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NARRATOR: Previously on "Battle 360," USS Enterprise and sister ship Hornet squared off against the firepower of four enemy carriers in the bloody battle of Santa Cruz. And for Hornet, it was the end of the line. Hit by aerial explosives and torpedoes, she made a last stand and died hard. Now, USS Enterprise becomes the only battle-ready carrier left in the Pacific fleet. USS Enterprise, a fighting city of steel.
She is the most revered and decorated ship of World War II. On this 360 degree battlefield, where threats loom on the seas, in the skies, and in the ocean depths, the Enterprise's enemies could be anywhere and everywhere. There's nowhere to run when the battle is all around you. "Battle 360-- Enterprise versus Japan." Friday, November 13, 1942, 1:48 AM. Anti-aircraft cruiser USS Atlanta patrols the dark waters off Guadalcanal Island in the South Pacific.
USS Enterprise has been out of action for two weeks. With all the other carriers in the Pacific down for the count, these smaller ships must face the enemy alone. Atlanta has sent her share of Japanese planes to the hunting grounds of Hell. But tonight, she's stalking Imperial warships, one of 13 American vessels on the prowl for an enemy force of destroyers, battleships, and cruisers. Two massive Naval groups are about to collide in a terrific clash of steel. But what the crew of Atlanta doesn't know is that they're already locked in the crosshairs of the enemy.
3,000 yards away, Japanese battleship Hiei and destroyer Akatsuki close in for an ambush. At point blank range, they flood Atlanta with massive searchlights and open fire. Atlanta and the American ships immediately open up with every gun they have. The battle is on. Practically before they knew it, their formation is pointed directly at the Japanese. And suddenly, the forces are intermingled and firing at each other. NARRATOR: Muzzle to muzzle, these 20th century ships battle like 18th century pirates. But modern cannons are far more deadly.
Shells streak across the water. The air is filled with explosions, shattering sounds of slamming steel and the cries of the wounded. Cruiser Atlanta gives her all in the violent firefight. Launched in 1941, Atlanta is 541 feet of killing power. She bristles with 16 5-inch rifles, four quad mount 1.1 automatics, and eight 21-inch torpedo tubes. Right now, Atlanta has no shortage of enemy targets. Her forward 5s blow shells at two enemy destroyers, while her battery aims for the searchlights on Akatsuki and cuts loose. But Atlanta is getting it back from all sides.
To the left, she's hit by a storm of Japanese torpedoes that annihilate her forward engine room. [explosions] And on the right, in the confusion of darkness, one of her own cruisers lobs 19 8-inch projectiles towards her deck. [explosions] Dozens of sailors are killed in the salvo. Atlanta cannot escape the hailstorm. As the sun rises over the bloodstained waters, things look bad for the American fleet. Friday the 13th could be Santa Cruz all over again.
Flashback two and a half weeks, October 26, 1942, USS Enterprise takes a pounding in the Battle of Santa Cruz. A 500-pound bomb penetrates her flight deck and cracks her hull, oozing oil and the blood of her wounded. It's a miracle that she's still afloat. Four days later, she arrives at the American base at Nouméa, New Caledonia, for repairs. Crews are working day and night to patch up Enterprise's battle wounds. This isn't just any ship. It's the only American carrier left in the Pacific, the key to beating back the Imperial Menace, and it must be returned quickly to the fight.
They knew that the Navy needed her and that their country needed her. That was the only carrier left at that time. They had to get it back out to sea so they could continue on to fight and beat the Japanese. JAMES BARNHILL: It was after we had lost the Hornet at Santa Cruz, and we was the only carrier left. And I remember sailors holding those signs up on the flight deck "Enterprise versus Japan." NARRATOR: But right now, Enterprise is in no shape for fighting, and Japan is eager to strike. The epicenter of their hostilities is Guadalcanal in the South Pacific Solomon Islands.
Japanese and American ground troops are waging a war of attrition here, each trying to bleed the other to death. American Marines control the coveted airstrip at Henderson Field, which they seized from the enemy three months ago. But they're hanging on by their fingernails. The initiative really lies with the Japanese, though, at this point. They have sunk the Hornet. They have badly damaged the Enterprise. And yet, they still have the heavy surface forces necessary to bring the fight to Guadalcanal.
