepting a Japanese convoy which was enroute to Ormoc Bay, Leyte to land reinforcememts. Shortly after entering enemy waters Japanese planes discovered the destroyers and attacked steadily for the next four hours. One bomb in a near miss perforated the Sumner's starboard side and started a fire which marked her clearly for the enemy. Finally at midnight the three destroyers reached Ormac Bay. The convoy was already there and unloading. The Sumner sank two ships ( one a Destroyer ) and shot down six planes. The Moale did as well, but the Cooper was sunk either by a mine or a torpedo.
The Sumner's next assignment was to support landings on Mindora and Luzon. During the pre-invasion bombardment on Luzon, a Japanese Kamikazi clipped the after stack, tearing off the sfter torpedo mount, demolishing the asfter group of machine guns, and exploding its bombs in a after compartment. Fourteen of the crew were killed and more were wounded. The Sumner stayed in action until after the landings, and then returned to the Admiralty Islands for temporary repairs. Finally she went to Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco for three months overhaul.
During June and July of 1945, the Sumner was used to train new destroyer crews from the West Coast. In August and September she supported the occupation of Japan. She returned to the West Coast in October where she remained until May, 1946 when she sailed for Bikini to participate in Operation Crossroads.
Post-war duty sent the Sumner to Australia, Guam, The Phillipines, China and Japan with Task Force 38, returning in October, 1947. She operated off the West Coast on reduced compliment until 1949 when she was transfered to the East Coast. The 1950 yard period in Philadelphia was followed by Operation Portex off Puerto Rico, a mediterranean tour with the Sixth Fleet, an independent operation, and operations Micowex and Packex.
The summer of 1952 saw a major overhaul in Boston which included conversion to 3"/50 armament. After this overhaul period the Sumner operated independently from Norfolk, Virginia and ran training exercises at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
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