The Big E: The Story of the USS Enterprise

A lasting memorial to the USS Enterprise, this classic tale of the carrier that contributed more than any other single warship to the naval victory in the Pacific has remained a favorite World War II story for forty years. The Big E participated in nearly every major engagement of the war against Japan and earned a total of twenty battle stars, after downing 911 enemy planes, sinking 71 ships, and damaging nearly 200 others. The Halsey-Doolittle Raid, the battles of Midway, Santa Cruz, Guadalcanal, the Philippine Sea, and Leyte Gulf, and the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa are faithfully recorded from the viewpoint of the brave men who served her so well. Focusing on the exploits of the famous ship's air groupls, the author, a naval aviator, captures the drama of their encounters with the enemy without sacrificing the accuracy demanded by a work of nonfiction.

Printed in the USA, 616 pages