We've got to get more troops and more supplies in there as quickly as possible. NARRATOR: As Enterprise undergoes repairs, Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, mastermind of Pearl Harbor, has hatched a plan to knock the Marines off Guadalcanal once and for all. 11 transport ships will make their way down the channel between the Solomon Islands known as "The Slot." They will deliver nearly 13,000 Japanese soldiers to Guadalcanal. Covering them will be five battleships, 10 cruisers, and 11 destroyer escorts. The ships are armed with anti-personnel fragmentation shells designed to do maximum damage to human flesh. In addition to attacking the American fleet,
these ships will bombard the airfield and other American positions on Guadalcanal. BRUCE MCGRAW: The Japanese had decided that they were going to make one big push to push our 1st Marine Divisions, annihilate them, destroy them, push him off the canal and retake Guadalcanal. The stakes are very high at this point. This is the culmination of the battle. NARRATOR: As an enemy fleet prepares to hit Guadalcanal, the climax of three months of brutal fighting is about to be reached. But Enterprise is sitting on the sidelines, her men working around the clock to get her back into the fight. Flash forward five days later, Friday the 13th.
The Japanese force has reached Guadalcanal, and cruiser Atlanta is about to be in the battle of her life. The first of the enemy gunships move into position to bombard Henderson Field from Guadalcanal's sealocked channel. But these bloody waters will soon go by another name, Iron Bottom Sound, the final grave for dozens of warships and thousands of men. In the predawn darkness, the enemy ships run right into the guns of USS Atlanta and the American surface fleet patrolling the waters off Guadalcanal. Like battling pirate ships, the two sides pound each other from close range, and the cruiser Atlanta is caught in the firestorm.
Steel lightning explodes as shells and giant orange tracers fire into the night. Japanese and American gunships crucify each other with savage volleys of shot and shell in Guadalcanal's Iron Bottom Sound. Hit by the direct fire from more than six American ships, the destroyer Akatsuki blows up. Destroyer USS Laffey closes in alongside battleship Hiei and rakes her decks with rapid fire 5-inch shells and machine guns. [gunfire] From the island, US Marines watch the epic battle unfold. It goes on for hours. One of the surviving American Naval officers describe this particular action as a-- a barroom brawl after the lights have been shot out, and that's exactly what it was.
NARRATOR: Dawn reveals the scene of an apocalypse. The waters off Guadalcanal are coated in oil, debris, and human remains. Hundreds of sailors, including two American admirals, have been slaughtered in one of the grittiest Naval gun battles of the war. Throughout the morning, a sea tug navigates the bloody waters, rescuing American sailors. Most Japanese survivors are killed.
[gunfire] Among the casualties of November 13 is Cruiser USS Juneau. Lost when the ship sunk are all five Sullivan brothers of Waterloo, Iowa. MARTIN KA MORGAN: As a result of the loss of the five Sullivan brothers on the USS Juneau, the Navy implemented a sole survivor policy, meaning that the sole surviving son of a family would be reassigned to non-hazardous duty. The thought being that if he continued to serve in hazardous duty, they didn't want a family that lost all of its sons in combat. So the result was sole survivors would be reassigned and would not be in harm's way.
NARRATOR: The long morning of November 13 is one of the darkest periods in the history of the US Navy. The grim tally-- cruisers Atlanta and Juneau are gone, USS Laffey and four destroyers are wiped out, four additional Allied ships are damaged, and more than 1,400 Americans have perished. Once again, the US Navy has had to pay a terrible price to hold Guadalcanal for another day. But hope is just over the horizon. November 13, 7:00 AM. After only two weeks, USS Enterprise is out of the repair docks and steaming into the fight. The Japanese are stunned by the sudden appearance of The Grey Ghost.
They thought they had sunk the Enterprise and the Hornet. They knew they got the Hornet. They thought the Enterprise would be out of commission. NARRATOR: But this is a fight that the men of the Big E wouldn't dare miss, come Hell or high water or both. WILLIAM BODETTE: The USS Enterprise, the ship's crew said, no, this ain't going to happen. We're going to fight you to our last man. You know, whenever you lose friends, buddies, and in-- in war, it's-- it's going to happen. But no matter how hard you try, it still becomes very personal.
[gunfire] NARRATOR: Target, Japanese warships and troop transports. Objective, prevent Japan from delivering reinforcements to Guadalcanal. Strategy, attack, attack, attack. For the Americans, all that stands between the Empire and the Almighty is Enterprise, the remains of her task force, and a motley collection of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers. Steaming alongside Enterprise are the fast battleships Washington and South Dakota. With destroyers in a semicircle straight ahead, Admiral Halsey's plan is to position the Big E more than 200 miles southwest of Guadalcanal.
While Bull Halsey runs the overall campaign from Nouméa, Admiral Thomas Kincaid is placed in command of Enterprise's task force. JONATHAN PARSHALL: Admiral Kincaid does not want to risk losing Enterprise if he can possibly help it. He has maneuvered Enterprise into a position about 200 miles south to southwest on Guadalcanal in a position where his aircraft can interdict shipping that's coming down The Slot and also remove those aircraft, if need be, to Henderson Field, and that's exactly what he would do.
