The Battle of Coral Sea

By Paolo Tagliaferri

+An Invasion Convoy to Port Moresby. Compounded by troop-transports, landing-boats and escort destroyers, this convoy  had to sail from Rabaul (New Britain) and , passed the Jomard Passage, had to conquest Port Moresby;

+A Protection Group. Leaded by rear-admiral Goto, that group - compound by the light carrier Shoho and other surface units - had to protect the Invasion Convoy;

+An Attack Group. Leaded by rear-admiral Takagi, this strong group of ship had to sail from Truk island, had to navigate toward Solomons islands and , doubled the S.Cristobal point, it had to be ready to intercept any american naval force that attempted to attack the convoy and the Protection Group. Within this naval force there were the V Carrier Division (rear-admiral Hara), compounded by the Shokaku and Zuikaku.

  Until 5 May the plan was well commenced, but then the Japanese ignored that the americans had decifrated thier naval secret code and were awared of the Japanese movements. Nimitz knew that the Japanese wanted to take Port Moresby and to prevent this he sent to the Coral Sea the Task Force 17, ordering this fleet to commence the operations the 1st May 1942. The T.F. 17 was compounded by the Yorktown and Lexington carriers, plus a group of  USA cruisers and  the australian heavy cruisers Hobart and Australia (leaded by rear-admiral J.C. Crace). On the carriers there were at disposition nearly 150 planes: 2 squadrons of "Devastators" , many "Dauntless" and 42 "Wildcats" . Between 4 and 5 May nothing important happened: the 2 enemy fleets were awared of the other´s presence , but no one located the enemy forces. Also on 6 May there weren´t important events: the Invasion Convoy and the Protection Group continuated to navigate toward Jomard Passage and Takagi ´s fleet was in the middle of the Coral Sea, not knowing that the enemy T.F. 17 was only about 70 miles from it ! Short afterwards Takagi decided to reach the Rennel island to refuel , and , making an half turn, he pointed northward and he increased the distance between him and the enemy fleet.The american forces continued to navigate toward north-west; in fact , thanks to the recieved messages, Fletcher knew that a major invasion fleet had to pass trought Jomard passage. But during 6 May, it happened two important facts: first, a Kawanishi H 6 K spotted the TF 17 and , even if it was attacked and destroyed by a "Wildcat", it succeded in trasmitting the american force´ s position; but the message only reached Takagi in the night between 6 and 7 May, when the opportunity to attack the TF 17 while it was refuelling was evanished. Last , after 12 a.m. , Fletcher had sent his fuel ships to a new rendez-vous point southern of his position ; the fuel tank ship Neosho was escorted by Sims destroyer , the Tippecanoe by the Worden. The action began to heaten up on 7 May: Takagi , recieved the message from  the Kawanishi during the night , had retourned south but he found nothing because Fletcher had already moved. But he launched some recon planes , as advised by rear-admiral Hara, to explore the southern sector.  And these planes , at 7:36 , discovered 2 ships (Neosho and Sims) that they believed to be an american carrier escorted by a cruiser. Hara accepted positively that message and launched 36 "Vals", 24 "Kates" and 18 "Zeros". These planes ,leaded by captain Takahashi, arrived upon the signaled point at 9,35 but founf nothing. Then he ordered to make a search of the enemy vessels and soon discovered the two ships. 15 "Kates" attacked these ships with thier bombs , missing the target. At 12.00 , a new attack by 36 "Vals", hit the Sims with three 250 Kg bombs and the destroyed was sunk. The Neosho, targetted by 20 "Vals", took 7 bombs. A part of the crew abandoned the relict , but the main part of it remained on the petrol-tanker until 11 May, when a "Catalina" found it and saved the survivors , before scutting the ship.This attack costed to Japanese 6 planes, but it was a great error , because the T.F.17 was not hit and was now moving toward Port Moresby. In fact, while Takagi was attacking the 2 ships, Fletcher, arrived to 120 miles south of  Rossel island, ordered to Crace´s supporting group to drive foward in order to interdict to the Japanese convoy the exit from Jomard Passage. This order weakened Flecher ´s T.F. 17 , but the Japanese commited another error: in fact , spotted Crace ´s cruisers, they concentrated the attack on those vessels with 3 waves of land-based bombers and not on Fletcher ´s carriers. With brave and furious manouvers, Crace succeded in avoiding the Japanese bombs, while they had lost 5 planes. Before midnight Crace understood that the Invasion Convoy was ordered by Inouye to wirthdraw the area of the battle.This ordered was made because Inouye , while staying in Rabaul , had comprehended that in the Coral Sea there were 2 enemy squads (Crace and Fletcher) and these ships couldn´t not be destroyed before the Convoy had the possibility to pass thru  Jomard Passage. But the japanese won´t ever had another possibility to cross that strait:  at last, Fletcher ´s decision to split its forces was to be considered good. Thanks to the presence of Crace in Jomard Passage, the danger of an occupation of Port Moresby was terminated.Always on 7 May ´s morning, Fletcher had launched some recon planes and ,on 8.15, recieved a message in what it was said that 2 enemy carriers and and 4 heavy cruisers were 225 miles north-west of his position. This time it was an american fault: he believed that it was Takagi ´s fleet, but really the recon plane found a minor squad leaded by rear admiral Marushiga, sent to support the Invasion Convoy. So Fletcher ordered to send the 2 attack groups of the Lexington and Yorktown and , when it understood the error he had made , it was already too late.
