Enterprise: America's Fightingest Ship and the Men Who Helped Win World War II [Hardcover]

An excellent factual book that takes this fabulous ship from day of launching to the day she was scrapped. The Enterprise, as you will learn in this finely detailed book, had a torrid history in the Pacific area with only a few short jaunts elsewhere. If you are looking for a fictional war book, Enterprise is NOT for you. Barrett Tillman has researched far and wide to obtain the history of the ship, its commanders over the years, the many other officers that assisted running her, the many sailors that kept her shipshape, the various airplanes and pilots that lived, and some that died on or near her, the many sorties flown by her airmen, the many air battles against the Japanese in the air and on land, the attacks on many Japanese ships, and the losses of so many good men, American and Japanese.

You will feel as though you are walking in the footsteps of these battle weary men whether they are on the ship, in the air, or on a brief leave to attempt to settle their minds and bodies. The men of the Enterprise actually never relaxed; they lived the Enterprise as though she were a part of them and they were a part of the ship. Enterprise was launched on October 3, 1936 as one of the original "fast carriers" in the American fleet. Compared to today's carriers the Enterprise was a midget but in those days she was a monster capable of holding her own in action. Fortunately she was not at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese launched their despicable attack on December 7, 1941, for those ships that were there suffered slight to mostly total destruction of ships and a huge loss of men.

This factual book gives a very vivid detailed description of her, her men, and her airplanes action throughout the war. It details each battle, each type of aircraft and the updating of them as the war went on, while giving the reader a history of the various areas in which the Enterprise was active. You will learn the many island battles fought on land, sea, and in the air to take back areas that the Japanese had captured in the beginning of the war. Enterprise had quite a few commanders each with his own temperament and personality and interacted with the ships men as different as day and night. Speaking of night, Enterprise was the first carrier to train and fly night missions, a very challenging act by pilots and deck directors, both launching and landing.

You will feel the hits the ship took, both directly and indirectly, from the depth of the carrier to the top of the ships island. Towards the end of the war the kamikazes flew into various ships to inflict the most damage while committing suicide, the ships were generally terribly damaged and suffered much loss of life. The inter-action between ships when a convoy was moving together gave a lot of problems, some because of weather but mostly because of safety from attack on ships closer together. When an airplane went down either by shooting by the Japanese or because of problems with the plane itself, some crews were rescued by a nearby ship, some were fortunate to be in a life raft and survived for days before help arrived, but some had no chance of survival. A few were captured by the Japanese and most of these Americans suffered through torture. Many of the air battles are described along with the problems with airplanes trying to stay close and be in contact with each other and/or the ships.

I think you have a good idea now as to what to expect in "Enterprise" but no brief synopsis can do the book justice. You must read it if you are a history buff, especially the naval and air parts of the military during World War II.

The Enterprise was arguably the most important ship in the Pacific war, and consequently it has probably had more words written about it that any other American warship of the modern era. The classic book about the Enterprise is Edward P. Stafford's The Big E: The Story of the USS Enterprise, and perhaps not surprisingly, author Tillman cites Stafford's encouragement as a factor in writing his own book. The Stafford book is twice the length of Tillman's new book, and Stafford had the advantage of drawing on the complete ship's archives as well as a large number of veterans who had served on the Enterprise during WWII and who were still living in the 1950s. When Tillman began his book, there were only four living veterans who had served on the Enterprise during WWII. [n.b. see Tillman's comment- only four "plankowners," or original commissioning crew,were still alive when he wrote this.]

Consequently, Tillman's "Enterprise" draws heavily on "The Big E" for its narrative, but he also brings in a lot of material from other books Admiral Halsey's biography figures largely, along with several other books. Using these sources Tillman is able to supply multiple points of view and add perspectives from other commanders. While "Enterprise" lacks much of the detail and larger strategic perspective of the earlier book, it it nonetheless a good read, and an engaging narrative. If you've already read "The Big E" you won't find much new in this book, but the reader who hasn't read much about the ship will find this an entertaining and informative introduction to the ship, and to carrier operations in the WWII Pacific Theater.

I'm going to clear and to the point - I couldn't put this book down. I read voraciously and usually have 3-4 books and magazines on my nightstand that I rotate through from night to night. Not so with Enterprise: America's Fightingest Ship. I couldn't help reading it night after night, for hours on end - into the wee hours - I couldn't stop even when I should have gone to bed. I brought this on a business trip and I even shut the TV off in my hotel room (yes - the horror!) so that I could continue this engrossing saga of the CV-6 Enterprise, one of America's most celebrated WWII fighting vessel. The book starts not just in Oct 1936 at the ship's launching, but also touches on the genesis of carriers as a class of ship, and goes through the scropping of the now horribly out-dated vessel in 1958 and beyond to follow the careers of some of it's officers and retirees.

I loved that it focused ONLY on the naval/air war in the Pacific from the viewpoint of the Big E (and I thus have to respectfully disagree with other reviewers who were disappointed at this seeming myopic history). I've read dozens of books on WWII and the Pacific actions against the Japanese - I don't need a retelling of every battle. I also loved the minutia of the sailors lives (made good through interviews of Big E sailors), how the crewmen loved the ship, and how despite different commanders, the mission (and the ship's effectiveness in that mission) never slackened. I also have to disagree with one reviewer who panned the book because it wasn't "the definitive" book on the subject. And?!?! By definition, there can be only ONE definitive product on any subject and having never read another book SOLELY on the Big E, I'd have to seriously question anyone who says that this book isn't "at least" pretty darn good. If I had any critical comment of the book, I would like to have seen more pictures, but it appears that the author has taken a minimalist approach in this area and I'm fine with that.

This is one of those books that once you get to the last page, you get a feeling of depression - "Aw... I'm done already...?" - and frantically search back through the pages to make sure you didn't miss anything. Even today I can't take it off my end table - I keep hoping I'll pick it up and find that there is one more chapter to read.

****UPDATE****
I conversed with the author and have been told that in the print edition of the book, there will be a section of 40 high resolution pictures that cover the ship, aircraft, and personnel from 1938 onward - some of which have never been published. Included in the set is a great picture of the Big E's original "crossing the line" ceremony on August 20, 1938 with apparently "some pretty mean-looking Shellbacks" awaiting to initiate the supplicant Pollywogs. This is the kind of content I love - although the military is a serious business, sometimes the men have to stop and unwind a little.

I therefore withdraw my only "negative" comment where I wish that the book had more photos. This is sometimes the problem with being a Vine Voice reviewer - we largely don't get to see the final product. Unfortunately the other problem is that I now can't wait to run out and get the print edition so that I can see all the great pictures... One more guaranteed sale for Mr. Tillman!!

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