NARRATOR: There's just one problem. The Big E's forward elevator was knocked out of commission at Santa Cruz and couldn't be repaired with the limited facilities available at New Caledonia. And the forward elevator is key to the system of launching and landing planes during a battle. Enterprise has three of these hydraulic elevators-- forward, midships, and aft. Each elevator is 48 feet by 44 feet and capable of lifting 17,000 pounds. Planes are first brought up from the hangar using the rear elevators. Then they take off on their missions. When they return, they land over the rear of the carrier and are rolled forward.
The forward elevator brings them below decks to be prepared for their next mission. With the forward elevator knocked out of action, the whole system falls apart. Bottom line, planes can take off from Enterprise, but there's no coming back. So Halsey's plan is to send some of Enterprise's squadrons to land at Henderson Field, which they will use as a temporary base during the battle. The handful of Enterprise planes will have to launch from her decks, bomb the enemy targets, then land on Guadalcanal to be serviced by Marine ground crews.
November 13, 1942, day one in the Naval battle of Guadalcanal. 8:22 AM, the first planes head out on this risky mission. Nine Avengers and six Wildcats make ready to launch. They will head for Henderson Field and take out any Japanese ships or planes they encounter en route. It's a dangerous mission. With the enemy in full attack mode, there's no guarantee that Henderson Field will be in US hands when the planes arrive.
[gunfire] A little after 11:00 AM, Enterprise's torpedo planes strike paydirt. They are led by a lieutenant with a suitably grim name, Al Coffin. The Avengers are en route for Guadalcanal's airstrip. Suddenly, Japanese battleship Hiei comes into view. Despite being mauled by destroyer Laffey the night before, she's headed right for Henderson Field with her 14-inch guns. Hiei is a Congo-class battleship and displaces more than 36,000 tons, with a crew of 1,300 men. In addition to her main battery of eight 14-inch guns, she's armed with 16 6-inch flak guns, eight 5-inch rifles, and as many as 118 machine guns.
Hiei is a menacing sight on any battlefield. Coffin's torpedo planes immediately climb 4,500 feet higher into the clouds and out of sight. Their objective, split into two groups and maneuver into striking position to bury the Imperial battlewagon. Both groups will meet the warship head-on, one from the port bow, the other from starboard. Hiei will have nowhere to go. Any way she turns, she'll get a salvo of Enterprise's torpedoes. The crew of the Japanese battleship has no idea they're in the sights of Coffin's torpedoes.
Two miles ahead, Coffin's Avengers burst out of the clouds in two groups headed right for the bow of the massive vessel. At long range, Hiei unleashes flak guns, but her fire is divided between the two groups of American planes. Half a mile away, the Big E's fliers are only 150 feet off the water when they release their warheads. Coffin is in the lead of the four planes attacking the port bow, just as Hiei cuts loose with an angry broadside from her 14-inch rifles.
[explosion] The Avengers pull up and run like hell for Henderson Field. Seconds later, Hiei is nailed by three torpedoes. She slows to a crawl and turns hard to starboard, her rudder destroyed. She's helpless. Amazingly, three out of the eight American torpedoes have actually done their job. And that was quite a feat at that time because our torpedo planes were so slow. Your warfighter capability is a combination of both technology, and in this case for flying, your pilot's skill. Well, back then, the technology wasn't all that good.
The capabilities of the pilots would have to play a-- a much larger role than they do today. NARRATOR: Two hours after the initial attack, Hiei is finished off by another round of Enterprise torpedo planes an is scuttled. For the first time in World War II, the Big E has just claimed a Japanese battleship. [explosions] I think they were credited with sinking the first battleship. It's one of their newest ones, and I believe that was the first battleship that we had sunk.
You felt victory every time you-- you sunk one of their ships or knocked their planes down. You felt up there. ALAN PIETRUSZEWSKI: Naval battles have been raging for hundreds of years, you know, back to old wooden hulled ships. When a ship goes down, it means it can't fight anymore. It's one thing to take out a body. But if you take out the vessel carrying 100 or 1,000 or 5,000 bodies, you-- you've really force multiplied the damage that you've inflicted on your enemy and in their ability to prosecute, you know, friendly targets on your side. And more than that, it's, "I went mano-a-mano, and I walked away and he didn't."
NARRATOR: By the end of the day, all 15 Enterprise torpedo and fighter planes survive their encounter with the enemy and land safely at Henderson Field. But the Naval battle for Guadalcanal is far from over. The enemy transport ships and their destroyer escorts are still out there. November 14, 1942, day two in the Naval battle of Guadalcanal, 2:00 PM. Below the flight deck, plane handlers and technicians prepare for another launch against the enemy.
