USS Enterprise
United States
Builders:	Newport News Shipbuilding
Operators:	United States Navy
Preceding class:	Lexington
Following class:	Essex
Commissioned:	30 September 1937
Decommissioned:	17 February 1947
Ships in Class
Ships in class:	3
Sunk ships:	USS Yorktown USS Hornet
Scrapped ships:	USS Enterprise
General Characteristics
Class type:	Fleet aircraft carrier
Displacement:	19,800 tons (20,117 metric tonnes) standard 25,500 tons (25,908 metric tonnes) full load
Length:	761 feet (232 metres), waterline
Beam:	83 feet (25.3 metres)
Draught:	21.67 feet (6.6 metres)
Draft:	26 feet (7.9 metres)
Propulsion and power:	9 boilers 120,000 shp
Speed:	32.5 knots (60.2 km/h)
Range:	12,500 nm (23,150 km)
Complement:	2,217
Armament:	8 dual purpose guns 16 anti-aircraft guns 24 machine guns
Armor:	Belt: 2.5 to 4 inches Tower: 4 inches
Aircraft complement:	90
Aircraft facilities:	2 flight deck catapults 1 hangar catapult 3 aircraft elevators

The Yorktown class aircraft carriers consisted of three carriers built by the USA not long before World War II. They bore the brunt of early action in that war, and the sole survivor of the class was to become the most accomplished ship in the history of the U.S. Navy. The USS Enterprise (CV-6) Underway, Public domain photo from history. ... Image File history File links US_flag_48_stars. ... The newly constructed USS Birmingham is launched from the Newport News yards in 1942 Northrop Grumman Newport News, formerly called Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company (NNS), is the largest privately owned shipyard in the United States and the only one that can build Nimitz-class supercarriers. ... Image File history File links US_Naval_Jack. ... USN redirects here. ... The Lexington class aircraft carriers were the first operational aircraft carriers in the United States Navy (USS Langley was a strictly developmental ship which only served for a short time as an active fleet unit before being converted to a seaplane tender AV-3). ... The United States Navys Essex class aircraft carriers constituted the industrial ages largest class of heavy warships. ... September 30 is the 273rd day of the year (274th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The list of ship commissionings in 1937 includes a chronological list of all ships commissioned in 1937. ... February 17 is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... The list of ship decommissionings in 1947 includes a chronological list of all ships decommissioned in 1947. ... // Early Career The third USS Yorktown (CV-5) was lead ship of the Yorktown class aircraft carrier of World War II, sunk at the Battle of Midway. ... The seventh USS Hornet (CV-8) of the United States Navy was an aircraft carrier of World War II, notable for launching the Doolittle Raid, as a participant in the Battle of Midway, and for action in the Solomons before being mortally wounded in the Battle of the Santa Cruz... USS Enterprise (CV-6) was the sixth aircraft carrier of the United States Navy and the seventh US Navy ship of that name. ... A ton(ne) (symbol t) is a unit of mass. ... metre or meter, see meter (disambiguation) The metre is the basic unit of length in the International System of Units. ... Kilometre per hour (American spelling: kilometer per hour) is a unit of both speed (scalar) and velocity (vector). ... KM, Km, or km may stand for: Khmer language (ISO 639 alpha-2, km) Kilometre Kinemantra Meditation Knowledge management KM programming language KM Culture, Korean Movie Maker. ... A dual purpose gun is a naval weapon mounting designed to engage both surface and air targets. ... American troops man an anti-aircraft gun near the Algerian coastline in 1943 Anti-aircraft, or air defense, is any method of combating military aircraft from the ground. ... A machine gun is a fully-automatic firearm that is capable of firing bullets in rapid succession. ... Four aircraft carriers, Principe-de-Asturias, USS Wasp, USS Forrestal and HMS Invincible (front-to-back), showing the difference in size between a supercarrier, light V/STOL carriers, and an amphibious carrier. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ...

