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Battle of the Coral Sea:  Summary

The Battle of the Coral Sea was fought between the Japanese and Allied navies from May 4 through May 8, 1942 in the Coral Sea, about 500 miles northeast of Australia.  Occurring only six months after the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, it was one of the first naval battles fought in the Pacific during World War II. 

In the spring of 1942, Japanese forces planned to invade southern New Guinea, a move designed to knock Australia and New Zealand out of the war.  The Allies, including the U.S., Australia, and Great Britain, gathered a large fleet to thwart the invasion.  After several days of searching and skirmishing, the Japanese and Allied fleets found each other on May 8 and each sent aircraft to attack the other.  Both air attacks occurred at about the same time approximately 200 miles apart with both sides suffering moderate losses.  The most significant Allied loss during the battle was the sinking of the American carrier, USS Lexington.  That evening, with the battle roughly a draw, both sides retreated but would meet again a month later at the decisive Battle of Midway, 3,000 miles away in the Hawaiian Islands.

The Battle of the Coral Sea was important for several reasons. It was the first pure carrier-vs-carrier battle in history as neither surface fleet sighted the other.  Though a draw, it was an important turning point in the war in the Pacific because, for the first time, the Allies had stopped the Japanese advance.  Before the battle, the Japanese had enjoyed a continual string of victories while afterwards, it suffered an almost continual series of defeats, including at Midway, a major American victory.

Shortly after the Battle of the Coral Sea, many called it one of the most important naval battles in world history and, at the time, it probably was.  Sixty years later, the battle is still widely known throughout Australia with many Aussies referring to it as, "The battle that saved Australia."  For most Americans, however, the Battle of the Coral Sea has faded into obscurity. 

This is the story of that important battle.

Background

From December of 1941 to the spring of 1942, Japanese forces advanced virtually unimpeded throughout the Pacific and southeastern Asia while handing the Allies a string of humiliating defeats, first at Pearl Harbor, then at Guam, Wake Island, Singapore, and in the Philippines.  By the spring of 1942, the outcome of the war was very much in doubt as Americans began to think that the Japanese military was invincible.  "The Pacific situation is now very grave," cabled President Roosevelt to Winston Churchill in March of 1942, after the Japanese conquest of Java.

The Japanese war plan, developed in the months before the Pearl Harbor attack, was to invade southeast Asia and Indonesia, securing their oil fields and other precious natural resources, then turn towards the southwest in Burma and India.  However, two factors changed this plan:  Japanese overconfidence resulting from their unexpectedly rapid string of military successes in southeastern Asia, and Lt. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle's raid.  

In April 1942, five months after the Japanese had battered the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, and with the Americans desperately needing a morale boost, Lt. Colonel Doolittle loaded sixteen B-25 bombers onto the carrier U.S.S. Hornet and dashed towards Japan.  The planes took off 650 miles from Japan, bombed Tokyo and other key cities, then flew on to China as the American carriers returned to Pearl Harbor.  Although the raid inflicted little damage, it was a stunning and humiliating blow to the Japanese and provided an important boost to American morale.  

After the Doolittle Raid, the Japanese commanders were determined never to let Japan suffer another bombing and thus shifted their plans.  Instead of invading India, they decided to first expand eastward across the Pacific towards Midway and south towards Australia, something they had originally planned to accomplish much later in the war.  With the stinging Doolittle raids firmly in mind, Japanese military planners felt that that they should -- and could -- continue expanding their perimeter in the south and central Pacific to act as a buffer around Japan.  Considering their unexpectedly easy and rapid conquests in southeastern Asia so far, they felt they could accomplish this much faster than they had originally planned.  

As part of this strategy, Japan in late April prepared to invade Port Moresby, a key city on the southern coast of New Guinea.  This move, coupled with additional thrusts through the south Pacific, would allow Japan to bomb northern Australia, cut off Australia and New Zealand from supplies, and possibly force the two countries out of the war.  Once the Americans learned about this planned invasion, the American/Allied fleet, led by Admirals Jack Fletcher and Aubrey Fitch, headed to the Coral Sea to try to thwart the Japanese.  The stage was set for a crucial battle.

Click on the maps and photos below to see larger versions.

The Japanese Plan

As was typical throughout the war, the Japanese naval plan for the Port Moresby invasion was complex and required a high level of coordination.  Also, as was typical, the Japanese assumed that the Americans would play a passive role and that they would do "what they were supposed to do" while exhibiting little initiative.  As events would prove, these would be two huge mistakes.

The Japanese battle plan centered around their Port Moresby invasion force and included several supporting thrusts.  First, they planned to invade the island of Tulagi in the Solomon Island chain, where they hoped to set up a seaplane base which would be used to patrol the southern Solomon Islands and provide valuable reconnaissance information.  The Tulagi invasion force would be protected by a covering fleet from Truk, which included the light carrier, Shoho.  After the invasion of Tulagi, the force would continue eastward to Nauru and Ocean Island, which had significant deposits of phosphorus needed by Japanese farmers.  Meanwhile, the main Japanese strike force with the heavy carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku, veterans of the Pearl Harbor attack six months earlier, would sail south from Truk, screened from American forces by the Solomon Islands.  

As the Americans rushed north to engage the Tulagi invasion force, the two Japanese carriers would swing west and, in a pincer movement, wipe out the American fleet.  After destroying the American fleet, the Japanese carrier force would continue westward, where its planes would attack key cities and airbases on the Australia coast, similar to the way that Japanese airplanes were firebombing Darwin on the northern Australia coast.  

