Plane Dave

USS Enterprise (CV-6)

Easily the best known aircraft carrier of World War II, and the name is even better known thanks to a certain sci-fi television series. Why did the Enterprise become so synonymous with US carrier aviation?

Known as “The Big E” or “The Grey Ghost” (due to the Japanese claim to have sunk her three times), the Enterprise was the most decorated ship in the US Navy. Which is perhaps not surprising since it was among a small number of ships in service from the start of the War to the end. Of seven US carriers in service at the start, only three survived to the end. One of these, USS Ranger had been converted to a training ship; but Ranger’s combat had all come in the Atlantic. So that means only Enterprise and Saratoga survived among Pacific Fleet carriers. And curiously, through luck and circumstance, the Enterprise had been present at every carrier battle except The Battle of Coral Sea (the first carrier battle, May 1942). While the Saratoga had missed every carrier battle but one, The Battle of the Eastern Solomons (August, 1942).
Over the course of that substantial combat record Enterprise amassed 20 Battle Stars (the most of any US warship). Her guns and aircraft destroyed 911 enemy planes and sank 71 ships.