The lessons learned from operations with the large battlecruiser conversion Lexington class in comparison with the smaller purpose-built Ranger had taught the Navy that large carriers, rather than small ones, were more operationally flexible and survivable. As the result of this experience, the U.S. Navy built the Yorktown (CV-5) and Enterprise (CV-6), commissioned in 1937 and 1938 respectively. These were fast and versatile carriers, able to carry and operate over 80 warplanes, almost as many as the much larger Lexington class. With the addition of the 14,700 ton Wasp (CV-7), a smaller version of the class, the U.S. Navy used up its full 135,000 ton Washington Naval Treaty limit of aircraft carrier tonnage. The scrapping of the treaty system in 1937 allowed the US to begin building more carriers, and the first of this new carrier program was another Yorktown class, Hornet (CV-8), commissioned in 1941. Improvements to the Yorktown design brought about the Essex (CV-9) class. Unusually, the ships carried (but seldom used) a catapult on the hangar deck level; this catapult was eliminated on all following carrier classes as it was relatively useless in operation. The Lexington class aircraft carriers were the first operational aircraft carriers in the United States Navy (USS Langley was a strictly developmental ship which only served for a short time as an active fleet unit before being converted to a seaplane tender AV-3). ... The sixth USS Ranger (CV-4) was the first ship of the United States Navy to be designed and built from the keel up as an aircraft carrier. ... // Early Career The third USS Yorktown (CV-5) was lead ship of the Yorktown class aircraft carrier of World War II, sunk at the Battle of Midway. ... USS Enterprise (CV-6) was the sixth aircraft carrier of the United States Navy and the seventh US Navy ship of that name. ... The eighth USS Wasp (CV-7) was a United States Navy aircraft carrier. ... The Washington Naval Treaty limited the naval armaments of its five signatories: the United States, the British Empire, the Empire of Japan, the French Third Republic, and Italy. ... The seventh USS Hornet (CV-8) of the United States Navy was an aircraft carrier of World War II, notable for launching the Doolittle Raid, as a participant in the Battle of Midway, and for action in the Solomons before being mortally wounded in the Battle of the Santa Cruz... The United States Navys Essex class aircraft carriers constituted the industrial ages largest class of heavy warships. ...

Except for Enterprise, the entire class had been lost by the end of 1942, with Yorktown sunk at the Battle of Midway in June; half-sister Wasp torpedoed and sunk in September, and Hornet lost in September at the Battle of Santa Cruz. Orphaned sister Enterprise, for a time the only operational carrier in the South Pacific, soldiered on, and participated in most of the principal actions of the Pacific War. She became the most frequently decorated ship of the war. Combatants United States Empire of Japan Commanders Chester W. Nimitz, Frank J. Fletcher, Raymond A. Spruance Isoroku Yamamoto, Chuichi Nagumo, Tamon Yamaguchi † Strength 3 carriers, ~50 support ships, 233 carrier aircraft, 127 land-based aircraft 4 carriers, 7 battleships, ~150 support ships, 248 carrier aircraft, 16 floatplanes Casualties 1 carrier... Combatants United States (U.S.) Japan Commanders William Halsey, Jr. ... Combatants Republic of China U.S.A. (from 1941) U.K. (from 1941) Australia (1941) Netherlands (1941) New Zealand (1941) Canada (1941) U.S.S.R. (from 1945) Empire of Japan Commanders Chiang Kai-shek, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin (from 1945) Hideki Tojo The Pacific War was...

By the end of World War II, Enterprise had been considerably modified. Her final displacement was 32,060 tons and her final armament was 8 single 5 in (127 mm) 38 DP, 6 quad 40 mm AA, 8 twin 40 mm AA and 50 single 20 mm AA. The Yorktown class had proved to be vulnerable to torpedoes and while undergoing repairs in late 1942, Enterprise received an extensive refit, which included an anti-torpedo blister that significantly improved her underwater protection.

She was put out of action on 14 May 1945 when she was struck in the forward elevator by a kamikaze aircarft flown by the Japanese pilot Tomi Zai, which destroyed the elevator and severely damaged her hangar deck. She was still out of action on V-J Day but was subsequently fitted out for Operation Magic Carpet, ferrying over 10,000 veterans home from Europe. Stricken from the list in 1959 after multiple attempts to preserve her as a museum and memorial, ex-Enterprise met her fate in the breaker's yards at Kearny, New Jersey in 1960 May 14 is the 134th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (135th in leap years). ... 1945 (MCMVL) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... It has been suggested that Personnel involved in the development of World War II suicide attacks be merged into this article or section. ... 15 August 1945 marked Victory over Japan or VJ Day, taking a name similar to Victory in Europe Day, which was generally known as VE Day. ... Most of Yemenite Jews had never seen an airplane before, but they believed in the Biblical prophecy: according to the Book of Isaiah (40:31), God promised to return the children of Israel to Zion with wings. Operation Magic Carpet may refer to: the post-World War II effort by... Kearny (pronounced ) is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. ...

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