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

by Barrett Tillman

• ISBN13: 9781439190876
• ISBN10: 1439190879
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-02-14
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary

Offering a naval history of the entire Pacific Theater in World War II through the lens of its most famous ship, this is the epic and heroic story of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, and of the men who fought and died on her from Pearl Harbor to the end of the conflict.Award-winning author Barrett Tillman has been called “the man who owns naval aviation history,” and Enterprise is the work he was born to write: the first complete story of “The Big E,” incorporating oral histories and the author’s own interviews with the last surviving veterans who served on her through the major battles of the Pacific war. America’s most decorated warship of World War II, Enterprise was constantly engaged against the Japanese Empire, earning the title “the fightingest ship” in the Navy. Her career was eventful, vital, and short. Commissioned in 1938, her bombers sank a submarine just ten days after the Pearl Harbor attack, claiming the first Japanese vessel lost in the war. It was the auspicious beginning of an odyssey that Tillman captures brilliantly, from escorting sister carrier Hornet as it launched the Doolittle Raiders against Tokyo in 1942, to playing leading roles in the pivotal battles of Midway and Guadalcanal, to undergoing the shattering nightmare of kamikaze strikes in May of 1945. This is the definitive history of the ship whose aviators claimed 911 enemy aircraft and 71 ships, a saga of seemingly ceaseless heroism.

Author Biography

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	p. xv
Prologue: Kearny, New Jersey, 1958	p. 1
"I Have Done the State Some Service" (1938-41)	p. 7
"Keep Cool, Keep Your Heads, and Fight" (December 1941-May 1942)	p. 33
"Revenge, Sweet Revenge" (June 1942)	p. 61
"We Didn't Know a Damned Thing" (August 1942)	p. 88
"A Fighting Chance" (October 1942)	p. 111
"The Most Exciting Part of Your Day" (November 1942-January 1943)	p. 133
"A Long and Teedjus Journey" (February-December 1943)	p. 148
"If Any of Them Lived, It Wasn't Our Fault" (January-June 1944)	p. 169
"Vector Two-Seven-Zero" (June-July 1944)	p. 183
"Only Human" (August-December 1944)	p. 199
"Live with Great Enthusiasm" (January-May 1945)	p. 223
"The Enterprise Has a Soul" (1945-58)	p. 247
Appendix 1: American Aircraft	p. 263
Appendix 2: Japanese Aircraft	p. 265
Acknowledgments	p. 267
Notes	p. 271
Index	p. 287
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