Twiggs was named for Major Levi Twiggs of the Marine Corps, killed at Chapultepec in 1847. Charleston Navy Yard laid her down on 20 January 1943, launched her on 7 April, and commissioned her on 4 November.
She fought at Leyte, Luzon, and Iwo Jima, and arrived off Okinawa on 25 March 1945 in the screen of the carrier Ticonderoga (CV-14). She spent the campaign on radar picket and fire support, including the landings on Iheya Shima. On 13 December 1944, earlier in the war, she had come alongside Haraden (DD-585) in the Sulu Sea after that ship was hit by a kamikaze.
At 8:30 in the evening on 16 June 1945, on picket duty off Senaga Shima, a low-flying Jill torpedo bomber put a torpedo into her port side. It set off the number-two magazine. The plane circled and crashed into her. Commander George Philip Jr. was mortally wounded on the bridge. He had been aboard for all 84 days of her Okinawa tour and received the Navy Cross. Fires and burning oil drove the crew off. Of 188 survivors, the destroyer Putnam picked up 114 and watched the end: a last explosion, and the ship gone in less than a minute. One hundred fifty-two men died. She was struck on 11 July 1945. The hulk was given to the Ryukyu government in 1957. Four battle stars.