Enterprise: America's Fightingest Ship and the Men Who Helped Win World War II

by Barrett Tillman

Overview

This is the epic and heroic story of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and of the courageous men who fought and died on her from Pearl Harbor to the end of the conflict.

Acclaimed military historian Barrett Tillman recounts the World War II exploits of America’s most decorated warship and its colorful crews— tales of unmatched daring and heroism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439190883
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	02/12/2013
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Barrett Tillman is a widely recognized authority on air warfare in World War II and the author of more than forty nonfiction and fiction books on military topics. He has received six awards for history and literature, including the Admiral Arthur Radford Award. He lives in Mesa, Arizona.

Table of Contents

Note on Distances and Aircraft Code Names xv

Prologue: Kearny, New Jersey, 1958 1

1 "I Have Done the State Some Service" (1938-41) 7

2 "Keep Cool, Keep Your Heads, and Fight" (December 1941-May 1942) 33

3 "Revenge, Sweet Revenge" (June 1942) 61

4 "We Didn't Know a Damned Thing" (August 1942) 88

5 "A Fighting Chance" (October 1942) 111

6 "The Most Exciting Part of Your Day" (November 1942-January 1943) 133

7 "A Long and Teedjus Journey" (February-December 1943) 148

8 "If Any of Them Lived, It Wasn't Our Fault" (January-June 1944) 169

9 "Vector Two-Seven-Zero" (June-July 1944) 183

10 "Only Human" (August-December 1944) 199

11 "Live with Great Enthusiasm" (January-May 1945) 223

12 "The Enterprise Has a Soul" (1945-58) 247

Appendix 1: American Aircraft 263

Appendix 2: Japanese Aircraft 265

Acknowledgments 267

Notes 271

Index 287

Editorial Reviews

Military historian Tillman (Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan, 1921–1945) documents life and death aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (aka the Big E), interviewing the last surviving veterans who served on the ship through major Pacific battles. Launched in 1936, the Enterprise was commissioned in 1938, setting out with “some 2,070 officers, sailors, and marines.” Based at Pearl Harbor, the Enterprise transported planes to island bases and was returning from Wake Island during the December 7 attack. Seaman Bobby Oglesby recalled, “We had come into Pearl on December 8, to find ships still burning and the stench of the dead on the air. Every man was hopping mad to refuel, rearm, get back to sea and kill the enemy.” Revenge came six months later at Midway when Big E squadrons sank three of four enemy carriers. By 1945, Enterprise aviators were credited with the destruction of 911 enemy aircraft and 71 ships. Though Enterprise was one of the most celebrated carriers of WWII, following years of inactivity she was sold for scrap in 1958. Throughout the seagoing drama, Tillman fires off successive salvos of descriptive battle action, the result of exhaustive research. 40 b&w photos; maps. Agent: Jim Hornfischer. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

The most decorated warship of World War II, first to sink a Japanese vessel after Pearl Harbor and ultimately responsible for downing 911 enemy aircraft and 71 ships, "the Big E" gets its own history from Admiral Arthur Radford Award winner Tillman. For all World War II devotees.

Library Journal

Veteran military historian Tillman (Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan, 1942–45, 2010, etc.) comprehensively delineates the history of the legendary USS Enterprise ("the Big E"). "Enterprise was America's ship," writes the author, "and there will never be another like her." Through his focus on the famous ship and her crews, he also provides a history of the naval aspects of World War II. As much as possible, Tillman identifies every aviator downed by enemy action, accident or friendly fire, and he offers illuminating details about their lives. The Big E took part in all the major engagements in the Pacific War, and though enemy action forced her from the battlefield three times, she was rebuilt and refitted to come back stronger each time. Her keel was laid down in Norfolk, Va., in 1933, as part of Roosevelt's WPA jobs program, and she entered into service in 1938. She was designed for the transition from bi-plane to metal-made monoplane aircraft, and by the end of the war was being made obsolete by new carriers preparing the way for jets. She was eventually assimilated into combined task forces of multiple aircraft carriers capable of launching hundreds of planes against their Japanese targets. A platform for innovation, her aviators helped pioneer nighttime operations for defensive patrols and offensive deployments, and she provided a test bed for application of radar technology to both day- and nighttime aviation. Though the cost in human lives was enormous, "Enterprise was about leadership. Amoebalike, she spawned cell after new cell of leaders at every level, men who absorbed the lessons of their mentors and passed those values to the next generation like naval DNA." A commendable history of a significant ship that also commemorates the economic might unleashed to supply the fighters in WWII.

Kirkus Reviews