Anderson was a Sims-class destroyer, hull DD-411. She was the first of the class to be commissioned. Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, at Kearny, New Jersey, laid her down on 15 November 1937 and launched her on 4 February 1939. The Navy commissioned her on 19 May 1939, with Lieutenant Commander William M. Hobby, Jr., in command. She was named for Rear Admiral Edwin Alexander Anderson, Jr. The photograph shows her on neutrality patrol on 29 June 1941. The picture below shows her in March 1945, with the hull number 411 on the bow.
At the Coral Sea she was in Yorktown's screen. She was not sunk. On 7 May aircraft from Yorktown and Lexington sank the light carrier Shoho. That same morning aircraft from Shokaku and Zuikaku sank the destroyer Sims and wrecked the oiler Neosho. On 8 May Japanese aircraft wrecked Lexington. Anderson took 377 of Lexington's men out of the water. Phelps scuttled the abandoned hulk. Yorktown took one bomb and was not sunk.
At Midway she was again in Yorktown's screen. On 4 June aircraft from Hiryu crippled Yorktown. Anderson picked up a shot-down Yorktown fighter pilot and 203 other men from the carrier. She was not sunk. On 6 June the submarine I-168 sank Hammann and the abandoned Yorktown. That loss is not hers.
She was still in service at the end of the war. On 1 July 1946 she was sunk in Bikini lagoon, in the Able atomic-bomb test.
