Įnterprise pulled into Pearl Harbor for fuel and supplies on the evening of 8 December. 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. 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. 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. Įnterprise 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. Seven SBDs were shot down, either from enemy action or friendly fire, with the loss of eight airmen killed and two wounded. 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. Service history Įnterprise 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. 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. Enterprise sailed south on a shakedown cruise which took her to Rio de Janeiro. Swanson, and commissioned on with Captain Newton H. The sixth carrier built for the United States Navy and the second of the Yorktown-class, Enterprise was launched on 3 October 1936 at Newport News Shipbuilding, sponsored by Lulie Swanson, wife of Secretary of the Navy Claude A. ĭespite efforts made by the public after the war to turn Enterprise into a museum ship, Enterprise was ultimately scrapped from 1958 to 1960. By the end of the war, her planes and guns had downed 911 enemy planes, sunk 71 ships, and damaged or destroyed 192 more. On three occasions during the war, the Japanese announced that she had been sunk in battle, inspiring her nickname "The Grey Ghost". 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. warship in World War II, and was the most decorated U.S. Enterprise earned 20 battle stars, the most for any U.S. 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 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. She participated in more major actions of the war against Japan than any other United States ship. Launched in 1936, she was one of only three American carriers commissioned before World War II to survive the war (the others being Saratoga and Ranger). Colloquially called " The Big E", she was the sixth aircraft carrier of the United States Navy. USS Enterprise (CV-6) was a Yorktown-class carrier built for the United States Navy during the 1930s.
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