Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!


The USS Enterprise's, CV-6 & CVN-65 site



At the start of World War 2, The US Navy had eight aircraft Carriers, they where in order of designation: Langley (CV-1), Lexington (CV-2), Saratoga (CV-3), Ranger (CV-4), Yorktown (CV-5), Enterprise (CV-6), Wasp (CV-7) and the Hornet (CV-8).

As the war progressed, the Langley, Lexington, Yorktown, Wasp and Hornet where all sunk, but where replaced by the Essex Class Fleet Carriers, the Independence Class Light Carriers and later the Midway Class Battle Carriers. But none of these carriers could compare to the Big "E", the "Fighting Lady" or the "Old Dame"- more commonly known as the USS Enterprise.

She served in the war from start to finish and earned more battle stars in one war (22) than any other vessel active then and now, she was also the first carrier to receive the Presidential Unit Citation and the Naval Unit Citation.

She was launched on 3 October 1936 by Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. and commissioned on 12 May 1938.
She was delivering Marine Corp Fighter Squadron 211 to Wake Island on the 2 December 1941 and was en route to her home base of Pearl Harbor when it was attacked. She was the first Carrier to arrive on the scene and her forward scouts where engaged by the withdrawing Japanese attackers, had the Enterprise arrived at Pearl Harbor earlier or been there during the attack, she might not of survived.

She was also the first carrier to actively retaliate in response to the attack by sinking Japanese submarine 1-170 in 23º 45' N., 155º 35' W., on 10 December 1941, the first American kill of the war, it wouldn't be the Enterprise's last.
Her tour of duty during World War 2 took her from one end of the Pacific to the other, from the American West Coast to the Japanese home islands, from the Aluetians to the coast of Australia, she participated in some of the first attacks against Japan and in some cases was the only American Aircraft Carrier in the gigantic Pacific Ocean due to that her sisters, half sisters and cousins had all been sunk except for the Saratoga who spent more time in the ship yards than actual combat. The Ranger was in the Atlantic and couldn't cope with the rougher Pacific.
She covered the famous Doolittle raid of Tokyo with her sister Hornet, she was the first carrier to effectively launch and retrieve aircraft at night which resulted in her prefix being changed to CVN (Aircraft Carrier-Night, (this should not be confused with the newer Enterprise's prefix also being CVN but it means Aircraft Carrier-Nuclear)).

The Japanese High Command in nearly every one of its reports contained in Japanese "USS ENTERPRISE", this was so common that the Japanese High Command said regularly, "GET ENTERPRISE" since she had by the end of the war destroyed more of the Japanese carriers than any other US vessel. But before the Pacific campaign came to a close in 1945 the Japanese ship Captains when their superiors said "ENTERPIRSE is in the area", they replied, "ANYONE BUT ENTERPRISE"
By the end of the war the Enterprise was the most famous ship afloat but she was also the oldest and most dangerous to be at sea with, for she had sustained severe structural damage from near constant torpedo, bomb, gunfire and kamikaze hits, most of which could not be repaired. Her former Commanding officer, Rear Admiral William F. Halsey Jr., tried unsuccessfully to get her kept as a museum ship to honor the carriers lost during the war, but the US Senate disallowed it because the constant funds could not be verified and she was broken up.
Enterprise entered the New York Naval Shipyard on 18 January 1946 for inactivation, and was decommissioned on 17 February 1947. The "Big E" was sold on 1 July 1958 and her scrapping was completed in 1960.

1960 was not only the unfortunate year that the USS Enterprise CVS-6 was scrapped, but it was also the same year that the USS Enterprise CV(A)N-65 was launched, 24 September 1960 to be exact, to become twenty-second vessel and the eighth naval vessel to bear the famous name.
The revolutionary new Carrier was the first of her kind, being the first carrier to be powered by nuclear reactors (8 in total) and the first Naval vessel to exceed 1,000 feet in length, 1,101 feet to be precise. Her career is not as bloodstained as her former namesake, in fact her's is still being written, well this will be the case until 2018 when her fate will be sealed and her hull broken up, or so that's what the US Navy Department is telling everyone. But the Enterprise torch will not end with her, for the new carrier CVX-2 soon to be re designated CVN-79 and bear the name Enterprise, to be launched soon after the current Enterprise travels the oceans of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean for the last time.

proposed design of USS Enterprise CVN-79

Go to USS Enterprise CVN-65 official site