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8 - A World at War(Part 2)
The Royal Navy's Big "E"
The largest, and perhaps most historically significant, HMS Enterprise (D52) was launched on December 23, 1919,
too late to see action during World War I. She and her sister ship, the Emerald, were E-class cruisers, stretched
versions of the D-class cruisers used extensively by the Royal Navy during World War I. The Enterprise carried
floatplanes, which could be launched from a catapult just aft of her third funnel, and had seven 6-inch guns and 12
torpedo tubes. She was also the first British cruiser to carry a twin-gun forward turret, a trend that the Royal Navy
would continue. On April 7, 1926, the Enterprise was commissioned and assigned to the East Indies, and in December 1928 had the honor of transporting the Prince of Wales from Dar-es-Salaam to Aden. She continued her East Indies patrol until 1934, when she was assigned as a tender to the HMS Pembroke. In May 1936, Emperor Haile Sellassie of Ethiopia made the fateful decision to seek assylum in England as a result of Facist Italy's attacks on his country. As reported in a One World Magazine article:
When Haile Sellassie returned to Addis Abeba on 30 April, he met with the council and was forced to accept its logic that as long as the sovereign was free and unbowed, Italian rule in Ethiopia could have no legitimacy. For the monarch to remain in the country chanced a humiliating capture, death, or, even worse, submission to the conqueror. At 4:00 A.M. on 2 May 1936, a special train carrying the imperials left the capital for Djibouti, where it arrived on 3 May. The next day, the emperor, his family, and ranking officials boarded a British war vessel for five troubled years of exile and self-doubt in England. They left behind a nation that fought on against the Italians.
Based on information obtained from a gentleman in England who's father served about the HMS Enterprise and had
received a plaque in recognition of his role in rescuing Emperor Sellassie, it appears that the "British war vessel"
mentioned in the One World Magazine was the E-class cruiser Enterprise. A few days later, on May 15, 1936,
Vice Admiral Sir A.R. Ramsey came aboard, and the Enterprise served as his flagship until 1937.
The Enterprise was also active and served proudly during World War II, participating in action in almost every
major theater. From January 7 to February 6, 1940, she was on patrol in the Caribbean as part of an Anglo-French
blockade of the island of Aruba. The cunning captain of the German freighter Consul Horn was able to evade this
blockade and make it to Norwegian waters by disguising his ship as a Soviet vessel.
During the months of April and May 1940, the Enterprise participated in the unsuccessful British attempts to re-
take Norway from German control. In the evening of April 19, the German submarine U-65 launched a torpedo attack
against the Enterprise, but she escaped when the torpedo's fuse detonated prematurely. On April 24, with other
British ships, she pounded the Norwegian port of Narvik in preparation for the British invasion. Two weeks later, she
participated in the landing of British forces at the town of Mo and also provided cover for French Foreign Legion
battalions which landed at Bjerkvik.
The Enterprise was next assigned to the Mediterranean, becoming a part of the Royal Navy's Force H on June 28,
1940. After the fall of France, ttempts were made by the Allies to convince French officials to surrender their naval
vessels. On July 3, after French Admiral Gensoul refused to surrender the fleet at Mers-el-Kebir, Algeria, the
Enterprise and other ships of Force H were sent in to sink or disable as many of the French ships as possible.
In this unfortunate episode, a total of 1,147 French lives were lost, 977 of them on the battleship Bretagne.
Five days later, Force H left Gibraltar to engage a fleet of the Italian Navy near Calabria, Italy. The Italian
battleship Giulio Cesare and the heavy cruiser Belzano were heavily damaged. Although 79 Italian bombers
attacked Force H in retaliation, only near misses were scored, none of which caused serious damage to the British ships.
On July 31, Force H again set out from its base at Gibraltar, this time to launch air attacks on Sardinia. Twelve
Swordfish bombers were launched from the carrier HMS Ark Royal, under cover from the Enterprise and other
British cruisers, and attacked installations in the port of Cagliari.
By the winter of 1940, the Enterprise was dispatched to the South Atlantic. For a short time, she served as the
flagship of Admiral F. Pegram, and on December 5, 1940, she participated in a search for the German cruiser
Schiff, which a few days earlier had attacked the British cruiser HMS Carnarvon Castle southeast of Rio
de Janiero.