The hangar deck is one of the most vital parts of the ship. Here, the Big E's parked warplanes are prepared for battle. Hundreds of sailors man repair stations, welding shops, and storage rooms. The hangar is storage for an arsenal of machine guns, bombs, torpedoes, and ammunition. And on this day, there's not a moment to lose. Enterprise's dauntless dive bombers have been called in to destroy the enemy transports and the Imperial soldiers they carry.
Like all enemy convoys sent down The Slot, this force is known as "The Tokyo Express." And right now, the greatest threat to Guadalcanal's Marines are these enemy reinforcements. Earlier that afternoon, another Enterprise strike force discovered a badly damaged several of the troop ships. There are seven of them out there steadily headed for Guadalcanal. By nightfall, the Marines could have another 8,000 enemy troops breathing down their necks. JACK GLASS: They were trying to land troops and supplies on-- off destroyers and other small ships, and we were trying to harass them and keep them from doing that.
NARRATOR: Recently promoted from the flight deck, radio man gunner Jack Glass has survived the deadly battles of the Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz. But this will be his first combat mission in the air. I didn't want to be on that flight deck anymore. It just seemed like flying was the best way to be. NARRATOR: Another Santa Cruz survivor is pilot Bruce McGraw of Texas. Commander Crommelin came to the ready room, and he says, now, you get those transports. If the Japanese land those 11 ships, there's no way that we can hold what little ground we have around Henderson Field, and it will be the worst massacre
in the history of the United States. JACK GLASS: It was the old routine of going out and trying to find them. And then if we found them, we'd go out and try to sink them. [explosions] NARRATOR: The Enterprise airstrike is a mixed bag of eight SBDs from her scouting and bombing squadrons, escorted by the Wildcats of Fighting Squadron 10 led by Jimmy Flatley. BRUCE MCGRAW: Of course, we all operated together as if it was one unit, one squadron. We had the very good look to have Jimmy Flatley, who was commanding officer of the Fighting 10, and he had 12 F4F Wildcats.
The-- most all of them had been in combat. [gunfire] NARRATOR: Flatley is already a legend in Naval aviation and a hero aboard the Big E. A master tactician and fighting ace, he's nicknamed the Wildcat pilots of Enterprise "The Grim Reapers." 200 miles away, the Japanese troop transports and their destroyer escorts close in on Guadalcanal. One combined air assault by Enterprise pilots has already wreaked havoc on these same ships. Now it's time for Jimmy Flatley and his Reapers to strike the next blow. Smoke already billows from bomb damage, marking the enemy ships as a drop zone for Flatley's air group.
Three miles above the sea, the bomber planes and Flatley's fighters head for the last known position of the transports. BRUCE MCGRAW: We had our guns on the choice, and all-- everything had been checked out. We were carrying 1,000-pound bombs and went directly to the transports. NARRATOR: 4:15 PM, Jimmy Flatley and the fighters and bombers of Enterprise arrive over the enemy fleet. From 18,000 feet, Flatley can clearly see seven wounded transports trailing smoke. He's got them exactly where he wants them. Immediately, cool-headed Flatley forms a battle plan. One by one, he directs each bomber pilot towards a different enemy transport.
Every plane will have one chance to drop a lethal love letter from the Big E or risk getting blown out of the sky by a destroyer. It's got to time out perfectly. 18,000 feet below the SBDs, the seven transports are spread out side by side in two lines. The troop ships are no match for American air power. They're lightly armed and slow to maneuver. For the Japanese soldiers aboard them, there's nowhere to run.
Suddenly, all eyes look to the sky as the Enterprise warplanes charge in from the clouds. 18,000 feet above, pilot Bruce McGraw and five comrades circle toward the right formation of transports, while the other three SBDs take the left. Radio man Jack Glass is the rear seat gunner in one of them. JACK GLASS: You always tried to make your dive so you could pull out stern to bow or bow to stern the long way. That way, you had a better chance of getting a hit. Of course, they were not staying in one place at this time when you get into your dive. They would maneuver around. But the transports were slow, and they were easy to hit, comparatively speaking.
NARRATOR: Easy to hit if you aren't under attack. Suddenly, five enemy Zeroes streak in past the approaching dive bombers, blazing hot lead. Instantly, rear seat gunners in the SBDs burn three of the enemy fighters with their rapid fire twin.30s. Now, the Enterprise bombers begin their vertical dives on the enemy transports. JACK GLASS: The anti-aircraft fire wasn't very effective because they didn't have much on those transports. If we could get by without breaking a drop on a comrade
ship, the rest was easy. And usually one to two bombs would sink one of those transports. NARRATOR: The light flak guns on the transports and anti-aircraft shells from destroyer escorts aren't enough to stop the men of the Big E. 16,000 feet above, the SBDs greet the angry Japanese fire, but keep on coming. BRUCE MCGRAW: Thank goodness there was enough of us scattered around that it wasn't all concentrated on one guy. They were shooting at all of us. [gunfire] I realized immediately when I started to roll over and go down that I had a problem.
