USS Enterprise (CV-6) was a carrier built for the United States Navy during the 1930s. She was the seventh U.S. Navy vessel of that name. Colloquially called "The Big E", she was the sixth aircraft carrier of the United States Navy. Launched in 1936, she was the only Yorktown-class carrier to survive World War II. She was also one of only three American fleet carriers commissioned before the war to survive it; the others were and .
Enterprise participated in more major actions of the war against Japan than any other United States ship. These actions included the attack on Pearl Harbor — 18 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers of her air group arrived over the harbor during the attack; seven were shot down with eight airmen killed and two wounded, making her the only American aircraft carrier with men at Pearl Harbor during the attack and some of the first to sustain casualties during the Pacific War — the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, various other air-sea engagements during the Guadalcanal campaign, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Enterprise earned 20 battle stars, the most for any U.S. warship in World War II, and was the most decorated U.S. ship of World War II. She was also the first American ship to sink a full-sized enemy warship after the Pacific War had been declared when her aircraft sank the Japanese submarine I-70 on 10 December 1941. The Japanese destroyer Hayate (1925) was sunk the next day at Wake Island. On three occasions during the war, the Japanese announced that she had been sunk in battle, inspiring her nickname "The Grey Ghost". By the end of the war, her planes and guns had downed 911 enemy planes, sunk 71 ships, and damaged or destroyed 192 more.
Despite efforts made by the public after the war to turn Enterprise into a museum ship, unfortunately Enterprise was scrapped from 1958 to 1960.
Construction and commissioning
The sixth carrier built for the United States Navy and the second of the , Enterprise was laid down on July 16, 1934 and launched on 3 October 1936 at Newport News Shipbuilding, sponsored by Lulie Swanson, wife of Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson, and commissioned on 12 May 1938 with Captain Newton H. White, Jr. in command. Enterprise sailed south on a shakedown cruise which took her to Rio de Janeiro. Captain Charles A. Pownall relieved White on 21 December. After her return, she operated along the East Coast and in the Caribbean until April 1939, when she was ordered to duty in the Pacific.
Service history
Enterprise was one of fourteen ships to receive the early RCA CXAM-1 radar. Captain George D. Murray assumed command of the carrier on 21 March 1941. Based first at San Diego (where she was used in the filming of Dive Bomber, starring Errol Flynn and Fred MacMurray) and then at Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island of Oahu after President Roosevelt ordered the Fleet to be "forward based", the carrier and her Air Group trained intensively and transported aircraft to American island bases in the Pacific. Enterprise and the other ships of Task Force 8 (TF 8) departed Pearl Harbor on 28 November 1941 to deliver Marine Fighter Squadron 211 (VMF-211) to Wake Island nearly due west. She was scheduled to return to Hawaii on 6 December 1941, but was delayed by the weather (which probably saved her from being sunk because the attack on Pearl Harbor was targeted not just at the battleships but mainly at US aircraft carriers) and she was still at sea about west of Oahu at dawn on 7 December 1941.
World War II Pearl Harbor
Enterprise launched eighteen of her SBDs - the CAG's aircraft, 13 aircraft from Scouting Squadron Six (VS-6) and four aircraft from Bombing Squadron Six (VB-6) - at dawn on 7 December to scout an arc extending from the northeast to southeast of the ship, and to land at Ford Island at Pearl Harbor after completing their search routes. As these aircraft arrived in pairs over Pearl Harbor, they were caught between attacking Japanese aircraft and defensive anti-aircraft fire from the ships and shore installations below. Seven SBDs were shot down, either from enemy action or friendly fire, with the loss of eight airmen killed and two wounded.
Enterprise received radio messages from Pearl Harbor reporting that the base was under attack, and she was later directed to launch an airstrike based on an inaccurate report of a Japanese carrier southwest of her location. The strike was launched around 17:00, consisting of six Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters of Fighting Squadron Six (VF-6), 18 Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bombers of Torpedo Squadron Six (VT-6), and six SBDs of VB-6.
Unable to locate any targets, the torpedo and dive bombers returned to Enterprise, but the six fighters were directed to divert to Hickam Field on Oahu. Although word of the planes' expected arrival had been broadcast to all ships and anti-aircraft units in the area, the appearance of the Wildcats in the night sky over Oahu triggered panic firing, which shot down three of them, killing their pilots, while a fourth aircraft ran out of fuel, forcing the pilot to bail out.
Enterprise pulled into Pearl Harbor for fuel and supplies on the evening of 8 December. Vice-Admiral William Halsey Jr., commander of Carrier Division 2, ordered every able-bodied man on board to help rearm and refuel Enterprise; this process normally took 24 hours to complete, but was completed this time within seven hours. She and the other ships of TF 8 sailed early the next morning to patrol against possible additional attacks on the Hawaiian Islands. Although the group encountered no Japanese surface ships, Enterprise aircraft sank at on 10 December 1941.
During the last two weeks of December 1941, Enterprise and her escorts steamed west of Hawaii to cover the islands while two other carrier groups made a belated attempt to relieve Wake Island. After a brief layover at Pearl Harbor, Enterprise and her group sailed on 11 January 1942, protecting convoys reinforcing Samoa.
