Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

Coral Sea

After the bombing by Doolittle’s Raiders, Japanese morale was heavily damaged. However, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto attempted to make the decisive victory, which he predicted would be necessary for Japan to win the war, easier by taking the area near Australia, which was the launching point for most of the launches against Japanese forces. The Japanese advanced plans, moving into Phase II of the war plan, which would secure the outer perimeter of the empire.

After careful planning, Operation MO was decided to start off Phase II. This operation involved a double strike in the Coral Sea. Operation MO would secure Port Moresby (New Guinea), which would force all US troops off of the island, and the second objective was Tulagi.

While the Coral Sea ‘Kido Butai is being gathered, CINCPAC in Pearl Harbor is busy decoding the recently discovered ‘Zeal’ intercepts. The carrier forces within range is reduced by half, since the USS Hornet and the USS Enterprise were returning from the Doolittle Raids, which leaves the USS Yorktown and the USS Lexington to fend off the invasion force.

As the Hornet and Enterprise raced back to join the battle, Task Force 11, Task Force 17, Task Force 44, and several support vessels were already underway to meet their unsuspecting enemy. On May 1, 1942, Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher’s forces had met, and while the Lexington was refueling, two Australian-based scout planes spotted the Tulagi invasion force and reported it to the Task Force. Rear Admiral Fletcher decided to begin a search for the forces, leaving the Lexington and its escorts behind. Once the refueling is complete, the fleet oiler Neosho and its destroyer escort, the USS Russell move to refuel the remainder of the task force.

At 7:00 a.m. on May 4, 1942, the Yorktown launched a total of 52 aircraft to attack the Tulagi invasion force. These aircraft succeeded in sinking the Japanese destroyer Kikizuki, two patrol boats, and a transport. This was a small feat since it now alerted the Japanese to the presence of an American carrier in the area.

Admiral Takagi’s carrier was ordered to head down the east side of the Solomons before turning into the Coral Sea just south of San Cristobal Island. Despite this maneuver, the carriers didn’t meet. However, that night, the two carrier groups came within 70 miles of each other without meeting.

The next day was uneventful, with only one of Admiral Takagi’s floatplanes disappearing with the help of some of Yorktown’s aircraft, further assuring Takagi of the presence of navy carriers. Admiral Fletcher also located the entire Port Moresby invasion force, thanks to MacArthurs B-17 Flying Fortresses.

Fletcher became worried that with the carrier Shoho, he would become involved too much, and that his forces wouldn't be able to stop the Port Moresby invasion force, so Rear Admiral Fletcher detached his cruisers on the morning of May 7, 1942. The cruisers, under the command of a British Rear Admiral, Rear Admiral Sir John Crace, who managed to avoid all high level bombing attacks before returning to Australia after hearing that the Port Moresby invasion force had been turned back by repeated bombing by US aircraft.

Later that day, a Japanese scout reported seeing a carrier and a cruiser. Immediately after that, the entire force was dispatched to battle these new targets. However, the target that they discovered wasn't a carrier and a cruiser, but instead was the fleet oiler Neosho and its new destroyer escort, the destroyer Sims. However, several of the aircraft were launched against the pair of ships, while even more continued to search for valuable targets. After two hours of fighting, the destroyer Sims was destroyed by three bombs, and the oiler Neosho was put out of action, only to be sunk by a destroyer several days later.

At 10:40 a.m., roughly the same time as the Neosho and Sims were attacked, aircraft from the Yorktown began to bomb the carrier Shoho. The US thought that this force was the group which was involved in attacking the Neosho, which contained two heavy carriers, instead of the light carrier Shoho. The Shoho had no air cover at the time, since its aircraft were out bombing Port Moresby. As a result, within half an hour of the attacks opening, the Shoho sinks, but not before receiving 13 bomb hits from the Yorktown's aircraft. The rest of the Port Moresby invasion force then turned and headed to Rabaul.

That night several bombers were shot down when they wandered into the carrier groups anti-aircraft range. Two Wildcats were shot down as well. That night, several Japanese Zeros descended on the Yorktown in an effort to land on it. Once they got close enough to the carriers to see the American flag on it, the aircraft broke off, and were promptly fired upon by the Yorktown's escorts. The Zeros didn't get far, since the weapons were dropped with the fuel being depleted to save weight, and the fuel was low, so most of these Zeros crashed when the fuel ran out. Several others were shot down when they attempted to land on the Yorktown.

On May 8, 1942, each carrier launched scout planes, as they had been doing for the past several days. Today was different though. Scout planes from both sides encountered the enemy and reported it to the friendly carriers. At 9:15 a.m., the Lexington had launched 82 aircraft after spotting the Japansese carrier group. Shokaku and Zuikaku had their planes in the air just shortly afterwards. The US aircraft were the first to find the targets though. At 10:50 a.m., the first aircraft from Yorktown arrived, but the dive bombers had to wait around for the torpedo bombers. When the torpedo bombers finally arrived, the attack began. The Shokaku was struck several times on the bow by bombs, which rendered it incapable of allowing aircraft to land or takeoff. The aircraft from the Lexington arrived, but most of which had crashed due to a lack of fuel, but did no damage to either carrier. The Zuikaku managed to hide in a rain squall and escape without any damage.

The Zuikaku's aircraft weren't as lucky though. The Japanese carrier aircraft found the Lexington at about the same time the US aircraft began their attack. The Lexington, like the light carrier Shoho, which had been sunk in the previous days engagements, lacked the needed air support. The carrier did its best to avoid the bombs and torpedoes that were falling all around it, but was surrounded on both sides by torpedo aircraft and was hit by two torpedoes, which began to flood the hull. Two more bombs hit, destroying the smokestack and a flak battery. The Yorktown managed to avoid all of the torpedoes fired, and was only hit by one bomb, which caused no significant damage.

The Lexington's condition began to improve later. All the fires were extinguished and the list was mostly corrected by moving the fuel to the other side of the ship, and the Lexington seemed to be repairable. At about 12:45 p.m., when an explosion rocked the ship, hopes still looked good. However, the explosions became more frequent and more fires spread, threatening to spread to the weapons storage area and other dangerous areas, the order was given to abandon ship. The ship was abandoned at 5:07 p.m. and was sunk by the USS Phelps after everybody was off.

Both the Japanese carriers, Shokaku and Zuikaku, returned to friendlier waters to the north of Coral Sea. The USS Yorktown was soon called to Pearl Harbor for repairs to prepare for a new operation.

Return to the Total Warfare Main Page

Back