NARRATOR: As McGraw charges a transport on the right flank, he realizes that something isn't right. BRUCE MCGRAW: I had no dive brakes. NARRATOR: For a dive bomber, losing your dive brakes, also known as dive flaps, is a critical situation. ALAN PIETRUSZEWSKI: You're supposed to be diving in that dive angle at about 250 knots with your dive flaps out. Now, you take dive flaps out of the equation, it means you're going to be significantly at a higher airspeed on your diving line. That's going to translate to either you having to pickle earlier so you can still bottom out at your safe pull-out
altitude, or if you want to ensure a kill, it means you're going to be a lot faster at the bottom of that dive than you wanted to be. And that's going to translate to being a lot closer to the ground and/or pulling a lot more Gs to not impact the ground. NARRATOR: Right now, as his plane plummets toward the sea faster than a fireball, McGraw is experiencing negative Gs. At any moment, the blood supply to his head could swell, causing blindness. Coming down at a 70 degree angle at high speed also means that McGraw's bomb could nail his own propellers. That'd be the end of your flight.
NARRATOR: McGraw has only seconds to decide whether to continue his dive or pull out. 15,000 feet above the ocean on a vertical dive is no time to hesitate. The Texan decides to keep going and take the enemy ship head-on. And I thought, well, I'm going to find out how tough this airplane is. So with a crippled airplane, no dive brakes, I nose her straight down. I dove close to three miles almost straight down at terminal velocity. I'd never flown an airplane this fast before. The sound of the wind going across the canopy of that airplane was such a roaring screech, and I'd never heard that before.
NARRATOR: Even if he makes his bomb drop, he might not be able to level out and escape sudden impact with the ocean below. McGraw closes on his target at 240 knots. In seconds, he'll have one clear shot. BRUCE MCGRAW: You've done it so many times. It's like throwing a baseball. You learn it by nature. It was dead-on, and I released my bomb. NARRATOR: At 3,500 feet, McGraw delivers 1,000 pounds of Enterprise ordnance on the deck of the transport.
Instantly, he pulls up as hard as he can to level out before crashing into his target. In the last possible moment, he clears the air over the transport just as the bomb drives into the enemy ship and detonates in a massive tearing explosion. Amazingly, it's a direct hit amid ships. It blows the side out of her hull and kills any Japanese soldiers and sailors caught in the blast radius. The transport comes to a sudden halt and begins to list, dead in the water. McGraw manages to level out of his dive and make his escape.
ALAN PIETRUSZEWSKI: When you're working with less than a fully functional combat system, it makes you just a little bit more attuned to what you do have. He pushed it in a little closer than he would have to try to compensate for that deficiency. It's significant that you can overcome a thing like no dive flaps. NARRATOR: And McGraw is not finished. As he passes an enemy destroyer at low level, his gunner unleashes a burst of.30 caliber lead.
His mission accomplished, McGraw heads for Guadalcanal's Henderson Field. A mile to the north, Flatley's fighters rip the enemy troop ships with their big.50s. At 300 miles an hour, the Grim Reapers punish the decks of the transports with unstoppable firepower. Finally, Flatley and the rest of his air group make way for Guadalcanal. Two transports are terminated, but somehow five of the stubborn ships keep going. A half hour later, a second flight of Enterprise bombers from Henderson Field make a run on the transport force. It's a bloodbath.
Dive bombers manage to disable several transports, but at a heavy cost. Flak from the Japanese destroyers and 7.7-millimeter bullets from enemy Zeroes take their toll. BRUCE MCGRAW (VOICEOVER): Commanding officer took one group in there and he didn't have any fighter protection, and a fresh squadron of Zeroes came in and hit them when they got there. NARRATOR: Among the Enterprise fliers lost in the terrible skies over the transport force is McGraw's friend and Santa Cruz wingman, Warren Welch.
Together, the two airmen discovered the first of the enemy ships at Santa Cruz in October. Now, Welch is the victim of enemy fire in the fight against the transports. My good buddy Warren Welch, after he had dropped his bomb and got a transport, a Jap shot him down and killed him there. And that was three weeks after our first battle together. NARRATOR: In all, seven American pilots from the Big E are killed in the desperate attacks of November 14. But the Enterprise pilots have succeeded in slowing down the enemy ships and destroying hundreds of Imperial troops.
