USS Enterprise (CV-6)

"May she also say with just pride: 'I have done the State some service.'" With these words, Mrs. Claude A. Swanson, wife of the Secretary of the Navy, launches USS Enterprise CV-6 on 3 October 1936.

Crowds look on as Enterprise CV-6 clears the ways of Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., 3 October 1936.

Fitting out at Newport News, Virginia, 8 February 1937

Enterprise, 1939

USS Enterprise (CV-6) en route to Pearl Harbor, 8 October 1939. Photographed from USS Minneapolis (CA-36).

Operating in the Pacific, circa late June 1941. She is turning into the wind to recover aircraft.

1.1" quad aft batery

A SBD-2 Dauntless dive bomber of either VB-6 or VS-6 on the carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) prepares for takeoff during the 1 February 1942 Marshall Islands Raid.

Aft port-side galery of 5"/38 Mark 12 dual-purpose guns

24 April 1942: Hard landing of APC Howard Packard's F4F Wildcat 6-F-24 on USS Enterprise (CV-6)

USS Fanning (DD-385) maneuvers in front of USS Enterprise (CV-6), 18 April 1942

USS Enterprise (CV-6) (foreground) and the USS Hornet (CV-8) (background) sped towards Japan's Home Islands to launch the Doolittle Raid on 18 April 1942.

Scouting SBD Dauntless makes slow and low pass over USS Enterprise (CV-6) to drop weighted message. Doolittle Raid, 18 May 1942

USS Enterprise at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, May 1942. Shortly before battle of Midway.

Battle of Midway, 4 June 1942 - VT-6 TBD-1 aircraft are prepared for launching on USS Enterprise (CV-6)

Sketch of attack on japanese carriers performed by VB-6 (targeting Akagi)and VS-6 (targeting Kaga) from Enterprise during the battle of Midway

USS Enterprise under attack, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, 24 August 1942

Japanese bomb explodes on the flight deck of USS Enterprise.

A Japanese bomber burns as it is shot down directly over Enterprise.

Near miss creates a geyser of watter whitch towers over USS Enterprise CV-6.

Enterprise CV-6 steams past the burning wreckage of two Japanese bombers during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. The two bombers and their bombs barely missed the Enterprise

Enterprise damage control teams fight fires resulting from bomb hits during Japanese aerial attack on August 24, 1942

Enterprise CV-6 heels over violently during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. A fire fed by burning powder flares brightly in her Group 3 5" gun gallery (starboard-side aft), set off by a Japanese bomb that killed 38 men

Enterprise crewmen inspect and begin to repair the damage from the third bomb to hit the flight deck during the attack on August 24, 1942

The 5"/38 Mark 12 dual-purpose gun number #5 of III. battery on the aft-starboard side destroyed by the 2nd bomb-hit.

An F4F-4 Wildcat fighter piloted by ENS Lyman Fulton of VF-10 prepares for launch from Enterprise on October 24, 1942.

Enterprise during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, 26 October 1942.

Near miss

Enterprise during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands.

A Hornet Wildcat which had landed on Enterprise slides across the flight deck as Enterprise maneuvers violently under aerial attack on October 26, 1942.

Plane-handling crews working hard aboard Enterprise as the ship heels sharply during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. The plane in the center is an F4F-4 Wildcat fighter. To its right is an SBD Dauntless. Other planes are overhead.

A parked SBD Dauntless topples off of the flight deck of Enterprise and she heels sharply over after being hit by a bomb on October 26, 1942.

An SBD over Enterprise (foreground) and Saratoga (background) near Guadalcanal on December 19, 1942.

20 mm AA gun aboard USS Enterprise, May 1943

Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless, Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat, and Grumman TBF-1 Avenger aircraft of Carrier Air Group Ten (CVG-10) on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6), on 2 May 1943.

USS Enterprise - November 1943

USS Enterprise (CV-6) underway on 24 November 1943, while supporting the Gilberts Operation. Photographed from USS Monterey (CVL-26).

Crash landing of F6F on flight deck of USS ENTERPRISE while enroute to attack Makin Island. Lt. Walter Chewning, catapult officer, clambering up the side of the plane to assist pilot, Ens. Byron Johnson, from the flaming cockpit. November 1943.

PhoM 1/c Joe Day (foreground) and PhoM 1/c Len Globus (top) examine a VB-10 SBD Dauntless, damaged during a photographic mission over Truk Atoll, 16-17 February 1944.

Grumman F6F-3 "Hellcat" fighters landing on USS Enterprise (CV-6) after strikes on the Japanese base at Truk, 17-18 February 1944. Flight deck crewmen are folding planes' wings and guiding them forward to the parking area

Two fighter pilots on board the USS Enterprise wait on deck during raid on Truk, Caroline Islands. February, 16, 1944

TBM "Avenger" torpedo bombers warming up on the after flight deck during operations in the Pacific, circa May 1944. An F6F "Hellcat" fighter is on the midships elevator, in the foreground.

USS Enterprise (CV-6) anchored off Saipan, circa mid-1944, while painted in camouflage Measure 33, Design 4Ab. The photograph was taken from the flight deck of an escort carrier (CVE).

Enterprise under attack 1945

Firefighting after Kamikaze hit

USS Enterprise (CV-6) steams toward the Panama Canal on 10 October 1945, while en route to New York to participate in Navy Day celebrations.

Steaming towards Puget Sound

Four aircraft carriers, circa mid-September 1945. The ships are (from front to back): USS Saratoga (CV-3); USS Enterprise (CV-6), USS Hornet (CV-12) and USS San Jacinto (CVL-30).

USS Washington (BB-56) ans USS Enterprise (CV-6) in the Panama canal locks, early October 1945

USS Enterprise (CV-6) en route to New York to take part in the Navy Day Fleet review, October 1945. She is steaming in company with an Independence-class light carrier (CVL) -- in the right distance-- and another warship.

Hangar of Enterprise during Magic Carpet

USS Enterprise awaits scrapping, 1958