While the American fleet was being wiped out, a Japanese invasion force would sail from Rabaul through Jomard Pass and land at the key city of Port Moresby.  Once the southern coast of New Guinea was secured, the Japanese could bomb cities in northern Australia at will and, by continuing to thrust southward through the Solomons, cut off Australia and New Zealand from supplies.  This would force the two countries to sue for peace, or, if unwilling, would set the stage for a possible Japanese invasion.

The Battle Unfolds

On May 1,  Admiral Fletcher's fleet, led by the carrier Yorktown, met up with Admiral Fitch's fleet, led by the carrier Lexington, which had sailed south from Pearl Harbor.  During the next few days, the American fleets refueled as both sides, like two boxers fighting in the dark, tried to find each other.  On May 4, Fletcher learned about the Japanese invasion of Tulagi, sped north with the Yorktown group and bombed the Japanese invasion force, forcing it to retreat.  

The American and Japanese carrier fleets continued to search for each other and, on May 7, Japanese planes found two American ships, which they identified as an American aircraft carrier and an escorting cruiser.  With this news, the Japanese commander ordered 62 planes to attack.  Instead of a carrier and cruiser, however, these turned out to be the flat-topped American tanker, U.S.S. Neosho and its escorting destroyer, U.S.S. Sims.  During a fierce one-sided attack, the Sims was sunk and the Neosho was badly damaged.  Meanwhile, at the same time, American planes hundreds of miles away found and sunk the Japanese light carrier, Shoho.   Despite these initial skirmishes, though, neither side had found their opponent's main carrier fleet and both forces continued to search for each other.

As events would reveal, May 7, 1942, would be the low point for the Allied forces in the Pacific theatre.  Not only did the Japanese sink the destroyer Sims and badly damage the oiler Neosho that day in the Coral Sea, but several thousand miles away, they ousted the Allies from Burma, cutting off the vital supply link to China known as the Burma Road.  With the American fleet crippled at Pearl Harbor six months earlier, the outlook for the Allies that day was indeed bleak. 

Above:  Men evacuating the "Lady Lex."

On the morning of May 8, planes from both fleets finally located the opposing carrier fleets and the major attacks during the Battle of the Coral Sea began.  Aided by clear skies, Japanese planes found and sunk the large aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Lexington and seriously damaged the U.S.S. Yorktown. 

Hiding under cloud cover, the Japanese fleet fared better.  American dive bombers and torpedo planes managed to inflict moderate damage on the carrier Shokaku, but the Zuikaku emerged from the battle unscathed.  Both carriers, however, were rendered unavailable for the upcoming battle at Midway, a month later -- the Shokaku because of its damage and the Zuikaku because it had lost a large number of planes and pilots.

After the mutual attacks that day, both sides retreated to lick their wounds.  The Japanese carriers split up and returned to port, while the Port Moresby invasion force, fearful of the American fleet, turned back after approaching Jomard Pass, the closest the Japanese fleet would ever come to Port Moresby during the war.  The Americans, meanwhile, sailed south smarting from the loss of the Lexington and the crippling of the Yorktown.  Three days later, long after both fleets had left the Coral Sea, American scout planes found the listing hulk of the tanker Neosho, which was still afloat, having drifted for four days with 123 men aboard, including my uncle, Bill Leu.

Casualties at the Battle of the Coral Sea

Three U.S. ships were sunk during the Battle of the Coral Sea, including:

• U.S.S. Lexington  (Aircraft Carrier)

• U.S.S. Neosho  (Oiler)

• U.S.S. Sims (Destroyer)

One ship was seriously damaged:

• U.S.S. Yorktown  (Aircraft Carrier)

I've done a lot of research in books and on the Internet, and there seems to be conflicting claims of total Allied forces killed.  According to the official U.S. Navy records (see http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq11-1.htm), 543 Allied men were killed during the Battle of the Coral Sea.  However, I believe this number is too low and, from my research, I would estimate that about 739 Allied men were killed during the battle.  The majority of casualties were from the four ships listed above (Lexington, Neosho, Sims, and Yorktown) and from research I've done, I would estimate that an additional 50 men were killed, either in planes or on other ships.  I've posted a breakdown of these casualties below:

Aftermath

Being early in the war, both sides made a number of blunders during the Battle of the Coral Sea.  Despite the foul-ups, though, this battle was important for two reasons:

For many Americans, the Battle of the Coral Sea is not nearly as well-known as other WWII conflicts in the Pacific, such as Pearl Harbor, Midway, Okinawa or Iwo Jima, perhaps because the battle wasn't a clear-cut victory for either side.  However, as I realized after doing Internet research recently, many Australians understandably consider it to be one of the most important battles of World War II, with some Aussies referring to it as "The Battle That Saved Australia."  

To be honest, when I toured Australia in 2002 and swam in the Coral Sea, I didn't even think about the battle.  It wasn't until a year later, in the spring of 2003 when my uncle Bill Leu passed away, that I started to learn about the battle and about his ship, the oiler U.S.S. Neosho.  After reading about the Battle of the Coral Sea and learning the fate of the Neosho, I thought back on my visit there in a very different light.

Above left:  Port Douglas, Australia, take-off point for my trip into the Coral Sea in 2002. 

Above center:  Heading out to the Great Barrier Reef.

Above right:  Tying up to the floating pontoon at Agincourt Reef in the Coral Sea, about 400 miles southwest of the battle site.

Next Page >  Battle Action:  April 30 - May 4, 1942 

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