On 16 January 1942, a TBD of VT-6, piloted by Chief Aviation Machinist's Mate and enlisted Naval Aviation Pilot Harold F. Dixon, got lost on patrol, ran out of fuel, and ditched. Dixon and his two crewmates, bombardier Anthony J. Pastula and gunner Gene Aldrich, survived for 34 days in a small rubber raft after their food and water were washed overboard, before drifting ashore on the atoll of Pukapuka, where the natives fed them and notified Allied authorities. The three men were then picked up by . Dixon was awarded the Navy Cross for "extraordinary heroism, exceptional determination, resourcefulness, skilled seamanship, excellent judgment and highest quality of leadership."
On 1 February 1942, Enterprises Task Force 8 raided Kwajalein, Wotje, and Maloelap in the Marshall Islands. In two waves, 64 airplanes attacked and for the loss of six of their number, sank only a small gunboat and damaged the light cruiser Katori, the minelayer Tokiwa, and five other ships. Also, numerous airplanes and ground facilities were destroyed. Enterprise received only minor damage in the Japanese counterattack, as TF 8 retired to Pearl Harbor.
The next month, Enterprise, now part of Task Force 16, swept the central Pacific, attacking enemy installations on Wake and Marcus Islands.
Doolittle Raid, April 1942
After minor alterations and repairs at Pearl Harbor, Enterprise and TF 16 departed on 8 April 1942 to rendezvous with her sister ship and sailed west, escorting Hornet on the mission to launch 16 United States Army Air Forces North American B-25 Mitchells in the "Doolittle Raid" on Tokyo. While fighters from Enterprise flew combat air patrol, the B-25s launched on 18 April, and flew undetected the remaining to the target. The task force, its presence known to the enemy after a Japanese picket boat radioed a warning, reversed course and returned to Pearl Harbor on 25 April.
Battle of Midway, June 1942
Five days later, Enterprise sortied toward the South Pacific to reinforce U.S. carriers operating in the Coral Sea. However, the Battle of the Coral Sea was over before Enterprise arrived. With Hornet, she performed a feint towards Nauru and Banaba (Ocean) islands which caused the Japanese to delay Operation RY to seize the two islands, Enterprise returned to Pearl Harbor on 26 May 1942, and began intensive preparation to meet the expected Japanese thrust at Midway Island.
On 28 May, Enterprise departed Pearl Harbor as Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance's flagship with orders "to hold Midway and inflict maximum damage on the enemy by strong attrition tactics". With Enterprise in TF 16 were Hornet, six cruisers, ten destroyers and four oilers. On 30 May, Task Force 17 (TF 17), with Rear Admiral Frank J. Fletcher in , left Pearl Harbor with two cruisers and six destroyers and rendezvoused with TF 16; as senior officer present, Rear Admiral Fletcher became "Officer in Tactical Command". Vice Admiral Halsey, the usual commander of TF 16 and senior to both Fletcher and Spruance, was medically ordered to remain in a naval hospital at Pearl Harbor due to stress-induced severe weight loss and severe psoriasis.
Each side launched air attacks during the day in a decisive battle. Though the forces were in contact until 7 June, by 10:45 am on 4 June the outcome had been decided. Three Japanese carriers were burning and it was only a matter of time until a fourth was caught and knocked out. The Battle of Midway began on the morning of 4 June 1942, when four Japanese carriers, unaware of the presence of U.S. naval forces, launched attacks on Midway Island. Shortly after the first bomb fell on Midway, the first wave of planes (4 B-26B Marauders, 6 TBF-1 Avengers, 11 SB2U-3s, 16 SBDs and 15 B-17s) from Midway Island attacked unsuccessfully. Several more groups attacked, again failing to damage their targets. Planes from the U.S. carriers attacked next. Enterprise torpedo bombers attacked first, scoring no hits and suffering heavy losses. Soon after, Enterprise dive bombers attacked and disabled the Japanese carriers and , leaving them ablaze, while Yorktown aircraft also bombed the , leaving her burning and dead in the water.
Within an hour, the remaining Japanese carrier, , launched air strikes that crippled Yorktown with three bombs and two torpedoes striking home during two separate attacks. In late afternoon, a mixed squadron of Enterprise and Yorktown bombers, flying from Enterprise, disabled Hiryu, leaving her burning. The following day Enterprise dive bombers alone sank the cruiser Mikuma. While Yorktown and were the only American ships sunk, TF 16 and TF 17 lost a total of 113 planes, 61 of them in combat. Japanese losses were much higher: four carriers (all scuttled), one cruiser and 272 carrier aircraft with many of their highly experienced aircrews. Despite losses to her aircraft squadrons, Enterprise came through undamaged and returned to Pearl Harbor on 13 June 1942.
South Pacific
Captain Arthur C. Davis relieved Murray on 30 June 1942. After a month of rest and overhaul, Enterprise sailed on 15 July 1942 for the South Pacific, where she joined TF 61 to support the amphibious landings in the Solomon Islands on 8 August. For the next two weeks, the carrier and her planes guarded seaborne communication lines southwest of the Solomons. On 24 August, a strong Japanese force was discovered some north of Guadalcanal, and TF 61 sent planes to the attack. In the ensuing Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the light carrier was sunk, and the Japanese troops intended for Guadalcanal were forced back. Enterprise suffered the most heavily of the American ships; three direct bomb hits and four near misses killed 74, wounded 95, and inflicted serious damage on the carrier. Quick, hard work by damage control parties patched her up so that she was able to return to Hawaii under her own power.