The Battle of the Coral Sea

The battle of the Coral Sea took place on the 4th – 8th of May 1942, between the United States and Japan.  The battle was one of the more significant of World War II because it was the first battle in world history in which the two enemy fleets never made contact with each other.  This battle was also fought entirely from carrier launched airplanes.  Later in World War II, there would be a total of five more battles that were fought only by carrier launched airplanes.  Though the battle could be considered a tactical victory for the Japanese, it was also an operational and strategic defeat for them because it was the first time that a Japanese offensive had been stopped by enemy forces since before Pearl Harbor.  In addition, the huge diversion of resources, ships, airplanes and ammunition would have a direct influence in the Japanese defeat a few months later at the Battle of Midway.  Both the United States and Japan lost an aircraft carrier in the Battle of Coral Sea.  The United States lost the U.S.S. Lexington and Japan lost the Shoho, although the loss of a carrier devastated the Japanese much more than it did to the Americans because Japan’s industrial capacity was much less than that of the United States.

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The Battle of Coral Sea resulted from a Japanese amphibious invasion of Port Moresby in New Guinea’s southern coast.  If the Japanese were able to construct an airbase at Port Moresby, their planes would be within striking distance of Australia which could force the Australians to withdraw from the war.  This would allow Japan even better defense of its already huge empire.  And, this would put Japan in perfect position to expand even further into the South Pacific.  The Japanese assault consisted of two main seaborne invasion forces; one was set to invade Port Moresby as stated above, the other was set to take Tulagi, in the Southern Solomon Islands.  The invasion at Tulagi would serve to damage the already weak line of communication between the United States, Hawaii, and Australia.  The United States had better intelligence in the battle and thus sent two of their carriers and multiple cruisers to counter the Japanese offensive.  On the first day of combat, United States’ planes from the U.S.S. Yorktown  located and bombed the Japanese transport ships in Tulagi Harbor that were meant to land troops to take Tulagi.  The planes damaged several of the Japanese transports, as well as sinking one of the Japanese destroyers.  After the Japanese offensive was checked, the U.S.S. Yorktown  and the rest of its taskforce re-joined the main United States taskforce with the U.S.S. Lexington.  Then on May 7th  planes from the U.S.S. Lexington and the U.S.S. Yorktown  located and sunk the Japanese Carrier Shoho.  The next day on May 8th, the bulk of the Japanese covering force was located and attacked by air from United States planes causing minor damage on the Japanese Carrier Shokaku.  Nearly simultaneously a Japanese taskforce engaged the bulk of the United States forces causing major damage to the U.S.S. Yorktown.  Also in that engagement, the U.S.S. Lexington was hit by two torpedoes and three bombs from Japanese dive bombers.  As a result, the U.S.S. Lexington started listing and had multiple fires throughout the ship.  A few hours after the engagement, the damage control crews around the U.S.S. Lexington were able to bring the fires under control and bring the ship back to even-keel which allowed the U.S.S. Lexington’s air wing to land back aboard the ship.  Then, just as the first squadron was preparing to land, the U.S.S. Lexington was shaken by a massive explosion that was caused by gasoline vapors from the lower decks igniting.  Again, multiple raging fires engulfed the ship.  Fearing for the safety of the damage control crews and personal working below decks, Capt. Frederick C. Sherman ordered all men to the flight deck and later to abandon ship.  As the U.S.S. Lexington continued to burn, the American destroyer the USS Phelps shot two torpedoes into the remains of the U.S.S. Lexington and after one final explosion the U.S.S. Lexington finally sank.