USS Cummings, a 1465-ton Mahan class destroyer built at New York City, was placed in commission in November 1936. Following initial service in the Atlantic area, she was sent to the Pacific in the fall of 1937 and, with the exception of 1939 U.S. Fleet maneuvers in the Caribbean, served in that ocean for the next six years. Based at Pearl Harbor beginning in April 1940, she made a cruise to Samoa, New Zealand and Tahiti in March and April 1941, but mainly operated in the Hawaiian area as political tensions rose between the United States and Japan.
Cummings was tied up at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard when Japanese planes attacked the Fleet there on 7 December 1941, thus bringing the two nations into open warfare. She was employed on convoy escort service between Hawaii and the U.S. mainland for the rest of 1941 and the first four months of 1942. In May Cummings went to the south Pacific, where she carried out patrol and escort missions during the Guadalcanal campaign and the subsequent operations to seize bases further north in the Solomon Islands chain. After being overhauled on the West Coast in the fall of 1943 Cummings served in the Alaskan theater for a few weeks late in the year.
In January and February 1944 Cummings screened U.S. aircraft carriers during the Marshalls campaign. She operated with the British Navy in the Indian Ocean in March-May of that year, then returned to Hawaii to resume service in the central Pacific. In July and the destroyer escorted the heavy cruiser Baltimore as she carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Hawaii and Alaska and back to the U.S. The President was on board Cummings for a few days in August during trips between Seattle, Washington, and the Puget Sound Navy Yard.
Cummings took part in raids on Wake and Marcus Islands during September and October 1944, and accompanied escort aircraft carriers during the Leyte invasion later in October. She was thereafter stationed in the Marianas and Bonin Islands areas, mainly performing patrol, escort and air-sea rescue missions, but also taking part in the assault on Iwo Jima in February and March 1945. In September 1945, after Japan's surrender, Cummings supervised the occupation of Haha Jima. She then steamed home, stopping at San Pedro, California, on her way to the U.S. East Coast. USS Cummings was decommissioned in December 1945, stricken from the list of Naval vessels in January 1947 and sold for scrapping in July of that year.
USS Cummings was named in honor of Lieutenant Commander Andrew B. Cummings (1830-1863), who lost his life as a result of wounds received on board USS Richmond in March 1863.
This page features all the views we have concerning USS Cummings (DD-365).
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 101660 USS Cummings (DD-365) Underway at sea, 29 November 1937. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 63KB; 740 x 540 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 92098 USS Cummings (DD-365) Underway in San Diego harbor, California, 11 April 1938. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 121KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 61868 USS Cummings (DD-365) Underway in San Diego harbor, California, circa 1938 U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 105KB; 740 x 595 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 101659 USS Cummings (DD-365) Underway at sea during the later 1930s. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 540 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 66798 USS Cummings (DD-365) Photographed by Ted Stone, circa the later 1930s. Courtesy of the Mariners Museum, Newport News, Virginia. Ted Stone Collection. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 67KB; 740 x 445 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 66797 USS Cummings (DD-365) Photographed by Ted Stone, circa the later 1930s. Courtesy of the Mariners Museum, Newport News, Virginia. Ted Stone Collection. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 65KB; 430 x 765 pixels |
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Photo #: 19-N-28672 USS Cummings (DD-365) Plan view, forward, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 4 March 1942. Note Cummings' forward smokestack, 26-foot motor whaleboat, forward superstructure details and 5"/38 gun mounts. USS Selfridge is partially visible in the background. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 131KB; 740 x 630 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-28671 USS Cummings (DD-365) Plan view, aft, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 4 March 1942. Cummings' midships torpedo tubes are trained out to port, and the small tug Despatch # 6 is alongside to starboard. USS Selfridge is partially visible in the background, and a submarine is under construction beyond Crane # 4 in the left distance. Note the searchlight in the center foreground. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 135KB; 740 x 635 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 80-G-366997 USS Cummings (DD-365) Underway at sea on 3 September 1944, the day she participated in an attack on Wake Island. Her camouflage is Measure 31, Design 23D. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 91KB; 740 x 595 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 80-G-K-14467 (Color) Destroyer Division Six, Destroyer Squadron Three (DesDiv6, DesRon3) At San Diego, California, in October 1941. Ships are (from inboard): USS Clark (DD-361), Squadron flagship; USS Case (DD-370), Division flagship; USS Cummings (DD-365); USS Shaw (DD-373); USS Tucker (DD-374). Note that these destroyers are painted in at least two different camouflage schemes. There is a tuna boat passing in the background. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 82KB; 740 x 520 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-16356 USS Cummings (DD-365) Ship's historical data plaque, photographed by the New York Navy Yard, 25 January 1937. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 175KB; 740 x 550 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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USS Cummings is shown in the lower right center of the following chart, tied up at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 28 February 2006
Link added 19 June 2006