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The Battle of the Coral Sea
The
Battle of the Coral Sea
(May
1942)
After
Japan's surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, the U.S.S. Neosho was suddenly the U.S.
Navy's only operational oiler in the mid-Pacific. During the next few
months, the Neosho criss-crossed the ocean, refueling task forces and
carrying vital diesel and aviation fuel to islands throughout the
Pacific.
In
late April, the Neosho was operating with the carrier Yorktown's
fleet near Noumea, New Caledonia in the southwestern Pacific. The Japanese
forces, which had invaded New Guinea a short while earlier, were planning to
complete their conquest of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. If
successful, Japan would effectively cut off supplies to Australia and New
Zealand, possibly forcing those two countries out of the war. To counter
this threat, Admiral Chester Nimitz ordered the American carriers Yorktown
and Lexington to thwart the Japanese.
The
Battle of the Coral Sea lasted for five days with both sides suffering
moderate losses. Certainly the most prominent American loss was the carrier
U.S.S. Lexington.
Probably the most dramatic story of the battle, though, involved the oiler U.S.S.
Neosho.
This section describes the battle. The next section (The
U.S.S. Neosho at Coral Sea) describes the
actions of the U.S.S. Neosho during the battle.
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Table of Contents:
U.S.S. Neosho
(AO-23) |
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