9 - Air Power at Sea

(Part 2)

Victory at Midway

During late May 1942, the American military intelligence unit at Pearl Harbor intercepted and decoded Japanese messages referring to a surprise attack being planned by Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. The purpose of the attack was to capture Midway Island, 1,100 miles west of Hawaii, and to trap and destroy the American carriers. However, based on information obtained by the intelligence unit, the three available American carriers were deployed northeast of Midway to wait for the approaching Japanese task force.

As luck would have it, Admiral William Halsey was hospitalized with a contagious skin ailment, and was unable to lead his Task Force 16, consisting of the Enterprise and Hornet, into battle. He recommended to Pacific Fleet commander, Admiral Chester Nimitz, that Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance be placed in command of Task Force 16. The Yorktown, her Coral Sea damage repaired in an almost miraculous three days at Pearl Harbor, operated as Task Force 17, under Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher.

On May 30, in anticipation of the upcoming conflict, Lieutenant Burdick Brittin of the escorting destroyer USS Aylwin, wrote in his diary that:

We have history in the palm of our hands during the next week or so. If we are able to keep our presence unknown to the enemy and surprise them with a vicious attack on their carriers, the U.S. Navy should once more be supreme in the Pacific. But if the Japs see us first and attack us with their overwhelming number of planes, knock us out of the picture, and then walk in to take Midway, Pearl will be almost neutralized and in dire danger -- I can say no more -- there is too much tension within me -- the fate of our nation is in our hands.45

Early on the morning of June 4, a PBY Catalina patrol plane spotted the Japanese carrier task force about 200 miles northwest of Midway. Not knowing that the American carriers were in the vicinity, Japanese Admiral Chuichi Nagumo launched his aircraft to attack Midway. The small Marine garrison stationed on the island mounted a gallant defense in their 26 old Brewster Buffalo fighters. These slow planes were no match for the Japanese Zeroes, and 17 of the 26 were lost. However, Marine anti-aircraft gunners on the island were able to shoot down about one-third of the attacking planes.

In the meantime, the Enterprise and Hornet launched their planes in a six-pronged attack. The Enterprise's 6th Air Group included 14 torpedo bombers (Torpedo Squadron 6) led by Lt. Commander Eugene Lindsey, 33 dive bombers (Bombing Squadron 6) led by Lt. Commander Wade McCluskey, and 10 fighters (Fighting Squadron 6) led by Lt. James Gray, Jr. The Hornet launched 15 torpedo bombers, 35 dive bombers, and 10 fighters from her 8th Air Group. The Yorktown later launched the 12 torpedo bombers, 17 dive bombers, and 6 fighters from her 3rd Air Group.

It was intended that the squadrons from each carrier would work as a team. However, because of operational mixups and bad luck, all of the squadrons lost contact with each other and operated independently. The Hornet's Torpedo 8 arrived first, at about 9:20 a.m. Skimming the waves to drop their torpedoes at the right angle, the planes were easy targets for the guns of the Japanese carriers and escort ships and for the Zeroes which came screaming down from above. Within minutes, none of the 15 torpedo bombers were left, and the only survivor was Ensign George Gay. After his plane was hit, Gay was able to ditch and, hiding behind a floating seat cushion, had a ring-side view of the rest of the battle.

The Enterprise's Torpedo 6 made its attack run at about 9:40 a.m. One by one, the planes were picked off by the Japanese. Only four survived. Ironically, while the crews of the 29 torpedo bombers were being slaughtered by the heavy Japanese fire, help was only 20,000 feet overhead. Lt. Commander James Gray and his Fighting 6 squadron, from the Enterprise, were circling above the clouds ready to provide fighter cover as soon as a call for assistance was received. Because the pilots of Torpedo 8 and Torpedo 6 didn't know the fighters were there, the call for help never came. At about 10:00 a.m., now low on fuel, Fighting 6 headed back to the Enterprise.

At 10:15 a.m., the Yorktown's Torpedo 3 started its attack, and was almost immediately pounced on by the Zeroes. This time a call for help did go out to Fighting 3. However, the fighters were in their own life and death struggle with more Zeroes. Only two of Torpedo 3's planes survived.

