The name means thin cloud. Usugumo was a Fubuki-class destroyer built at Ishikawajima in Tokyo. She was laid down on 21 October 1926, launched on 26 December 1927 and commissioned on 26 July 1928. In the Sino-Japanese War she covered landings in southern China. A naval mine severely damaged her on 15 August 1940 and she went to Maizuru Naval Arsenal.
She was still under repair at Pearl Harbor and was not ready for duty until the end of July 1942, when she joined the Fifth Fleet at Ominato. From August 1942 to January 1943 she patrolled off Hokkaido and the Kurils and escorted ships to Attu and Kiska. On 26 March 1943 she was escorting the transport Sanko Maru during the Battle of the Komandorski Islands and did not fight. She helped evacuate Kiska in July and August 1943.
In 1944 she resumed northern patrols and troop escort duty. On 5 July 1944 she sailed from Otaru for Uruppu with a convoy. USS Skate hit her with two torpedoes in the Sea of Okhotsk. They broke her back, and she sank in six minutes. Forty-nine men survived from a crew of 316. She was struck from the Navy List on 10 September 1944.
Commanding officers, from the combinedfleet.com record: Commander Takeo Koyama, until 20 June 1942; Lieutenant Commander Shunsaku Ikeda, from 20 June 1942.
Sources: Allyn Nevitt's combinedfleet.com Tabular Record of Movement for IJN Usugumo; Wikipedia, Japanese destroyer Usugumo, rewritten here.