CV-6 USS Enterprise

"Big E"

The second of the Yorktown-class fleet carriers, Enterprise participated in almost every major action of the Pacific War. Earning 20 Battle Stars, a Navy Unit Commendation and a Presidential Unit Citation, she was the most decorated carrier in World War II. Unfortunately, post-war obsolescence proved to be her doom. Despite efforts by her wartime commander, Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey, to have her preserved as a museum, she was sold for scrap in 1958.

Highlights of Ship's Service History

Ship is ordered from Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Newport News, Virginia.

Keel laid.

Launched at Newport News, sponsored by Mrs. Claude A. Swanson, wife of the Secretary of the Navy.

Commissioned by Captain N. H. White.
Operated in the Atlantic and Caribbean areas, before being transferred to the Pacific Fleet.

Based out of San Diego and Pearl Harbor.

Delivered Marine fighter squadron VMF-211 to Wake Island.
Approaching Hawaii. Enterprise scout planes arrived over Pearl during the attack, and immediately joined in the defense. Other Enterprise planes were launched in a fruitless attempt to locate the Japanese fleet. Enterprise herself put into Pearl just long enough to refuel and reprovision, then returned to sea.
Enterprise aircraft locate, attack and sink the Japanese submarine I-70 about 120 miles northeast of the Hawaiian island of Molokai. I-70 is the first enemy warship to be sunk by U. S. Naval Aviation in the Pacific in WWII.

Patrols in Hawaii area.

Attacks on the islands of Kwajalein, Wotje, and Maloelap in the Marshall Islands. Enterprise aircraft destroy aircraft and facilities on the ground as well as sink three ships and damage eight others. Enterprise receives minor damage from responding Japanese aircraft.
Operations in the central Pacific, including strikes at Wake and the Marcus Islands.
Enterprise departs Pearl Harbor to join and provide air cover for CV-8 USS Hornet as the latter ship carries the Doolittle Raiders on their historic raid on the Japanese Home Islands. The task force returns to Pearl on the 25th.
Enterprise sails from Pearl in an attempt to reinforce the USS Lexington and USS Yorktown at Coral Sea. Unable to arrive in time, she returns to Hawaii on the 26th of May.
Enterprise departs Pearl as the flagship of Task Force 16, Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, to defend Midway Island against a Japanese attack. With Enterprise in TF16 is CV-8 USS Hornet and a screening force of six cruisers and ten destroyers. TF16 is later joined by TF17, Rear Admiral Frank J. Fletcher, with CV-5 USS Yorktown, two cruisers and six destroyers.
The Battle of Midway. Aircraft from TF16/17 and Midway successfully defend the island from a Japanese fleet centered on four heavy carriers. The Americans lose 113 aircraft, the carrier Yorktown and a destroyer, but sink all four enemy carriers and a heavy cruiser, as well as damaging other ships and destroying 272 aircraft. TF16/17 returns to Pearl on 13 June.
Rest and overhaul at Pearl Harbor.
Enterprise sails to join Task Force 61 in support of amphibious landings in the Solomion Islands, including Guadalcanal.
Detecting a Japanese force sailing to reinforce Guadalcanal, TF61 dispatches aircraft to attack. A light carrier is sunk and the force is turned back. However, Enterprise suffers serious damage and casualties (74 killed, 95 wounded) from three direct hits and four near misses. Her crew patches her up and she returns to Pearl under her own power.
Enterprise undergoes repair at Pearl Harbor, after which she heads for the south Pacific where, with CV-8 USS Hornet, she re-forms Task Force 61.
Battle of Santa Cruz Island. TF61 search aircraft locate a Japanese carrier force. Enterprise aircraft attack carriers, battleships and cruisers; Enterprise herself suffers massive attack. Two bomb hits kill 44, wound 75 and cause serious damage. Nevertheless, Enterprise takes aboard refugee aircraft from Hornet when that ship is abandoned. In addition to Hornet, a destroyer is lost while the Japanese force loses a light carrier.
Enterprise drops anchor at Noumea, New Caledonia for repair.
With repairs incomplete, and repair crews still working on board, Enterprise sails to assist in another defense of Guadalcanal. By the end of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, Enterprise has participated in sinking 16 enemy ships and damaging eight. She returns to Noumea on the 16th.
Training out of Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides.

Dispatched to the Solomon Islands for the Battle of Rennell Island, returning on 1 February.
Combat patrols based out of Espiritu Santo.
Returned to Pearl Harbor. On the 27th, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz presented Enterprise with the Presidential Unit Citation, the first to be won by an aircraft carrier.
Overhaul at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington.
Operations in support of Marine landings on Makin Island.
Enterprise introduces night fighter operations with a night Combat Air Patrol to break up an attack on Task Group 50.2 by Japanese land-based bombers.
Air strikes at Kwajalein. Enterprise returns to Pearl Harbor on the 9th.

