Publishers Weekly
Military historian Tillman (Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan, 1921–1945) documents life and death aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (aka the Big E), interviewing the last surviving veterans who served on the ship through major Pacific battles. Launched in 1936, the Enterprise was commissioned in 1938, setting out with “some 2,070 officers, sailors, and marines.” Based at Pearl Harbor, the Enterprise transported planes to island bases and was returning from Wake Island during the December 7 attack. Seaman Bobby Oglesby recalled, “We had come into Pearl on December 8, to find ships still burning and the stench of the dead on the air. Every man was hopping mad to refuel, rearm, get back to sea and kill the enemy.” Revenge came six months later at Midway when Big E squadrons sank three of four enemy carriers. By 1945, Enterprise aviators were credited with the destruction of 911 enemy aircraft and 71 ships. Though Enterprise was one of the most celebrated carriers of WWII, following years of inactivity she was sold for scrap in 1958. Throughout the seagoing drama, Tillman fires off successive salvos of descriptive battle action, the result of exhaustive research. 40 b&w photos; maps. Agent: Jim Hornfischer. (Feb.)
Library Journal
The most decorated warship of World War II, first to sink a Japanese vessel after Pearl Harbor and ultimately responsible for downing 911 enemy aircraft and 71 ships, "the Big E" gets its own history from Admiral Arthur Radford Award winner Tillman. For all World War II devotees.
Kirkus Reviews
Veteran military historian Tillman (Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan, 1942–45, 2010, etc.) comprehensively delineates the history of the legendary USS Enterprise ("the Big E"). "Enterprise was America's ship," writes the author, "and there will never be another like her." Through his focus on the famous ship and her crews, he also provides a history of the naval aspects of World War II. As much as possible, Tillman identifies every aviator downed by enemy action, accident or friendly fire, and he offers illuminating details about their lives. The Big E took part in all the major engagements in the Pacific War, and though enemy action forced her from the battlefield three times, she was rebuilt and refitted to come back stronger each time. Her keel was laid down in Norfolk, Va., in 1933, as part of Roosevelt's WPA jobs program, and she entered into service in 1938. She was designed for the transition from bi-plane to metal-made monoplane aircraft, and by the end of the war was being made obsolete by new carriers preparing the way for jets. She was eventually assimilated into combined task forces of multiple aircraft carriers capable of launching hundreds of planes against their Japanese targets. A platform for innovation, her aviators helped pioneer nighttime operations for defensive patrols and offensive deployments, and she provided a test bed for application of radar technology to both day- and nighttime aviation. Though the cost in human lives was enormous, "Enterprise was about leadership. Amoebalike, she spawned cell after new cell of leaders at every level, men who absorbed the lessons of their mentors and passed those values to the next generation like naval DNA." A commendable history of a significant ship that also commemorates the economic might unleashed to supply the fighters in WWII.
