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Japanese aircraft carrier Shokaku under attack by Yorktown aircraft during the morning of 8 May. Flames are visible from a bomb hit on her forecastle. The end of Lexington on 8 May View on the flight deck at about hrs. The ship's air group is spotted aft, with Grumman F4F-3 fighters nearest the camera. Smoke is rising around the aft aircraft elevator from fires burning in the hangar deck.

A destroyer maneuvers alongside the carrier as she is abandoned. Note crewmen sliding down lines on Lexington 's starboard quarter. Of her crew, were lost and 2, rescued. Peterson Neosho for his heroism in the ship's engineering spaces on 7 May died of wounds. Configuration of the single. The Battle of the Coral Sea saw the ascendancy of U. Navy aviation. This acclaimed book shows how U. Significant commanders: Fleet Admiral Chester W.

Navy web site. The forerunner of the case was a antitrust lawsuit Two commuter trains and a freight train collide near Tokyo, Japan, killing more than people and injuring twice that number on May 3, It was Constitution Day in Japan when a commuter train pulled out of Mikawashima station at p.

Exxon executive Sidney Reso dies in a storage vault in New Jersey. Four days earlier, he was abducted from the driveway of his Morris Township, New Jersey, home.

Reso was shot in the arm, bound and gagged, and then placed in a wooden box that was hidden in a virtually airless The hearings served as a sounding board for MacArthur and his extremist views on how the Cold War On May 3, , year-old Cari Lightner of Fair Oaks, California, is walking along a quiet road on her way to a church carnival when a car swerves out of control, striking and killing her.

Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. At this stage there were only eight fighters in the air, all short on fuel, with a further nine aircraft having just landed on Lexington and in the process of being refuelled. Perhaps because of the fuel problem, or inexperience, the Fighter Direction Officer in Lexington placed the combat air patrol too close to the ships and at such an altitude that they were below the dive bombers and above the torpedo bombers.

In either case, they could do little to break up the Japanese attack which commenced at Two minutes later Lexington was hit on the port side forward by a torpedo and then a second hit opposite the bridge. The dive bombers arrived after the torpedo bombers and scored at least two hits and several near misses. As a result of these attacks, fuel tanks were ruptured and the ship was on fire in at least four places, and developed a six degrees list to port. Yorktown was also attacked by the Japanese but managed to avoid the torpedoes, which were launched from only one side, but was hit by one bomb.

At about the American strike group began to return. Shortly after this Lexington was rocked by a large internal explosion caused by the build up of petrol fumes. This explosion started new fires which were fed by oil and other flammables. This fire gradually spread and at the order was given to abandon ship. Lexington was finally sunk by a torpedo from the destroyer Phelps.

Fortunately for the Americans the Japanese were not in a position to take advantage of the loss of Lexington. Shokaku was so badly damaged that she had to return to Truk for repairs before going onto Japan. A warning of what was to come for the Japanese merchant fleet.

The second carrier, Zuikaku , was low on fuel and had less than forty serviceable aircraft left. As a consequence of this Admiral Inouye ordered the Moresby invasion postponed and the ships to retire. Admiral Yamamoto however, ordered Tagaki and Goto to pursue the Americans. The Japanese broke off the search on 11 May. Due to the insufficient allocation of forces Yamamoto had missed his chance to destroy a large proportion of the US Pacific Fleet.

Admiral Fletcher returned with Yorktown to Pearl Harbor where battle damage was made good and the carrier prepared for the forthcoming Battle of Midway. Admiral Crace, who had spent the last few days blocking the approaches to Port Moresby, was apparently not advised of the end of the battle nor of Fletcher's departure from the area. Crace departed the area on the 10 May and sailed for Cid Harbour to refuel from the Australian oiler Kurumba.

Shortly after arriving at Cid Harbour he received a signal from Fletcher acknowledging his services in the battle. Finally on 18 May staff at FRUMEL intercepted and decrypted a Japanese message which indicated that the Japanese had given up attempting to capture Port Moresby by seaborne assault and intended to mount an assault overland.

In a sense they are both right. On the Japanese part they managed to sink more American ships than they lost, while the Allies not only prevented the Japanese from achieving their objective, the occupation of Port Moresby, but also reduced the forces available to the Japanese for the forthcoming Midway operations. Against this, on the part of the Americans, must be weighed the fact that the Japanese assault forces remained intact and all that had actually stood in the way of the Japanese and the capture Port Moresby were Crace's cruisers.

The decision by Fletcher to weaken his forces by detaching Crace had proved to be the correct one, even though this may have contributed to the loss of Lexington. While Australians today may scoff at the fears of a Japanese invasion during the fact is that for many Australians during the s that fear was real.

Skip to main content. User menu Content Reports. Search form Search. You are here Home » History » Feature Histories. Battle of the Coral Sea. Artwork designed by Brian Clinton. Used with permission of Australian Postal Corporation, Zero fighters preparing for a sortie on the flight deck of a Japanese aircraft carrier. Marshall Cavendish Library. The movements of the various units involved in the Battle of the Coral Sea. As was normal for that type of attack, these did not miss.

Sims sank with very heavy casualties and Neosho was reduced to a drifting wreck whose survivors were not rescued for days.

Meanwhile, a scout plane from USS Yorktown CV-5 found the Japanese Covering Group, the light carrier Shoho and four heavy cruisers, which faulty message coding transformed into "two carriers and four heavy cruisers". Yorktown and USS Lexington CV-2 sent out a huge strike: fifty-three scout-bombers, twenty-two torpedo planes and eighteen fighters. In well-delivered attacks before noon, these simply overwhelmed the Shoho, which received so many bomb and torpedo hits that she sank in minutes.

Her passing was marked by some of the War's most dramatic photography. Adding to the confusion, if not to the score, Japanese land-based torpedo planes and bombers struck an advanced force of Australian and U. Navy cruisers, far to the west of Admiral Fletcher's carriers. Skillful ship-handling prevented any damage. Australia-based U.

Army Bs also arrived and dropped their bombs, fortunately without hitting anything. All this had one beneficial effect: the Japanese ordered their Port Moresby invasion force to turn back to await developments. Late in the day, they also sent out nearly thirty carrier planes to search for Fletcher's ships. Most of these were shot down or lost in night landing attempts, significantly reducing Japanese striking power.

The opposing carrier forces, quite close together by the standards of air warfare, prepared to resume battle in the morning.