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USS Enterprise (and her sister ship Yorktown) were the first two purpose built large aircraft carriers to enter US service, after a series of experimental designs and battlecruiser conversions. She became one of the most famous US carriers of the war, and one of the few of the early carriers to survive the war (although not unscathed). She took part in the key early battles of the war, including the Doolittle Raid and the battle of Midway, the campaign in the Solomon Islands, the battles of the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf and the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
This book combined a fairly brief history of the Enterprise, with an impressive collection of photographs. These start with photographs of her construction, allowing us to see how she progressed from the earliest stages when just the base of the hull had been constructed to her completion, and end with her scrapping, where we see something similar in reverse! Between these two extremes we get a splendid selection of pictures, with the most valuable for me being those showing her combat experience and in particular the damage she suffered in battle and those focusing on individual aspects of the ship (such as one remarkable picture of a long row of extra anti-aircraft guns added to the outside of the bridge). There is also a reasonable amount of internal pictures (although there are never as many of these as I would like!).
This is an excellent pictorial history of this famous aircraft carrier, and an excellent record of her appearance and wartime experiences.
Chapters
1 – Design and Construction
2 – Prelude to War
3 – Off to War
4 – Doolittle, Midway and Tulagi
5 – Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz, Naval Battle of Guadalcanal
6 – January 1943-June 1944
7 – July 1944-September 1945
8 – Navy Day, Magic Carpet and the End of the ‘Big E’
Author:
Edition: Hardcover
Pages: 128
Publisher: Schiffer
Year: 2020