Size: 7.5 x 7.5 inches

Letter of Authenticity included.

The USS Enterprise is accredited with combat participation in the Kyushu Raids - 18-20 March 1945 and Kyushu Raids - 11-16 May 1945. Quote from Captain Hall as noted in the USS Enterprise ‘AFTER ACTION REPORT’ from the Kyushu Raids - 18-20 March 1945….“To the Officers and the Crew of the ENTERPRISE and her Air Group. Words cannot express the feeling of pride in the performance of the entire crew in yesterday's attack. All hands performed splendidly and bravely. I hope to make the above rewards part of every officer's and man's record.”

*This TARGET marked aerial reconnoissance photograph was directly used and carried by Lt. Moore of the USS Enterprise Air Group during the Kyushu Raids.

This extremely rare ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ World War II Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Ocean Area (JICPOA) high altitude aerial reconnaissance photograph is marked “Kyushu - Japan - Nittagahara Airfield”. This aerial reconnaissance photo was taken a specially outfitted B-29 Superfortress aircraft of Bomber Command operating out of the Pacific Theater where it was then developed after a special flight reconnaissance mission over Kyushu, Japan. Following the bomber groups return and landing on an occupied Allied island airfield, this photograph was developed by reconnaissance where it was then examined, marked and sent to PHASE 1 (Tactical Interpretation) and PHASE 2 (Strategic Interpretation) of the photo intelligence unit. Reconnaissance units would take the aerial photographs, print them, and identify them. PHASE 1 (Tactical Interpretation) then examines the aerial reconnaissance photos for immediate military operations and PHASE 2 (Strategic Interpretation) examines the reconnaissance photos for future military operations.

This “TARGET” marked aerial reconnaissance photo was carried and used by Lt. Moore of the USS Enterprise Air Group. He along with other USS Enterprise carrier pilots, officers, and high ranking commanders where given these photo intelligence marked aerial recon photographs in order to identify targets of Kyushu, Japan.

This target aerial recon photograph was used in pre mission briefings to familiarize USS Enterprise pilots on their objectives and target assignments before taking off the deck of the carrier. This aerial photograph also allowed Lt.Moore and other pilots the ability to get a “first hand look” of what their targets looked like on their approach making it easier to spot and call out targets designations from the air and allow USS Enterprise Air Group pilots the ability to accurately and efficiently locate and destroy designated targets.

USS Enterprise and Kyushu Raids - 18-20 March 1945:

H1-1. Shortly before operations started against Okinawa Gunto, the fast carrier force which had supported the landings on Iwo Jima was sent north to continue strikes against the Japanese home islands. Its mission was to provide a powerful shield between Japan and Okinawa which could prevent large-scale Japanese Fleet action against the U.S. amphibious operations, to bombard and bomb strategic shore installations and to seek out and destroy the remnants of the Japanese Fleet.

H1-2. ENTERPRISE departed Ulithi on 14 March as a unit of a night carrier task group. Her primary mission was to furnish night combat air patrol for the task force which struck airfields, factories and ships in the Kyushu, Shikoku and southern Honshu area during the three-day period 18-20 March.

H1-3. On 18 March, the task group operating to the southeast of Kyushu was subjected to sporadic attacks by single Japanese planes. At 0735 a JUDY was sighted on the port bow at a distance of 10,000 yards and an altitude of about 150 feet. Although taken under fire, the plane flew head on toward ENTERPRISE and dropped a 250 Kg bomb which ricocheted off the forward elevator, struck under the navigating bridge and fell to the deck, a dud. Five more attacks were made on the ship during the day without causing damage. The following day, ENTERPRISE was spared attack, but FRANKLIN was badly damaged by two bombs and subsequent fires.

H1-4. On 20 March, the ships were subjected to additional sporadic attacks from Japanese planes. At 1613 a JUDY dropped a bomb about 50 feet to port of frame 60 and at 1626 another plane dropped a bomb off the starboard quarter. Other ships in the vicinity had opened fire and two 5-inch 38 cal. projectiles detonated over ENTERPRISE, starting a moderately serious fire on the flight deck in way of the island and a small fire in shield ammunition at No. 6, 40mm mount. At 1652 another Japanese bomb was dropped but missed the port quarter.

USS Enterprise and Kyushu Raids - 11-16 May 1945:

J1-2. The next six days were spent northeast of Okinawa providing night and twilight combat air patrols, target combat air patrols and night heckler flights over the northern Ryukyus and the airfields of southern Kyushu.

J1-3. On the night of 13-14 May, the task group was southeast of Kyushu, launching strikes against Japanese airfields. At 0357, ENTERPRISE went to General Quarters upon receipt of the report that Japanese planes were in the vicinity. It was not until 0645, however, that the combat air patrol shot down three planes. At 0653, the guns of ENTERPRISE opened fire on a plane to starboard and the ship swung hard left in an emergency turn, but to no avail. The enemy plane maneuvered in the clouds and dropped from an altitude of approximately 1500 feet in a 30° dive. Some 200 yards from the ship the pilot flipped the plane over in a left-hand snap roll to steepen the dive and struck the flight deck just abaft the forward elevator slightly to port of the centerline (Photo J-1).

J1-4. The plane, engine and bomb crashed through the deck and the engine and pieces of the plane came to rest in the forward elevator pit. The bomb penetrated the elevator pit into storeroom A-305-A below, where it detonated high order causing extensive structural damage and igniting a serious fire. The forward elevator was completely demolished and the flight deck was rendered inoperative aft to frame 70. Fires were extinguished by 0730, but about 2000 tons of firefighting water had flooded spaces between frames 26 and 38 up to the hangar deck.

J1-5. During the attack, ENTERPRISE maintained her station in the formation and from 0758 to 0817 was actively engaged in repelling intermittent attacks by Japanese planes, of which her gunners shot down four. The remainder of the day was relatively quiet.