What You Need to Know: The USS Enterprise was the most decorated aircraft carrier of World War II, playing a crucial role in major Pacific battles. Known as "The Big E" and later "The Grey Ghost," the Enterprise participated in the Doolittle Raid, the Battle of Midway, and many other key engagements.
-The carrier survived several attacks and contributed to sinking 71 enemy ships, shooting down 911 aircraft, and earning 20 battle stars—the most of any warship.
-Despite efforts to preserve it as a museum, the Enterprise was scrapped in 1960, leaving behind a legacy of heroism.
World War II was a turning point for naval warfare. Not only were the scope and scale of the naval conflict massive, with American forces island hopping incrementally from Hawaii to Japan, but the conflict served as a watershed, the beginning of a new chapter that persists today, some eighty years later. World War II marked the end of the battleship era and the beginning of the aircraft carrier era.
And of all the aircraft carriers that served in World War II, one stands apart, for having the most decorated service record: the USS Enterprise.
Introducing the Enterprise
Built during the 1930s, the Enterprise was a Yorktown-class carrier known as The Big E. No other carrier would participate in more major actions against Japan than Enterprise, starting with the attack on Pearl Harbor; Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers from the Enterprise responded to the attack. Seven were shot down, marking the first aircraft carrier-related casualties of the war. Unfortunately, more would follow.
The notorious Doolittle Raid, conducted in April of 1942, was launched from the decks of the Enterprise. The Doolittle Raid was a small-scale yet bold response to Pearl Harbor in which sixteen B-25 Mitchells were launched from the Enterprise and flown 600 miles to bomb industrial targets in Tokyo. The B-25 of course was not designed for aircraft carrier takeoffs and was made as light as possible to takeoff within the short parameters of the carrier deck.
Two months later, Enterprise would play a decisive role in naval history’s most intense aircraft carrier battle, The Battle of Midway.
Midway pitted four Japanese carriers against three American carriers. All four Japanese carriers were sunk. The Americans lost one carrier, Yorktown, but the Enterprise survived the exchange relatively unscathed.
The Enterprise would not be as fortunate during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, taking three direct bomb hits and four near misses. Seventy-four sailors were killed while ninety-four more were wounded. After being repaired, at Pearl Harbor, the Enterprise would again be damaged, this time at the Battle of Santa Crus Islands where the aircraft carrier took two bomb hits and lost another forty-four men.
But the Japanese were never quite able to kill off the Enterprise. The Japanese erroneously reported having sunk the Enterprise so many times that the vessel earned the nickname “The Grey Ghost.”
The Most Decorated Carrier of the War
When the Japanese finally capitulated, after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Enterprise’s guns/planes had shot down 911 enemy aircraft, sunk seventy-one ships, and damaged and destroyed 192 more.
The Enterprise was even the first American ship to sink a full-sized Japanese warship in the Pacific Theater, the submarine I-70. In total, The Enterprise finished the war with twenty battle stars, more than any other warship during the war.
After the war, efforts were made to convert the storied Enterprise into a museum ship. But the efforts failed, and from 1958 to 1960, the Enterprise was scrapped, leaving behind nothing but memories and photographs.
Harrison Kass is a defense and national security writer with over 1,000 total pieces on issues involving global affairs. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
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