JONATHAN PARSHALL: The convoy itself by the end of that afternoon, of the original 11 transports, only four of them are operable. One has retreated to Shortland with a number of survivors. The other five have either been sunk or abandoned and will shortly sink. NARRATOR: As the second day of killing ends, Enterprise bomber, torpedo, and fighter pilots land on Henderson Field. It's still in American hands, but under heavy enemy bombardment.
Arrival at Henderson Field is almost as deadly as fighting in the skies. BRUCE MCGRAW: Just about time we drop down on the ground, another shell comes overhead. You don't have to be told what it is. You hear it. You know what it is. We both hit the deck. Well, I'm sure for them, it gave them a whole new outlook on war because it looks a hell of a lot different from the sky than it does once you put your foot on the deck. It's a totally different world. NARRATOR: Even worse than the dangers of incoming fire, McGraw must suffer the jeers of the Marines, who laugh at any Navy pilot ducking for cover.
For most of them, this is just another day on the canal. [explosions] After dodging a number of shells that slam into the dirt around him, McGraw has a chance run-in with the man in charge, Marine General Alexander Vandegrift. Cool under fire, the legendary leatherneck watches the bombardment from an observation post. BRUCE MCGRAW: I walked over, and I said, "General, may I join you?" And he says, "Be my guest." So I went up the ladder. And by this time, I figured I'm not going to let any damn Marine laugh at me ever again about dodging from the shells. NARRATOR: Together, McGraw and the renowned Marine commander watch as enemy artillery and mortar shells lob onto the airfield from the jungle.
He says, I am down to 50%. They got so many men out with the problem with the mosquitoes and other illnesses. So many of them, they're shot up and hurt in the hospital. They're not able to fight. And we're hanging by our tooth and toenail, and we can barely hold on against what's out there. Made me feel better because I had hit my transport dead center, and I knew they weren't coming ashore. NARRATOR: But the grim satisfaction of battle doesn't last long.
Soon, McGraw and the other Enterprise pilots would get a little taste of night on Guadalcanal. BRUCE MCGRAW: Time came when it getting too dark. One of the Marines took me in tow, and he says, "I'll-- I'll show you where you're going to live." And there were tents staggered along each side of this path down into the jungle. We walked past the first tent and went to the second one, which was on the right. He says, "This is your tent." NARRATOR: McGraw is briefed on the grim realities of ground warfare.
He's warned not to turn on his flashlight or strike a match. Any light might bring a barrage of enemy mortar fire. All he has for protection is a knife and his.45 pistol. He said, if anybody comes into your tent, kill him, and then we'll work it out tomorrow. NARRATOR: For McGraw and his fellow airmen, there will be very little sleep on Guadalcanal. Only miles away, the remains of the Japanese gunships maneuver into position. Their mission, blast the hell out of Henderson Field and cover the arrival of the surviving transports. In command of the enemy force is Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondo,
born in Osaka, Japan, in 1886. He's a longtime Naval warrior and veteran tactician. He personally leads his forces into Iron Bottom Sound. But what the Japanese don't know is that Admiral Bull Halsey has just sent in Enterprise battlewagon escorts South Dakota and Washington to destroy any and all enemy warships that threaten Henderson Field. Commanding the battleship division is Rear Admiral Willis A. Lee. The Kentucky native is an Olympic marksman and a no-nonsense Naval veteran with 38 years of service under his belt. With USS Washington as his flagship, he sets off from Enterprise and heads for Iron Bottom Sound on the hunt for the Imperial fleet.
November 14, 1942. For two days, USS Enterprise and the US fleet have been fighting the battle of their lives in the waters off Guadalcanal. Now in the darkness of night, an enemy gunship force led by battlewagon Kirishima is about to pound the US forces on the island with a massive barrage. But what the Japanese don't know is that Enterprise battleships South Dakota and USS Washington have just been sent to stop them dead in the water. From the bridge of the Washington, Admiral Lee sends a fighting message to the rest of the fleet.
"Stand aside. I am coming through." USS Washington is a North Carolina-class battleship right out of the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Overall length, 729 feet. Displacement, 35,000 tons. Her weaponry is nine 16-inch guns, 20 5-inch rifles, and more than a dozen automatic anti-aircraft guns. 12:15 AM, radar on battleship Washington picks up the location of enemy warships east of the volcanic peak known as Savo Island.
