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9 - Air Power at Sea(Part 3)
Push Across the Pacific
Returning to action on November 19, 1943, the Enterprise participated as part of Task Force 50 in providing air
support for the invasion of the Gilbert Islands. She then proceeded with other carriers of the task force to launch
a major attack on Kwajelein on December 4. The aircraft of the American carriers destroyed two Japanese cruisers, six
transport ships, and 55 aircraft, against American losses of only five planes.
The operation to invade the Marshall Islands began on January 29, 1944, with attacks on Maloelap and Kwajelein by the
Enterprise, Yorktown (#2), and Belleau Wood. The actual invasion occurred on February 5. During
the raids on the Marshalls, the Enterprise introduced carrier night operations and, as recounted by her Executive
Officer, Thomas Hamilton, one night mission resulted in the tragic death of Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Edward
"Butch" O'Hare.
During our raid on the Marshalls the Lexington was hit by a torpedo from a Jap night torpedo squadron. The next night we expected to be under attack again, and Butch O'Hare with the torpedo squadron skipper, Phillips, worked out a technique where we would launch O'Hare and Phillips in a torpedo plane which had a radar on its wing.... Butch and Phillips catapulted in the dark and flew to a position astern of this [Japanese] plane and Phillips, with his radar, then directed O'Hare to close in on it, and we saw the Jap plane flame up as Butch shot him down in full sight of our task force. Then, after Butch was ordered to vector around and rejoin the torpedo plane, I heard Butch say, "Oh, I'm hit." It's believed there was poor communication in a torpedo plane and the gunner of the torpedo plane opened up on Butch as he tried to rejoin. I called to Butch to keep talking so we could get bearings on him, but he didn't answer. We searched for a couple of days and never did find him. That's a sad, sad story, but I always get a thrill out of going into O'Hare Airport [in Chicago] which they named after a great hero and a great guy.50
The Enterprise, now assigned to Task Force 58 under Admiral Marc Mitscher, and four other carriers attacked the
Japanese base at Truk on February 17, 1944. Using night fighting capabilities, the "Big E" sank 10 Japanese ships,
damaged 28 more, and destroyed 75 aircraft. In total, Task Force 58 sank 23 ships and destroyed about 250 planes.
Task Force 58 next mounted attacks on Palau, Yap, and Woleai on March 30 and 31, sinking four submarines and 31 surface
ships. On April 21, the Enterprise and three other carriers attacked Hollandia, on the coast of New Guinea, in
support of an invasion. During the Hollandia attacks, the Enterprise accounted for 81 aircraft destroyed. During
further attacks on Truk on April 29 and 30, she damaged five ships and destroyed another 25 Japanese planes.
The next major American goal was to capture Saipan, in the Mariana Island chain, because of its strategic location as
an airbase. From this location, long-range heavy bombers would be able to mount attacks on the Japanese home islands.
The American invasion began on June 15, 1944.
Japan's Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa mounted the largest Japanese counter-offensive since October 1942, sending in nine
carriers and 46 other ships. This task force was met by Admiral Spruance's Fifth Fleet, consisting of 15 carriers, among
them the Enterprise, and 97 other ships. On the morning of June 19, the Japanese started sending waves of
aircraft against the American fleet. But by the end of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Japanese had lost about
450 aircraft and three carriers to American losses of about 120 aircraft. This one-sided victory became known as the
"Great Marianas Turkey Shoot."
The last American strike of the Battle of the Philippine Sea was launched late in the afternoon of June 20. The Japanese
fleet was at the limit of the range of the American planes and after their successful attack, which resulted in one
Japanese carrier being sunk and three others being damaged, the American pilots were returning at night trying to find
their carrier bases. Admiral Mitscher made the courageous decision of having all of the ships in the Task Force turn
on their lights to serve as beacons for the returning pilots. Although many ran out of fuel and had to ditch within
sight of their ships, most were rescued. One pilot who was not found was William "Killer" Kane, the Enterprise's
air group commander. Several days later, according to the Enterprise's Executive Officer, Thomas Hamilton:
When we came back in that area [of the Philippine Sea] we came in company with these destroyers that had been left there to search. We received the blinking searchlight signal, "We'll trade one flyer for twenty gallons of ice cream!" The word was passed on the Big E. You never saw such elation on a ship and when Killer came over on the high line from the destroyer back to the Enterprise, I have never seen such an expression of love of a whole ship of men for one individual as was evident at that time.51
Invasion of the Philippines
Admiral Mitscher's task force departed from Eniwetok on August 28, and the Enterprise and two other carriers
launched strikes against Japanese bases on Iwo Jima on August 31 and September 1 and 2. On September 6 to 8, a combined
task force of 16 carriers, including the Enterprise, made massive attacks on Palau. Other carriers attacked
Mindanao in the Philippines on September 6 to 10. During these raids, over 1,000 Japanese planes and 150 ships were
destroyed. American losses were 54 aircraft lost to combat and 18 as a result of accidents. Further attacks were
launched, from October 7 to 17, on bases in Formosa and Luzon, resulting in the destruction of another 300 Japanese
aircraft. The objective of all of these air strikes was to weaken the Japanese defenders for the planned invasion of
Leyte, in the Philippines.
