Plate 011 — Battles
REF: BF-BTL-011Battle of the Coral Sea, 7-8 May 1942
Battle of the Coral Sea: the action on the chart
4–8 May 1942. Times are local (zone description −10, i.e. roughly UTC+10), as given in the US Navy's wartime Office of Naval Intelligence Combat Narrative.
- 4 May · 07:00
Yorktown strikes Tulagi
Learning that Japanese forces had landed at Tulagi in the Solomons, Task Force Fox closed overnight and launched three waves of Yorktown aircraft against the invasion shipping in Tulagi and Gavutu harbors. Torpedo planes and dive bombers sank two destroyers, a cargo ship and several small craft for the loss of three aircraft.
- 7 May · 08:45
Enemy carrier force reported
A Yorktown scout reported two enemy carriers near Misima Island; a combined 92-plane strike from Lexington and Yorktown launched at once. The report proved to be a mistaken reading of two cruisers, but Australian reconnaissance soon located the real target nearby: the light carrier Shoho covering the Port Moresby invasion convoy.
- 7 May · 09:29
Neosho and Sims attacked
Mistaken by Japanese pilots for a carrier task force, the oiler Neosho and her escorting destroyer Sims came under repeated air attack far to the southeast of the main body, opening a separate and costly action that would run through the day.
- 7 May · 11:30
Shoho attacked and sunk
Lexington's dive bombers and torpedo planes struck first, followed minutes later by Yorktown's; between them they scored at least thirteen bomb and ten torpedo hits on Shoho. She sank within three minutes of the last torpedo hit – the first Japanese aircraft carrier lost in the war – prompting scouting squadron commander Robert Dixon's famous signal, “Scratch one flat-top.”
- 7 May · 12:01
Neosho crippled, Sims sunk
About two dozen Japanese dive bombers pressed home a sustained attack on the two isolated ships. Sims took at least three bomb hits, broke apart and sank with all but thirteen of her crew; Neosho absorbed seven direct hits and eight near misses and was left ablaze and adrift, to be scuttled days later after survivors were rescued.
- 8 May · 08:20
Japanese carriers sighted
A Lexington scout found Shokaku and Zuikaku about 170 miles to the northeast, screened by four heavy cruisers and several destroyers; almost simultaneously a Japanese scout sighted the American carriers, guaranteeing that both sides would strike at roughly the same hour.
- 8 May · 10:57–11:00
Carriers trade blows
Yorktown's dive bombers scored six hits on Shokaku, wrecking her flight deck and forward engine room; Lexington's torpedo planes and scouts added two bomb and five torpedo hits on Shokaku or Zuikaku. Almost simultaneously, Japanese dive and torpedo bombers found both American carriers.
- 8 May · 11:20–11:21
Lexington torpedoed
Two torpedoes struck Lexington's port side about a minute apart, followed almost at once by several bomb hits; damage control had fires out and the ship back on an even keel within the hour, and pilots returning from the strike thought she had come through unscathed.
- 8 May · 11:24–11:27
Yorktown bombed
A single bomb, estimated at about 12 inches in diameter, pierced Yorktown's flight deck near the island and exploded three decks down, killing 37 men; several near misses added splinter damage, but the ship held her speed at 24 knots.
- 8 May · 12:47
Lexington rocked by internal explosions
Vapor from gasoline lines ruptured by the earlier hits accumulated deep in the ship and detonated, touching off fires that spread steadily aft through the afternoon despite the crew's efforts; from this point, Captain Sherman later said, “the ship was doomed.”
- 8 May · 17:07
Lexington abandoned
With the fires beyond control, Admiral Fitch ordered Lexington abandoned; more than 92 percent of her roughly 2,950-man crew were saved. The destroyer Phelps fired five torpedoes into the wreck that evening, and Lexington sank at 19:52 at approximately latitude 15°12'S, longitude 155°27'E.
- 8 May · evening
Port Moresby invasion recalled
Stripped of air cover by Shoho's loss and Shokaku's damage, Vice Admiral Shigeyoshi Inoue ordered the Port Moresby invasion convoy to turn back; the seaborne assault on Port Moresby was postponed and, after further reverses, never attempted again.
Outcome. The United States lost the carrier Lexington, the oiler Neosho and the destroyer Sims, with 543 dead by the wartime ONI estimate (modern tallies put Allied dead at about 656–715); Japan lost the light carrier Shoho and had the fleet carrier Shokaku heavily damaged, with roughly 900–966 dead. Tactically even, the battle was a strategic Allied victory: it was the first time a Japanese invasion fleet had been turned back, and it removed Shokaku and Zuikaku from the Japanese order of battle in time for Midway a month later.
Battle of the Coral Sea, 7-8 May 1942
Battle of the Coral Sea, 7-8 May 1942 Overview
The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought in the waters southwest of the Solomon Islands and eastward from New Guinea, was the first of the Pacific War's six fights between opposing aircraft carrier forces. Though the Japanese could rightly claim a tactical victory on "points", it was an operational and strategic defeat for them, the first major check on the great offensive they had begun five months earlier at Pearl Harbor. The diversion of Japanese resources represented by the Coral Sea battle would also have immense consequences a month later, at the Battle of Midway.
The Coral Sea action resulted from a Japanese amphibious operation intended to capture Port Moresby, located on New Guinea's southeastern coast. A Japanese air base there would threaten northeastern Australia and support plans for further expansion into the South Pacific, possibly helping to drive Australia out of the war and certainly enhancing the strategic defenses of Japan's newly-enlarged oceanic empire.
The Japanese operation included two seaborne invasion forces, a minor one targeting Tulagi, in the Southern Solomons, and the main one aimed at Port Moresby. These would be supported by land-based airpower from bases to the north and by two naval forces containing a small aircraft carrier, several cruisers, seaplane tenders and gunboats. More distant cover would be provided by the big aircraft carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku with their escorting cruisers and destroyers. The U.S. Navy, tipped off to the enemy plans by superior communications intelligence, countered with two of its own carriers, plus cruisers (including two from the Australian Navy), destroyers, submarines, land-based bombers and patrol seaplanes.
Preliminary operations on 3-6 May and two days of active carrier combat on 7-8 May cost the United States one aircraft carrier, a destroyer and one of its very valuable fleet oilers, plus damage to the second carrier. However, the Japanese were forced to cancel their Port Moresby seaborne invasion. In the fighting, they lost a light carrier, a destroyer and some smaller ships. Shokaku received serious bomb damage and Zuikaku's air group was badly depleted. Most importantly, those two carriers were eliminated from the upcoming Midway operation, contributing by their absence to that terrible Japanese defeat