10 miles away, battleship Kirishima and an enemy fleet head right for Guadalcanal on their mission to hit the Marines. But the USS Washington has the Imperial battlewagons dead in sight. [gunfire] Washington's big 16-inch rifles open fire before the Japanese know what's hitting them. Her first victim takes a load of American lead as Washington roars out a storm of heavy fire that devastates the Imperial warship. In another clash of iron, Imperial and American vessels square off in a gruesome display of firepower. [gunfire] In less than three minutes, USS Washington hammers out an amazing 42 rounds from her main battery.
Now she squares off with battleship Kirishima. [gunfire] The thunder of 14-inch and 16-inch rifles and cannons echoes across the sea as Washington mauls the battleship Kirishima with her broadsides. JONATHAN PARSHALL: During that battle, it's interesting that you have a preponderance on each side of their preferred weapon of choice. The Americans bring much heavier gunpower to the fight. The Japanese, for their part, bring much heavier torpedo firepower. And yet in this particular fight, the Japanese are not able to make that advantage in torpedoes tell.
NARRATOR: From the coconut-lined banks of Guadalcanal, Enterprise pilots and Marines can clearly see the blaze of the nighttime slaughter. [gunfire] DONALD GORDON: It was 20 miles away, but it sounded like just next door to your tent, the battleships having at each other. For where we were, we could see the flash of the big battleship cannons and cruiser cannons and the lesser ones down to 5-inch going off, and the-- the Japs were shooting at us. It was a horrendous, horrendous battle. NARRATOR: Battleship Kirishima is finished.
Her hull and superstructure are torn by the American shells. With fires raging over her decks, the enemy crew is forced to abandon ship. [gunfire] USS Washington is the only American battleship to actually sink an enemy battleship in the Second World War. Now, she and South Dakota lay into Japanese cruisers and destroyers, firing rapid broadsides from 16-inch and 5-inch guns. [gunfire]
242 Americans and 249 Japanese are killed. And the following day, battleship Kirishima is scuttled. She joins her sister Hiei in a watery grave in the depths of Iron Bottom Sound. The Americans have stopped the enemy gunships cold. The surviving Japanese cruisers and destroyers beat a hasty retreat north. Admiral Willis A. Lee pulls out of Iron Bottom Sound with a victory and will later receive the Navy Cross. Though South Dakota has been badly damaged, USS Washington is unhurt.
The Enterprise's battlewagon has survived her first brush with the enemy fleet without a single fatality. But in the dim light of early morning, four of the Japanese transports have survived. They make landfall on Guadalcanal with their payloads of Imperial troops. Using the cover of night, they attempt to camouflage themselves along the shores of Guadalcanal, hoping to offload their cargoes without being spotted.
These enemy ships are going to want to try and disguise themselves in any way they can. Nighttime is a good cover because you can't pick up a wake in darkness. And when you're visually acquiring the enemy targets, you can pick up the wake miles away from where the actual ship is. NARRATOR: Cloud cover and rain squalls might also help conceal the enemy warships, making them almost impossible to locate.
The skippers are taking every precaution, but no amount of cloud cover or camouflage is going to save these Imperial ships. Sunrise over the Solomons will only bring the red harvest of battle. Daybreak, November 15, 1942, day three in the Naval battle for Guadalcanal.
From the war-ravaged airstrip at Henderson Field, Bruce McGraw and his comrades from USS Enterprise head off in search of four surviving enemy transports. One by one, the bomber pilots take off on the hunt. Whatever happens in the next few hours might decide the fate of Guadalcanal. BRUCE MCGRAW: Just as soon as we got the gear up and we could see over the trees, you could see the transports over there.
They were right there. NARRATOR: One mile away, the four Japanese transports are busy unloading supplies and reinforcements. But if the Imperial soldiers and sailors think they're finally in the clear, they're dead wrong. Suddenly, the rising sun over Guadalcanal is clouded by a storm of dive bombers, Wildcat fighters, and Avenger torpedo planes. There's nowhere to hide. The Wildcats strafed the transports and beaches with heavy.50 caliber machine guns, literally ripping the enemy apart.
I know that there was a lot of Japanese that jumped off those ships with all their gear on and drowned right there because the water was deeper than they thought it'd be when they jumped off it. So the water was full of dead Japs by the time we got there. NARRATOR: 7,500 feet above, Bruce McGraw and the bombers of Enterprise roll over into 70 degree dives and drive 1,000-pound bombs into the enemy ships. [explosion] One by one, the four transports and their cargoes of troops and supplies are sent up in flames and torn by machine gunfire.
Above the transports, Al Coffin, who led the attack on battleship Hiei, releases a 500-pound bomb directly over his target. It's a direct hit. Another transport eviscerated. Imperial soldiers and sailors are helpless to stop the carnage. It's simply slaughter. In a few short hours, all four of the transport vessels are destroyed, along with hundreds of Japanese soldiers and all the supplies of war.
