Enterprise's aircraft at Pearl Harbor

Enterprise was returning from delivering Marine Fighter Squadron 211 to Wake Island and remained about 200 nautical miles west of Oahu when the attack began. Thirteen SBDs from Scouting Squadron 6 and four from Bombing Squadron 6 had flown ahead to search an arc before landing at Ford Island. They reached Pearl Harbor in pairs and were caught between Japanese aircraft and American defensive fire. Seven were shot down, with eight men killed and two wounded. Enterprise later launched a thirty-aircraft strike of six F4F Wildcats, eighteen TBD Devastators, and six SBDs against a reported Japanese carrier, but the force found nothing. When six Wildcats approached Oahu at night, panic firing brought down three and a fourth ran out of fuel. Surprise, false reports, poor identification, and friendly fire cost Enterprise ten aircraft within the war's first hours even though the carrier escaped the harbor attack.