While the courageous torpedo plane crews were sacrificing themselves in a desperate attempt to hit the Japanese carriers, the three squadrons of dive bombers were still looking for the Japanese fleet. Lt. Commander Wade McCluskey of Enterprise's Bombing 6 began a rectangular search pattern, and at about 10:20 a.m. they found their prey. The pilots pushed the noses of their planes down and hurtled almost vertically from the skies. At 1,800 feet, each pilot pulled his bomb release and pulled up. The results were almost immediate. In less than five minutes, the Japanese carriers Kaga and Akagi were burning uncontrollably.

Almost simultaneously, Yorktown's Bombing 3 also found the Japanese fleet and started its attacked on the Soryu, with identical results. The Hornet's Bombing 8 and Fighting 8 just found empty ocean, and eventually headed back to their carrier.

Further to the north, the fourth Japanese carrier, the Hiryu, launched 17 dive bombers. They found the Yorktown and began their attack at 11:50 a.m., scoring three bomb hits. The resulting fires were brought under control, but at about 2:45 in the afternoon, a second wave of Japanese planes, this time torpedo bombers, hit the Yorktown with two torpedoes. Efforts continued to try to salvage the crippled ship, but the next day the Japanese submarine I-168 finished her with two more torpedoes.

The battle was not over yet, however. At exactly 5:03 p.m., a combined group of dive bombers from the Enterprise and Yorktown came hurtling down on the Hiryu, and she too was left a burning hulk. The following day, aircraft from the Enterprise and Hornet sank the Japanese cruiser Mikuma and crippled the Mogami.

The Battle of Midway was the turning point of the war in the Pacific. Although the bloody conflict would continue for over three more years, the Japanese Navy was never again a threat to the air power of the United States Navy's carriers. Of the Battle of Midway, the account by Walter Lord said it best:

By ordinary standards, they were hopelessly outclassed. They had no battleships, the enemy had eleven. They had eight cruisers, the enemy twenty-three. They had three carriers (one of them crippled); the enemy had eight. Their shore defenses included guns from the turn of the century.... Their enemy was brilliant, experienced and all-conquering.... They took crushing losses.... They had no right to win. Yet they did, and in doing so they changed the course of a war. More than that, they added a new name -- Midway -- to that small list that inspires men by shining example. Like Marathon, the Armada, the Marne, a few others. Midway showed that every once in a while "what must be" need not be at all. Even against the greatest odds, there is something in the human spirit -- a magic blend of skill, faith and valor -- that can lift men from certain defeat to incredible victory.46

Back at Pearl Harbor on June 13, 1942, Captain George Murray turned command of the Enterprise over to Captain Arthus Davis. At the transfer ceremonies on the "Big E," Captain Murray noted that:

Seldom has it been the privilege of a carrier captain to have had such a command as this.... Our goal has been, is and will be the destruction of the enemy ... the successes we have achieved and those which lie ahead could not be realized without the teamwork and mutual good will which signify so essentially the Enterprise spirit.... Captain Davis, I relinquish this command with regret. I am confident you will find the ship one of the great ships of our time -- and the ship's company the finest.47

The Guadalcanal Campaign

On August 7, 1942, the United States began a major offensive by sending an 80-ship invasion force to Guadalcanal. Aircraft from the Enterprise, Saratoga, and Wasp provided air cover for the 16,000 invading Marines. During this operation, the Enterprise was launching and recovering aircraft almost continuously from first light until dark.

Over the next 6 months, the Japanese mounted fierce counter-strikes trying to drive the American forces off Guadalcanal. In an engagement on August 24 known as the Battle of the East Solomons, aircraft from the Enterprise sank the Japanese carrier Ryujo. Later in the battle, the Enterprise was herself hit by three Japanese bombs, which damaged her flight deck and jammed her rudder. She began to withdraw from the action, using the engines to steer, and within an hour her crew had the rudder unjammed. At about this time, a group of 40 to 50 Japanese planes were preparing to attack the damaged Enterprise again, but she managed to escape into a rain squall and was not located again by the attackers. Her planes were temporarily sent to Guadalcanal, and the "Big E" limped north to Pearl Harbor for repairs.