With Task Force 58, supporting landings on Kwajalein.
Strikes at the Japanese naval base at Truk, in the caroline Islands. Enterprise aircraft make the first radar-directed night bombing attack from a carrier. They accout for almost one-third of the 200,000 tons of shipping destroyed by Task Force 58.
Operating independently, Enterprise strikes Jaluit Atoll, then returns to Espiritu Santo.
Sailing as part of Task Group 36.1, Enterprise provides air support for landings on Emirau Island between 19 and 25 March.
Rejoins Task Force 58 and, for twelve days, conducts strikes at Yap, Ulithi, Woleai and the Palau Islands. After a week of replenishment at Majuro, Enterprise then supports landings near Hollandia, New Guinea (14 April) and strikes again at Truk (29-30 April).
Task Group 58.3, including Enterprise, sorties from Majuro to join the rest of TF58 in supporting the invasion of the Marianas Islands. Strikes are flown against Saipan, Rota and Guam from 11 to 14 June. Enterprise aircraft then fly in direct support of the landings on Saipan on 15 June; they continue to aid the troops for two days. On 19 June, Task Force 58 acts to repel a major Japanese thrust against the Saipan assault. By the end of what becomes known as "the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot", six American ships are damaged and 139 planes (and 76 aircrewmen) are lost, in exchange for three Japanese carriers and 426 carrier-based aircraft. For all intents and purposes, this marks the end of Japanese naval aviation as an effective combat force. TF58 supports the Saipan operation until 5 July, when Enterprise sails for Pearl Harbor for a month of rest and repair.
Enterprise rejoins TF38 in assaulting the Volcano and Bonin Islands (31 Aug - 2 Sep) and Yap, Ulithi and the Palau Islands (6 - 8 Sep). She continues to operate west of the Palaus for the rest of September.
Units of TF38 head north where, from 10-20 October, they attack enemy units and installations on Okinawa, Formosa, and the Philippines.
Completing her support of the Leyte invasion, Enterprise departs the Philippines bound for Ulithi Atoll for replenishment. However, the appearance of Japanese naval forces near Leyte causes Enterprise to reverse course. Her aircraft participate in numerous attacks on Japanese ships during the Battle of Leyte Gulf (20-26 October). After the end of the battle, Enterprise remains east of Leyte and Samar Islands until the end of October, when she once again shapes course for Ulithi and a long-overdue replenishment.
Enterprise aircraft strike Japanese targets near Manila and on the island of Yap, before departing the area en route to Pearl Harbor, where she arrives on 6 December.
Enterprise sails from Pearl Harbor bound for the Philippines with one of the first air groups trained for night carrier operations.

As part of TG38.5, Enterprise operates north of the island of Luzon and the South China Sea, sending out airstrikes against land and naval targets from Formosa to Indo-China.
After a brief replenishment at Ulithi, Enterprise rejoins TG38.5 and her aircraft fly round-the-clock combat air patrol for strikes against Tokyo on the 16th and 17th.
As United States Marines storm ashore on Iwo Jima, Enterprise aircraft provide air support. She maintains this support through the 9th of March, when she once again returns to Ulithi for supplies. During the Iwo Jima operation, Enterprise keeps aircraft in the air over the island for 174 continuous hours.
Enterprise departs Ulithi and conducts night raids on the Japanese home islands of Kyushu and Honshu, as well as attacks against shipping in the Inland Sea of Japan.
Enterprise is slightly damaged by an enemy bomb, and returns to Ulithi on the 24th for repairs.
Enterprise returns to action in support of the invasion of Okinawa.
A suicide plane causes damage which forces Enterprise to return to Ulithi for repairs.
Enterprise returns to Okinawa and flies patrols day and night to defend against the increasing threat of kamikaze attack.
The "Big E" is hit by a suicide plane which destroys her forward elevator. This attack kills 14 men and wounds 34. This is the last time that Enterprise will be damaged by enemy action. She sails for the Puget Sound Navy Yard for repairs, arriving 7 June.
After being repaired to shipyard condition, Enterprise sails to Pearl Harbor, where she picks up approximately 1,100 servicemen due for discharge, who she transports to New York, arriving 17 October.
Enterprise sails up the coast to Boston, where she is refitted with additional berthing facilities on her hangar deck for her next mission. Dubbed "Magic Carpet", several naval vessels - including a number of aircraft carriers - are pressed into service as mass transports, bringing servicemen and women home from the battlefronts. From November 1945 through January 1946, Enterprise makes several Magic Carpet trips between the United States and Europe, eventually bringing over 10,000 soldiers home. This will be her final mission.

Enterprise enters the New York Naval Shipyard for deactivation.

USS Enterprise is officially decommissioned.

Stricken from the Navy List.

Enterprise is sold for scrap.

Notes

World War II citations: Presidential Unit Citation, Navy Unit Commendation, 20 Battle Stars
Name continued by the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, CVN-65 USS Enterprise

Sources
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships - U. S. Naval Historical Center Wikipedia Online Library of Selected Images - U. S. Naval Historical Center NavSource: Photographic History of the U.S. Navy Haze Gray & Underway	cv6.org by Joel Shepherd Sandcastle V.I. - Voyages of the Enterprise The Big E by Edward P. Stafford

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