Sumter, APA-52, was the lead ship of her class of attack transports. Gulf Shipbuilding at Chickasaw, Alabama, laid her down on 3 April 1942 as the C2 merchant ship Iberville for the Waterman Steamship Company, Maritime Commission hull 474. She was launched on 4 October 1942 and acquired by the Navy on 30 April 1943 as the transport Sumter (AP-97). She was converted at Baltimore and commissioned in full on 1 September 1943, Captain Allan D. Blackledge in command. She was flagship of Transport Division 26 according to the Wikipedia DANFS text, while NavSource lists her in Transport Division 36.
She trained with the 25th Marines off San Clemente and sailed from San Diego on 13 January 1944. On 31 January she and three other transports landed three battalion landing teams of the 25th Marines on Ennumennet and Ennubirr, the islets used for artillery positions in support of the landings at Roi and Namur. She finished landing her troops by 3 February and sailed the next day. At Saipan on 15 June 1944 she landed troops of the 4th Marine Division, treated wounded direct from the beaches, and took on 85 casualties from LST-218.
She landed 81st Division troops on Angaur on 17 September, landed troops at San Pedro Bay on 2 October, and landed troops at Leyte on 23 November. On 8 January 1945 a kamikaze crashed into Callaway about 600 yards ahead of her, and she took over as guide for the formation. She landed her assault troops at Lingayen on 9 January and put ashore 1,352 Marines at Okinawa near Yontan airfield on 1 April.
She was decommissioned on 19 March 1946 and struck on 17 April 1946, and was returned to the Maritime Commission on 1 August 1946. She went into commercial service and was sold for scrapping on 31 August 1978 and broken up at Hong Kong in October 1978. She earned five battle stars.