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
(credits: US Navy History Center)
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