The invasion began on October 20, when the first elements of the 6th Army landed on the beaches at Leyte. At first,
Japanese opposition was light. However, upon hearing of the American invasion, the Japanese executed a plan to send
three forces, approaching from different directions, to squeeze the American fleet. One task force, under Admiral Takeo
Kurita, would approach from the west, while another task force, under Admiral Shoji Nishimura, approached from the south.
Admiral Ozawa's carriers, with almost no aircraft on board, would approach from the north as a diversion to draw the
American carriers away from Leyte. The resulting Battle of Leyte Gulf was a series of four separate naval engagements
on October 24 and 25, 1944.
On October 24, planes from the Japanese bases in the Philippines attacked the ships of the American invasion force in
three waves of 50 to 60 aircraft. They managed to sink the light carrier USS Princeton, but suffered heavy
losses. The Enterprise and three other American carriers counter-attacked, by striking at the Japanese task force
approaching from the west. Ten bomb and six torpedo hits sank the battleship Musashi. Other battleships also
received moderate damage.
In the second engagement, the American battleship fleet, including several "ghost ships" raised from the bottom of Pearl
Harbor, attacked the Japanese force approaching from the south. Two Japanese battleships were sunk in the surface battle
on October 25.
In the meantime, Admiral Halsey took his carrier task force north to meet Admiral Ozawa's decoy carriers. This left
Admiral Clifton Spruage's small escort carriers alone to face the remains of the battleship task force that was attacked
by the Enterprise on October 24. The Japanese battleships opened up with their big guns and the small carriers
made a hasty retreat. The small carriers and their escorting destroyers put up such a fierce defense, in the face of
almost certain destruction, that the Japanese battleships eventually thought the better of it and turned back.
In the last engagement, Halsey's carriers launched six attacks against Ozawa's carriers. Four Japanese carriers were
sunk and a fifth disabled. Admiral Halsey was later criticized for leaving the invasion forces with only the small
escort carriers to defend them. But in the eyes of Thomas Hamilton, the Enterprise's Executive Officer, Halsey's
decision was the right one.
We applauded Admiral Halsey's decision to attack the northern force where the planes which had sunk the Princeton and attacked the Essex, were quite a threat to our force. He'd decided to go after them about 9:30 that night after the above report [that the Japanese battleships had turned back towards the west]. Admiral Halsey has been criticized a great deal because in hindsight he probably should have left the battleship striking group to protect the strait, but he went after the northern force and the next day demolished -- he sank four carriers up there and a lot of other ships. Of course, the San Bernadino Japanese force did turn back that night and delivered a very devastating attack on the jeep [escort] carriers who were supporting our Leyte landings. Admiral Halsey did come back and practically demolished the whole Jap fleet before they could get back to Manila. I think it was regrettable that the ships had to be attacked, but I'm a firm believer that Admiral Halsey is the greatest naval officer of any navy of all time. This criticism of him is like criticizing the half-back for carrying the ball in the wrong arm when he runs over the goal line for a touchdown.52
The American carriers continued to patrol the area around Leyte through the end of November, providing air support for
the American troops engaged in fighting off the Japanese defenders. The dreaded "divine wind" -- kamikazes -- began
during this period. These attacks caused severe damage to the carrier Franklin and many other ships. Admiral
James Russell experienced the attack on the Franklin.
A sizeable kamikaze attack developed against us. Our fighters knocked down all but six, but these six got overhead, and down they came in long slanting dives. The first wave of four took on each of the carriers. The one which dove on the flagship, the Franklin, hit the ship. He dove through the flight deck, burst in the after elevator well, and, of course, set fire to the ship. San Jacinto knocked hers down, Belleau Wood knocked hers down, Enterprise knocked hers down. Then the next two came down, and the first one was shot down by one of the carriers -- I've forgotten which. The second one dropped a bomb on us on the Franklin, and we thought, ah hah! he's the fellow who goes home to tell the tale, because usually in these kamikaze attacks, there was one plane that went back -- at least one plane to tell the tale.53
By December 1944, the Enterprise was officially operating as a night attack carrier with the USS
Independence. In this role, she participated in attacks in January 1945 as part of the invasion of Luzon. During
this operation, the American carriers sank a total of 300,000 tons of Japanese shipping and destroyed over 600 aircraft,
to a loss of 200 American planes. Admiral James Russell, on board the carrier Franklin recalled an unusual raid
on Luzon by planes from the Enterprise.