The fires on the transports will burn for more than 16 hours, and the bodies of hundreds of Japanese warriors lie dead in the waters surrounding the ships. But the bloodbath has prevented the annihilation of the Marines at Guadalcanal. The last attempt the Japanese made to take Guadalcanal, we were there. And we located the 10 or 12 Japanese transports, and we got all of those with the troops aboard. ROY E. BLOOD: We sunk so many of their transports and damaged so many of their ships, we put-- put the fear of God in them that time.
NARRATOR: After more than three months of horrific combat in the jungles, in the air, and on the sea, US forces have finally tipped the scales of Guadalcanal. Henderson Field belongs to the Marines for good. With the cruel battles of the Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz still in the hearts and minds of her crew, Enterprise has reaped victory and has settled the score. PEDRO SANDOVAL: When they passed the word that we had secured Guadalcanal, we all were very happy. Very, very happy. That was a long, long battle.
We lost quite a few men. A lot of my friends there got hurt. NARRATOR: Back on Guadalcanal, Bruce McGraw and the dive bomber pilots from Enterprise get a special thanks from the battle-weary grunts they've literally saved from annihilation. They started giving us souvenirs, and one of them gave me a flag about this big square. It had symbols-- Jap symbols all the way around it. And this was an individual flag. It belonged to an individual. And they say that when these-- when these Japs were issued those flags that their friends would write notes of goodbye and good luck.
I don't know where I ever got such a welcome and such an expression of appreciation as I got from those Marines down there on that front line. NARRATOR: For the first time in the Pacific War, the Big E's pilots have gotten a close-up look at the horrors of ground warfare that they will not soon forget. The camaraderie and thanks is a testament to the common bond among fighting men and a special partnership between the crew of Enterprise and the riflemen in the jungle.
BRUCE MCGRAW: When rains come in and they're lying there in the mud holding that line, I have informed several people, don't say anything not in good taste about a United States Marine, or you might find me right in the middle because I've got tremendous respect for the United States Marine Corps, all they stand for. You just-- you can't help it after a tour on Guadalcanal. The rounds are flying. There's no such thing as, well, he's in the Navy, or, well, he's in the Marine Corps, or he's in the Army, or he's this or he's that, or she's this or she's that.
Doesn't matter. When rounds are flying, one thing matters is that we're American. That's the end of that. NARRATOR: For the Japanese, defeat in the November clash at Iron Bottom Sound destroys any hope for victory at Guadalcanal. They will simply have to let the Americans keep Henderson Field. JACK GLASS: We were beginning to get the upper hand. And pretty soon, the Japanese got tired of losing all those men, and they-- they gave it up.
NARRATOR: Throughout the winter, American forces will continue to eliminate the last of the enemy troops still dug in on the island. JONATHAN PARSHALL: I think that really starts to plant the seeds within the Japanese Navy that they're going to have to re-examine the situation and that we may have to start considering the-- the unconsiderable, which is that we may have to get out of Guadalcanal. We may have to evacuate it.
MARTIN KA MORGAN: The Naval edge that they possessed prior to the Naval battle of Guadalcanal, they lost it at bay effectively. And so that in the aftermath of the Naval battle of Guadalcanal, they-- Tokyo Express, which had nightly operated to and from Guadalcanal, it was for the most part interrupted and no longer capable of offering any significant resupply or replenishment of forces on the island, and that American forces were increasingly able to control Japanese Naval activities in the waters around Guadalcanal at night. NARRATOR: For the Imperial Japanese Navy, the battle for Guadalcanal is over.
They will have to make a stand somewhere else. MARTIN KA MORGAN: At the close of the year 1942, the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, her air group, her shipboard group, have been through almost all the combat against Japan could offer. They stood the test of combat well, fought well. They've already made a remarkable name for the ship, and it's not even 1943 yet. And the best is yet to come. NARRATOR: In the islands of the Central Pacific, Japanese Army and Naval forces will prepare for a coming battle unlike anything they've ever seen. And carrier Enterprise, her pilots and crew, will be there ready and waiting.
With victory at Guadalcanal secured, Enterprise will undergo major modifications in the shipyards of Bremerton, Washington. And within a few short months, she will come back stronger than ever before, new planes, new guns, a tougher ship. The Big E will be joined by a massive fleet of brand new carriers, and she will head out on one of the largest Naval campaigns in history. Enterprise, the Grey Ghost, will once again hit the enemy hard in the Gilbert Islands. Her first stop on the hard road to Tokyo, the heavily fortified enemy base at Makin Atoll, where in a matter of days, her air groups will reign terror
from the skies over the Japanese outpost. And in the darkness of night, Enterprise will make Naval history.