But , that day, the luck was on his side. An attack group from the Lexington , leaded by Lieutenant Commander Ault, and another one leaded by Lieutenant Commander Dixon , eventually spotted Goto ´s Protection Group in place of Marushiga ´s vessels, and in this squad there was the Shoho light-carrier. On 11, the "Dauntless" began the "peel-off" and dived toward the carrier ´s deck. Some "Zeros" tried to shot down the assaulters, but when they attacked the bombers it was too late. Ault group ´s bomb only destroyed the planes that had remained on the deck of the carrier. But then the ship was attacked by Hamilton ´s "Dauntless" , by a group of "Devastators" on 11,17 and finally by Yorktown ´s planes on 11,25. Attacked by a so great number of planes, the light carrier Shoho was eventually set on fire and sunk. On 11,31 it was evacuated and then, on 11,36 , went down. While Goto ´s ships were retreating northward, Dixon launched a message to the Lexington that became famuos : "Dixon to carrier: erase a flattop!". Of american planes , only 3 were shot down.The night between 7 and 8 May was an undecided night for the japanese and the americans; the americans were concerned  because they hadn´t spotted Takagi ´s Attack Squad, and they hadn´t been informed on the wirtdrawal of the Invasion Convoy. But Takagi ,Hara and Fletcher all were knowing that 8 May will be the decisive day. In fact just from the sunrise the two sides began to send a lot of recon planes , and the reciprocal spotting was made simultaneously.The americans had 121 "Devastators" , "Dauntless", and "Wildcats". The strenght of that force was based on the dive-bombers ,thier weakness was the torpedo-bombers , old planes with uneffective torpedoes. The japanese had 122 planes ("Vals", "Kates", "Zeros"), and thier advantage was based on the more experienced pilots and on the strenght of thier "Long Lance" torpedoes.The fight began with a great disadvantage for the americans: a recon plane , in spotting Takagi ´s fleet, gave a wrong position of 45 miles ( and then the infos of a second plane gave the exact position, but for the Lexington ´s plane it was already too late). The american attack waves took off on 9 a.m. of 8 May, 43 planes from the Lexington and 39 from the Yorktown.The "Dauntless" spotted for first the Shokaku and the Zuikaku , but they waited the "Devastators" to arrived and remained in the clouds. The area , in fact , was covered by stormy clouds and a storm permitted the Zuikaku to avoid  the attack. So , on 10.57 ,when the attack began , there was only the Shokaku occupied in launching its planes as a suitable target. The "Devastators" launched thier torpedoes without any effect , and the "Dauntless" only scored 2 hits , but placed the 2 bombs in vital parts of the ship. 10 minuts later the Lexington ´s planes arrived, but they were only a minimal part of the planes that took off because of the wrong message by the recon plane. The "Devastators" were once again ineffective, but the "Dauntless" hit the carrier for the third time. The Shokaku ,greatly damaged on the deck and on fire, was able to navigate and on13 it recieved from Takagi the retreating order.While the american planes was attacking Takagi ´s fleet, the japanese planes were diving on the Lexington and on the Yorktown. In fact the 69 planes leaded by commander Takahashi, taken off on 7.30 a.m. , and after correcting the route because of imprecise recon infos, arrived on the vertical of  T.F.17 on 11.18. Flecher had at his disposal a scarse number of "Wildcats" and his defence was mainly operated by his AA artilleries. In fact the 14 "Wildcats" were all shot down by the "Zeros" and of 23 "Dauntless" that took off to avoid being catched on the decks, 4 were shot down.The Yorktown , more agile , managed to avoid 8 torpedoes and the "Vals" ´s bombs. On 11.27 it was hit by a 360 kg bomb that perforated 4 decks then exploded ( 70 killed and a spreading fire was the result). But the main deck was still able to recieve and launch the planes and the fire was soon estinguished.The Lexington ´s fate was more fatal. Attacked by the 2 sides by the "Kates" it managed to avoid a first salvo of torpedoes. But on 11.20 a torpedo hit on the left side and other 3 in other parts of the ship. Then the "Vals" scored 2 bombs in an ammunition depot. Other bombs hit the carrier and the carrier was severely damaged. But it wasn´t sunk yet. After half an hour , on 12.30, the battle was finished and the crew had managed to repair the most important damages on the ship. But , on 12.47, a terrible explosion happened in the ship. In fact a torpedo had made a leak into the aviation fuel tanks and the explosive gases were spreaded in the hull. When these gases reached the electric generators , a spark made them blow out. 

The ship began to smoke and explode , but its agony was long to be finished. On 16.30 the commander Sherman ordered its stop. Then the crew abandoned the ship and all the wounded and the ufficials managed to survive. Even  the dog of the ship was evacuated. They were transported on the cruiser Minneapolis. Just 20.00 the carrier continued to explode and crawl on the surface , and only a torpedo of destroyer Phelps made it went down with its 216 killed.

With that the battle of Coral Sea was ended, the first naval battle in the history where 2 enemy fleets engaged one another only with thier planes , without shooting a single cannon shot.

For the japanese that was a tactical victory: they recieved less damages in rapport of those that they inflicted. But strategically it has been an american victory. Port Moresby was still in allied´s hands and the american fleet was long to be obliterated , as Yamamoto said, from the Pacific Sea.

Now the scene was ready for the next great battle , Midway...

Infos took from : "Le grandi Battaglie Aeree della II Guerra Mondiale" Mondadori editore (1970)  -Italian book-