In 1943 and 1944 respectively, and were also transferred to the squadron from the Mediterranean where they, like (the 12th and last ship of the "Sims" class, lost in the Mediterranean), had served as squadron flagships. Although assigned to DesRon 2 in 1945, those two ships never operated with it as a unit. Beginning in late 1943, DesRon 2 participated in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, where "Anderson" was hit by shore battery fire. Invasions of the Marianas, western New Guinea, Palau and the Philippines followed. In 1945, the Okinawa campaign saw "Anderson", "Hughes", "Morris", "Sterett" and "Wilson" suffering kamikaze damage, with the squadron's historical files being lost in flagship "Morris" when she was hit by a kamikaze. The combined record of the ships of DesRon 2 included 145 battle stars (some earned while attached to other units) including ten or more stars for all ships that survived the war. More than 450 of the squadron's men had died, however, and 175 had been wounded. Scrapping disposed of "Lang", "Sterett", "Russell", "Morris" and "Roe" while "Stack", "Wilson", "Hughes", "Anderson", "Mustin" and "Wainwright" served as targets during Operation Crossroads, the Bikini atomic tests. There, while "Anderson" was sunk in Test Able on 1 July 1946, "Stack", "Wilson", "Mustin", "Hughes" and "Wainwright" survived both Tests Able and Baker. Scientists monitored the contaminated ships until 1948, when they were scuttled by gunfire—"Stack", "Wilson", "Mustin" and "Wainwright" off Kwajalein in April and July, and "Hughes", the last surviving member of the squadron, near California's Farallon Islands in October. The post-World War II period was analogous to the post-World War I time, when the U.S. Navy's destroyer forces consisted of large numbers of wartime construction-program ships, at a time of demobilization. The "Wickes" and "Clemson" classes were to the 1917–1920 destroyer force what the "Allen M. Sumner" and "Gearing" classes were to the destroyer force of 1944–1946. In January 1946, DesRon 66 included (flagship), , , , , in Division 131; and the , , and , in Division 132.