NARRATOR: On May 8, 1945, the war in Europe is over.
The Nazi menace has been put to rest, and people across America
cheer and celebrate.
But in the Pacific, there is no end in sight.
Enterprise steams back to Okinawa
where the brutal battle is entering
its eighth relentless week.
It is 5:30 AM, May 14.
For the round-the-clock warriors of the Big E,
the day is just beginning.
We'd come back in about 5:30 and about 6 o'clock or so.
We'd crawl in our bunks and we'd get some sleep.
And here comes the kamikaze.
NARRATOR: At 6:56, a single Zero begins
to tail the Big E. From dead astern,
the Japanese fighter begins its dive.
Enterprise keeps turning, bringing her guns into play.
Then, to the shock of all on board,
the Zero rolls left, turns upside down, and perfect,
elegantly dives straight down into the ship's number
one elevator.
The largest explosion in the ship's storied history
shakes her from bow to stern.
Five decks below, the Zero's 500-pound bomb
goes off with such power that the entire flight elevator
flies straight up into the air.
A photograph taken from the nearby USS Washington
captures the astonishing moment where the explosive power
of a single kamikaze rockets a 15 ton elevator
over 400 feet straight up.
Like a knife to the heart, Enterprise
has been hit as never before.
The ship lists with holes blasted in the hull.
Fires have damaged her planes.
As the wounded giant limps off the battlefield,
the repair crews assess the damage.
It is not good news.
With a missing flight elevator and a buckled deck,
launching and landing planes is impossible.
She's an aircraft carrier who can't launch aircraft.
In nearly four years of war, the Big E
has survived multiple attacks from air, sea,
and beneath the waves.
It took just one pilot with suicidal intent
and brilliant flying skills to do
what the rest of the Japanese Navy
could never do, take Enterprise out of the war.
The wounded Enterprise must return home for repairs,
not just at Pearl Harbor but to the States--
Bremerton, Washington.
PEDRO SANDOVAL: That was the end of the war for us.
We hated to leave because the war was still going on,
but we could not operate, not the condition of the ship.
NARRATOR: Enterprise is still in dry dock in August
when the Japanese surrender.
Lloyd and I went into a bar in Bremerton to have a beer,
and somebody came running in and said the war's over.
The war's over.
And I'll tell you, it was a great feeling.
NARRATOR: In Tokyo, representatives of the emperor
signed the unconditional surrender on the deck
of the battleship Missouri.
On the day of the surrender, kamikaze Admiral Onishi
writes a note of apology to the 4,000
pilots he sent to their deaths.
Then he commits ritual suicide.
The long war is over.
The men of Enterprise breathe a sigh of relief,
as does the rest of America.
The story of USS Enterprise is the story of World War II,
from her actions during the first attack
on Pearl Harbor to the final battle
of the Pacific at Okinawa.
But Enterprise's heroic actions were simply a reflection
of the heroes who sailed her, the last
of a generation who literally saved our nation
by risking everything.
ARTHUR KROPP: I didn't see any glamour in it at all.
All I saw was a lot of destruction,
a lot of bad things.
There's nothing glamorous about war,
but this country's worth fighting for.
That's why we do it.
A lot of people come up to me now
and say thank you for what you did.
Thank you.
ALAN PIETRUSZEWSKI: You know, if it wasn't for those guys,
we wouldn't be here.
We climbed on the backs of their sacrifice.
Their history is my tradition.
And without the sacrifices that they made,
I wouldn't even be here to fight.
NARRATOR: USS Enterprise was one of the greatest weapons
in the arsenal of democracy, a fierce and deadly
machine whose purpose was to win a devastating war.
But to her men, the Big E was less of a weapon than a home.
It was like a big mother hen or something to me.
You know, you'd go out on 300-mile searches
and come back, and here's the little beacon flickering.
And you'd hone in on that beacon and get back aboard.
You know, just our home was taking care of us.
NARRATOR: Enterprise may disappear, and her men may die,
but she is still one of the most decorated, most valiant,
and fightingest ships in US history,
and Enterprise and her band of brothers
will remain as beacons of valor, sacrifice, and grit as long
as her tales are told, as long as there
are Americans who remember.