The Enterprise started 1941 on the other side of the world, on patrol in the Indian Ocean. On February 22, she
participated in searches for the German battleship Admiral Scheer, which had attacked and sunk several ships of
Convoy No. WS5B. The Admiral Scheer, however, was able to elude the British ships and make a run for South
America.
On April 3, 1941, a coup led by Rashid El-Gailani seized control of Iraq, which was formerly loyal to the Allied cause.
A British troop convoy at Karachi, India was immediately ordered to Basra, where it was met by another convoy including
the cruiser HMS Emerald (the Enterprise's sister ship). A total of 400 troops from this combined force
landed on Iraqi soil on April 19. Nine days later, a second troop convoy arrived on the scene. The following day, under
cover of the Enterprise and the carrier HMS Hermes, the troops also landed at Basra, thus reinstating
British control of Iraq.
Continuing her rotation through the major theaters of World War II, the Enterprise began 1942 doing battle with
the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies. A major objective of the Japanese military was the capture of Java, which had
important oil production facilities. On February 25, 1942, they started a major offensive, which resulted in the defeat
of a combined American-British-Dutch-Australian fleet at the Battle of the Java Sea and the eventual capture of 60,000
prisoners on Java. In the face of the unstoppable Japanese advance, in early March 1942, the Enterprise joined
in escorting a convoy of over 10,000 Allied troops away from the Dutch East Indies and to safety.
The following month, the Japanese launched a major attack on Ceylon with a task force consisting of four large carriers
and other surface ships. Receiving intelligence reports on the approaching Japanese force, British Admiral Somerville
concentrated his available ships in two groups south of Ceylon. Force A consisted of the battleship HMS Warspite,
the carriers HMS Indomitable and HMS Furious, and ten cruisers and destroyers, including the
Enterprise. Force B consisted of four battleships, the carrier HMS Hermes, and 11 cruisers and destroyers.
On April 5, the opposing fleets launched air attacks on each other, with the Japanese inflicting heavy damage on the
British ships. The cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire were sunk, but miraculously, the
Enterprise and two destroyers were able to rescue 1,122 of the 1,546 crewmen of the two unfortunate ships.
1943 saw the Enterprise return to European waters, once more facing the German Navy. On December 28, 1943,
the Enterprise, commanded by Captain Grant of the Royal Canadian Navy, and the cruiser Glasgow engaged
a German convoy consisting of 11 destroyers and fleet torpedo boats in the Bay of Biscay. Although they were heavily
outgunned (49 to 32) by the German ships, the Enterprise and Glasgow managed to sink the German destroyer
Z-27 and the fleet patrol boats T-25 and T-26. Sixty-four German survivors were rescued by the
two British cruisers, and another 229 by Irish, Spanish, and German ships.
The Enterprise's final action during World War II was as part of Operation Overlord, the D-Day invasion of
Normandy. The amphibious portion of the invasion consisted of five separate assaults: by the 4th U.S. Infantry on the
east coast of the Cotentin Peninsula (Utah), by the 1st U.S. Infantry near Vierville (Omaha), by the 50th British
Infantry near Arromanches (Gold), by the 3rd British Infantry near Lyon-sur-Mer (Sword), and by the 3rd Canadian Infantry
near Courseulles (Juno). The support forces for the `Utah' assault consisted of the battleship USS Nevada and
17 cruisers and destroyers, including the HMS Enterprise. The assault at `Utah' on June 6, 1944 was carried out
successfully, with the landing of 23,250 troops. On June 25, the Enterprise participated in the shelling of
German gun batteries west of Cherbourg in support of an attack by the 7th U.S. Marine Corps Division. And on July 19,
she supported the advance of the British 2nd Army in the Caen area of France.
The Enterprise distinguished herself by participating in action against the three major Axis powers (Germany,
Italy, and Japan), and in almost every theater, including the North and South Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean,
the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, and the Pacific. After a career spanning more than 26 years, she was sold on April
11, 1946.
At the start of World War II, the French Navy had in service a torpedo boat named l'Entreprenant. She was
captured by Germany in 1940 and was designated by the German Navy as TA-4. She was sunk by Allied bombers on September
16, 1943, but was salvaged in 1946. Unfortunately, more detailed information is not available on her service record.
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| Intro
| Dedication
| Foreword
| Preface
| Spanish Armada
| European Fleets
| Independence
| Copyright ©
1996-2008 Arnold E.
van Beverhoudt, Jr.
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