Synopses & Reviews
Pearl Harbor . . . Midway . . . Guadalcanal . . . The Marianas . . . Leyte Gulf . . . Iwo Jima . . . Okinawa. These are just seven of the twenty battles that the USS andlt;Iandgt;Enterprise andlt;/Iandgt;took part in during World War II. No other American ship came close to matching her record. andlt;Iandgt;Enterprise andlt;/Iandgt;is the epic, heroic story of this legendary aircraft carrierand#8212;nicknamed and#8220;the fightingest shipand#8221; in the U.S. Navyand#8212;and of the men who fought and died on her. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Americaand#8217;s most decorated warship, andlt;Iandgt;Enterprise andlt;/Iandgt;was constantly engaged against the Japanese Empire from December 1941 until May 1945. Her career was eventful, vital, and short. She was commissioned in 1938, and her bombers sank a submarine just three days after the Pearl Harbor attack, claiming the first seagoing Japanese vessel lost in the war. It was the auspicious beginning of an odyssey that Tillman captures brilliantly, from escorting sister carrier andlt;Iandgt;Hornet andlt;/Iandgt;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 just three months before the end of the war. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Barrett Tillman has been called and#8220;the man who owns naval aviation history.and#8221; Heand#8217;s mined official records and oral histories as well as his own interviews with the last surviving veterans who served on andlt;Iandgt;Enterprise andlt;/Iandgt;to give us not only a stunning portrait of the shipand#8217;s unique contribution to winning the Pacific war, but also unforgettable portraits of the men who flew from her deck and worked behind the scenes to make success possible. andlt;Iandgt;Enterprise andlt;/Iandgt;is credited with sinking or wrecking 71 Japanese ships and destroying 911 enemy aircraft. She sank two of the four Japanese carriers lost at Midway and contributed to sinking the third. Additionally, 41 men who served in andlt;Iandgt;Enterprise andlt;/Iandgt;had ships named after them. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;As with andlt;Iandgt;Whirlwind, andlt;/Iandgt;Tillmanand#8217;s book on the air war against Japan, andlt;Iandgt;Enterprise andlt;/Iandgt;focuses on the lower ranksand#8212;the men who did the actual fighting. He puts us in the shoes of the teenage sailors and their captains and executive officers who ran the ship day-to-day. He puts us in the cockpits of dive bombers and other planes as they careen off andlt;Iandgt;Enterpriseandlt;/Iandgt;and#8217;s flight deck to attack enemy ships and defend her against Japanese attackers. We witness their numerous triumphs and many tragedies along the way. However, Tillman does not neglect the top brassand#8212;he takes us into the ward rooms and headquarters where larger-than-life flag officers such as Chester Nimitz and William Halsey set the broad strategy for each campaign. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;But the main character in the book is the ship itself. and#8220;The Big E" was at once a warship and a human institution, vitally unique to her time and place. In this last-minute grab at a quickly fading history, Barrett Tillman preserves the andlt;Iandgt;Enterprise andlt;/Iandgt;story even as her fliers and sailors are departing the scene.
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
Barrett Tillman is a widely recognized expert on air warfare in World War II and the author of more than 40 nonfiction and fiction books on military topics, including Whirlwind. The former managing editor of The Hook (the magazine of the Tailhook Association), Tillman's is a familiar face on TV documentaries in the United States and Europe. He has received six awards for history and literature, including the Admiral Arthur Radford Award. He lives in Mesa, Arizona.