Lt. Shunsuke Tomiyasu flips his Zero inverted moments before smashing into USS Enterprise’s forward elevator, knocking her out of the war, 14 May 1945. More in the comments. [1200×724]

Following the kamikaze attacks on his first flagship USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) on May 11, Admiral Marc Mitscher, commanding the fast carriers, shifted his flag to the veteran carrier Enterprise and ordered increased strikes against Japanese airfields in the Home Islands.

In the pre-dawn hours of May 14, Enterprise launched a night strike on Kanoya Naval Air Station, but early in the morning 28 Zeroes, each carrying a 500-kg (1,100-pound) armor-piercing bomb and escorted by 40 fighters took off to attack the fleet. Only one would make it to his target.

At 06:53, a Zero dropped out of cloud cover to Enterprise’s starboard at an altitude of 1,500 feet in a 30° dive. With every gun that could bear shooting at him and Enterprise in a hard left turn, it looked like the Zero might overshoot.

But with great skill the pilot flipped his Zero over in a left-hand snap roll to steepen the dive and struck the flight deck just behind the forward aircraft elevator, punching a 12×20 foot hole. The plane disintegrated in the hangar but the bomb penetrated six decks before exploding, separating the elevator structure from the decking and [blowing the decking 400 feet into the air](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2F80-years-ago-today-the-forward-elevator-of-uss-enterprise-v0-u414okrsyn0f1.jpeg%3Fwidth%3D1080%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dbb86e7556e7e2450d47ad31ff6c34bd614588716).

As a night carrier, Enterprise did not have planes armed or fueled, and her magazines were secured. Still, there was a severe fire from a cluster of planes in the forward hangar, but the fires were out by 0730. Enterprise had 14 dead and 68 wounded but stayed in formation, and helped repel further attacks. She would also gain the distinction of being the last US carrier to be hit by a kamikaze.

The next day, Mitcher transferred to USS Randolph (CV-15), his third flagship in 5 days, and Enterprise sailed to the US for repairs, ending the combat career of a carrier that had begun the war at Pearl Harbor, earned 20 battle stars, participated in every carrier battle save Coral Sea and with her air groups was credited with sinking or helping to sink 71 ships, damaging 192 more and shooting down 911 aircraft.