Some sad videos of Enterprise

[mako88sb]

Sorry if these have been posted before. I did a search and nothing came up. First one shows "The Big E" during an attack in the Eastern Solomons. No audio but some music from the era to listen to. Nice at first but seemed kind of inappropriate during the battle.

 

 

 

 

Next one is of her sad voyage to the scrapping yard. Must admit it brought tears to my eyes to see that magnificent ships last voyage.

 

 

 

 

 

Rob

[DesertFox]

No other warship deserved to preserved more than her except the USS Constitution.

[John Dudek]

Sad. I'd never seen that combat film footage before. Some hellacious stuff!

[shep854]

Mako, thank you for posting those. My Dad was aboard Enterprise as an Aviation Metalsmith with VF-6 at that time. In fact, he spent his birthday supporting the Guadalcanal landings. Watching the combat clip, I can't help but wonder if he was one of those caught on film. He was wounded during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. I started to look really close during the plane-spotting clip, but realized they were just fillers from earlier ops. The red center of the stars and tail stripes were gone by Aug '42.

 

Once, I mentioned to him how I wish Enterprise had been preserved. He said he was glad she wasn't, because no "long-haired hippies" would disgrace her decks. Considering his blood was in her steel (and, in a way, her steel was in his blood), there wasn't much to disagree with.

Edited May 2, 2008 by shep854

[Jeff]

Horrible watching the guys work the starboard 5" one second and then getting blown to bits the next when the Japanese bomb hits.

[shep854]

Horrible watching the guys work the starboard 5" one second and then getting blown to bits the next when the Japanese bomb hits.

 

At least it was quick for the gun crew.

 

My Dad died in '93. To a degree, he probably lived those days the rest of his life. During the Santa Cruz battle, Dad was wounded by bomb fragments. One thing he did tell me was how he and other casualties were lined up on the hangar deck, strapped into Stokes litters and half expecting the ship to sink. Even as a kid, that was horrifying to me.

Edited May 2, 2008 by shep854