Fighting at the Coral
May 3-8, 1942
Japanese forces advanced without any worries throughout the South Pacific and Southeast Asia following the Pearl Harbor Attack. The Japanese planned a sea invasion into Port Mosby in New Guinea to give them a base to start attacks on Northern Australia. But the allied US fleet manages for the first time ever to halt the Japanese onslaught in what is know as "The Battle of The Coral Sea". The US had been able to intercept and decode Japanese radio traffic., from this information they discovered they found out the plans of the attack called "Magic". The US had learnt valuable information, this has allowed Admiral Nimitz (US COMMANDER) to position two of his carriers off the eastern tip of New Guinea. This battle lasted seven days with both sides suffering heavy losses. Luckily US fleet was able to hold the attack of and the Japanese were forced to call off their amphibious attack on Port Mosby. This Battle was waged in mostly air strikes as the carriers would move to a secure location and send out bomber planes to take out enemy small ships and carries. The Japanese carries Shokaku and Zuikaku took very heavy hits from the US fleet and never went to midway to fight, On the other hand only one US fleet ship Lexington sunk, whilst the other the Yorktown suffered minimal damage and was sent to Pearl Harbor for repairs and did fight in the Battle of Midway. These interesting facts shows that the Japanese was going to struggle in their next battle. |