The Enterprise, shown here, joined the USS Saratoga and the USS Wasp in providing air support for the Marine invasion of Guadalcanal in August 1942. [Photo: U.S. National Archives]

On October 26, Admiral Yamamoto sent a force consisting of four carriers and 61 other ships on another attack on Guadalcanal. The American counter-force, under Admiral Halsey, consisted of the Enterprise, Hornet, and 21 other ships. During the Battle of Santa Cruz, the Enterprise inflicted damage on the Japanese carrier Zuiho. But, the Hornet was sunk and the Enterprise again suffered Japanese bomb hits. However, the outnumbered American task force scored a major strategic victory by defending Guadalcanal from Japanese invasion.

On November 12, the Japanese tried one last time to repel the Americans from Guadalcanal. A task force of 11 transports and the battleships Hiyei and Kirishima were met by a task force consisting of the Enterprise and a number of cruisers and destroyers. The battleship Hiyei was damaged by the cruisers and destroyers, and sunk the following day by aircraft from the Enterprise and the Marine airfield on Guadalcanal. In further action on November 14, Enterprise and Marine planes from Guadalcanal sank the cruiser Kinugasa and damaged three more cruisers and a destroyer. By February 1943, the Japanese had completely abandoned Guadalcanal.

After the lengthy Guadalcanal campaign, the Enterprise returned to Pearl Harbor in preparation for a trip back to the United States for major refit and overhaul. On May 27, 1943, Admiral Nimitz presented the Enterprise and her crew with the first Presidential Unit Citation awarded to an aircraft carrier. The citation stated:

________________________________________________________________
                                                                
                   THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY             
                           Washington                    
                                                                
The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting 
the PRESIDENTIAL UNIT CITATION to the                           
                                                                
                 UNITED STATES SHIP ENTERPRISE           
                                                                
for service as set forth in the following:                      
                                                                
CITATION:                                                       
                                                                
   "For consistently outstanding performance and distinguished  
   achievement during repeated action against enemy Japanese    
   forces in the pacific war area, December 7, 1941, to         
   November 15, 1942.  Participating in nearly every major      
   carrier engagement in the firt year of the war, the          
   Enterprise and her air group, exclusive of far-flung         
   destruction of hostile shore installations throughout the    
   battle area, did sink or damage on her own a total of 35     
   Japanese vessels and shoot down a total of 185 Japanese      
   aircraft.  Her aggressive spirit and superb combat efficiency
   are fitting tribute to the officers and men who so gallantly 
   established her as a solid bulwark in defense of the         
   American Nation."                                            
                                                                
                                        For the President,      
                                        Frank Knox              
                                        Secretary of the Navy   
________________________________________________________________

During this Pearl Harbor stop-over, Thomas Hamilton joined the Enterprise as her Executive Officer. He later remembered his feelings about the "Big E."

I really feel that that ship is the champion of them all, and I was most fortunate to be ordered to her. Shortly after I joined her she went back to Bremerton until October 1943.... She needed refurbishing because she'd taken a beating in her earlier operations, and parts of the ship were still blown out from bomb damage that had not been repaired.... Well, the Big E had already made a tremendous record, but to me it was one of the most remarkable things that the old crew -- and personnel was changing all the time -- would pass on their "know-how" and their pride to the new crew members coming on, and they would carry on in that same fashion.49

| Home | Intro | Ventures | Sea | Air | Space | SciFi | Racing | Movies | Art | Travel | Exit |

| Intro | Dedication | Foreword | Preface | Spanish Armada | European Fleets | Independence |
| A Young Nation | Exploration | Steamboats | Civil War | World at War | Air Power | Nuclear Power |
| Airships | Final Frontier | Ship Directory | Bibliography |

Last Updated: January 1, 2003