One time, Dan Smith as air group commander in the Enterprise Air Group, was flying along, over Luzon. He'd always had a penchant to explode a locomotive. And he and his three division mates flying F6F's off the Enterprise were flying low along a railroad track looking for locomotives to blow up. He was so low in fact that he could see under the palm trees! And to his great surprise he saw a large aircraft park. He said hundreds of airplanes under the palm trees concealed by the vegetation from the view overhead, but since he was so low flying over the railroad track, he could look under. He came back, flashed the word, and we set up a big fighter-bomber strike, and went in and burned the vegetation, and burned the airplanes. Our task group was credited with something like one hundred twenty airplanes on that one strike.54
On February 16 and 17, strikes were launched against aircraft factories in Tokyo and shipping at Yokohama. The
Enterprise participated in both daylight and night attacks on these homeland targets. During the invasion of
Iwo Jima, which began on February 19, she kept aircraft aloft for a continuous 174 hours in support of the Marine troops.
During more attacks on Japanese bases in the Inland Sea, the Enterprise was slightly damaged by kamikaze attacks
on March 18 and 19. These raids resulted in serious damage to six Japanese carriers, three battleships, and five other
ships.
Task Force 51, with a total of 1,213 ships, including 603 landing craft, landed more than 450,000 Army troops on Okinawa
on April 1, 1945. The Enterprise was again a victim of a kamikaze attack on April 11, while operating in support
of the troops on Okinawa. The fighting on this small Pacific island proved to be the bloodiest and most vicious of the
entire war, because the Japanese defenders, even in the face of a hopeless cause, refused to give up. They intended
to fight to the last man, and ground battles and air attacks continued until June 21.
The last wartime action for the "Big E" occurred during the Okinawa campaign. On May 11, Admiral Marc Mitscher's
flagship, the Bunker Hill, was seriously damaged by kamikaze attacks which resulted in 392 dead and 264 injured.
Admiral Mitscher then transferred his flag to the Enterprise. Three days later, the Enterprise was hit
by a lone kamikaze which inflicted the worst damage she received during the entire war. The plane had come completely
around from one side of the carrier task force to the other side, headed straight for the "Big E." All of the ships
were shooting at it, and scoring hits. But it just continued on and hit the Enterprise at the edge of the forward
elevator, sending the 100-ton structure hundreds of feet into the air in a massive explosion. Her flight deck was
completely useless, but she refused to die. Admiral Mitscher was forced to transfer his flag again, this time to the
Randolph, from where he commanded the task force for the remainder of the war.
Requiem for a Gallant Lady
The Enterprise was sent to the West Coast, where she was restored to peak condition. After the war, she sailed
back to Pearl Harbor to bring home 1,000 troops. She then set out for Europe, where she participated in the "Magic
Carpet" operation, bringing home more than 10,000 servicemen in her final service. The Enterprise was
decommissioned on February 17, 1947, and placed in reserve. She never saw operational service again.
Admiral Halsey, who had been on board the gallant lady in 1939 when she patrolled the Atlantic, and who had also been
on board her for most of the Pacific war, made a valiant effort to have her preserved as a memorial in Washington, D.C.
In August 1945, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal wrote to President Truman that:
The men who fought [aboard] her love this ship. It would grieve me to put my name to the document which would consign her to be broken up for scrap. I believe, Mr. President, that the Enterprise should be retired permanently at some proper place as a visible symbol of American valor and tenacity in war, and of our will to fight all enemies who assail us....55
According to Admiral Thomas Hamilton, "Congress passed a law to permit this but Admiral Halsey became ill at that time
and none of the rest of us were able to raise the money without him to bring about that desirable aim of having the
"Big E" as a naval museum in Washington."56 The Enterprise was sold for scrap on July
1, 1958.
The "Big E" and her crew amassed an incredible record during World War II. She was in the middle of action at the very
beginning on December 7, 1941, and she was still in the thick of combat on May 14, 1945, just three and a half months
before the Japanese surrender. With the exception of the Battle of the Coral Sea, she participated in virtually every
major battle of the war in the Pacific. Her air groups sank a total of 71 enemy ships and destroyed 911 enemy planes.
Although hit by enemy bombs and kamikaze attacks many times, she always came back ready to continue the fight for
freedom.
Perhaps more than any other vessel, she and her crew exemplified the courageous and proud tradition that is associated
with the name Enterprise. However, that tradition did not end with the dismantling of the proud ship. As Edward
P. Stafford concluded in his epic book about the "Big E."
During the months that the gondola cars at [the] Kearny [New Jersey shipyard] were rumbling away to the melting pots with the chunks of metal that had been history's most successful warship, a colossal structure was growing in a graving dock at Newport News, Virginia, not far from the ways where the Big E was launched thirty-three years before ... Early in 1961 the dock was flooded and Enterprise, the first nuclear carrier in history, the biggest ship in the world, again the pride of her country and its Navy, first felt the touch of the sea. The story of the Big E had begun again.57
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| Copyright ©
1996-2008 Arnold E.
van Beverhoudt, Jr.
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