{"id":27396175,"date":"2026-10-09T10:55:51","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T08:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/coral-sea-carrier-battle-1942-lexington-shoho-yorktown\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T10:55:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T08:55:58","slug":"coral-sea-carrier-battle-1942-lexington-shoho-yorktown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/coral-sea-carrier-battle-1942-lexington-shoho-yorktown\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle of the Coral Sea: The Carrier Duel Fought Over the Horizon"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\n\n<style>\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid 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The voice belonged to Lieutenant Commander Robert E. Dixon, leading the dive bombers of <em>Lexington<\/em>\u2019s Scouting Squadron Two. His message was four words long: <strong>Scratch one flat top!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Behind him the Japanese light carrier <em>Sh\u014dh\u014d<\/em> was going under, torn apart by bombs and torpedoes. It was the first Japanese aircraft carrier the United States had sunk in the war. And it had been found, hit and destroyed by men who had flown more than a hundred miles from their own ships to do it. No American sailor on a surface ship ever laid eyes on her.<\/p>\n<p>That was the shape of the whole Battle of the Coral Sea. For four days in May 1942 two fleets hunted each other across a stretch of ocean the size of a small country, mistook oilers for carriers and cruisers for battleships, and traded blows without either side\u2019s ships ever coming within sight of the other. It was the first naval battle fought entirely by aircraft, and it set the stage for Midway a month later.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f8;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:18px 22px;margin:26px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:17px;color:#0d1117\">Quick Facts<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Dates:<\/strong> 4\u20138 May 1942 (carrier-versus-carrier action on 7 and 8 May)<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Where:<\/strong> Coral Sea, between New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and north-east Australia<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Japanese objective:<\/strong> Operation MO: seize Tulagi and invade Port Moresby by sea<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Allied commander at sea:<\/strong> Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher (Task Force 17), carriers <em>Yorktown<\/em> and <em>Lexington<\/em><\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Japanese carriers:<\/strong> <em>Sh\u014dkaku<\/em> and <em>Zuikaku<\/em> (Fifth Carrier Division) plus the light carrier <em>Sh\u014dh\u014d<\/em><\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Ships sunk:<\/strong> Japan: light carrier <em>Sh\u014dh\u014d<\/em>, a destroyer and smaller vessels. US: carrier <em>Lexington<\/em>, destroyer <em>Sims<\/em>, oiler <em>Neosho<\/em><\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Lexington losses:<\/strong> 216 of a 2,951-man crew killed; the rest were taken off before she was scuttled on the evening of 8 May<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>First:<\/strong> Naval battle in which the opposing ships never sighted or fired directly at each other<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Outcome:<\/strong> Japanese tactical success, Allied strategic victory: the Port Moresby invasion was called off and <em>Sh\u014dkaku<\/em> and <em>Zuikaku<\/em> missed Midway<\/p><\/div>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Operation MO and the codebreakers<\/h2>\n<p>By April 1942 Japan had swept across South-East Asia and the western Pacific almost without a check. The next step, Operation MO, was meant to push the defensive perimeter further south: a small landing at Tulagi in the Solomons for a seaplane base, then an amphibious assault on Port Moresby on the southern coast of New Guinea. From Port Moresby, Japanese bombers could reach north-eastern Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Vice Admiral Shigeyoshi Inoue ran the operation from Rabaul. Because Allied land-based bombers had already mauled a Japanese invasion force off Lae and Salamaua in March, he asked for carrier cover, and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto lent him the Fifth Carrier Division, the big fleet carriers <em>Sh\u014dkaku<\/em> and <em>Zuikaku<\/em>, plus the light carrier <em>Sh\u014dh\u014d<\/em> to escort the invasion convoys.<\/p>\n<p>What Inoue did not know was that the United States was reading a substantial part of the Imperial Japanese Navy\u2019s main operational code, known to the Americans as JN-25B. By late April, Admiral Chester Nimitz at Pearl Harbor had the outline of MO, its targets and its rough timetable. He sent everything he could: <em>Yorktown<\/em>\u2019s Task Force 17 under Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, <em>Lexington<\/em>\u2019s Task Force 11 under Rear Admiral Aubrey Fitch, and an Australian-American cruiser squadron under Rear Admiral John Crace of the Royal Navy. Halsey\u2019s <em>Enterprise<\/em> and <em>Hornet<\/em>, just back from the Doolittle Raid, raced south too, but arrived too late.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/japanese-carrier-shoho-under-attack-coral-sea-1942.jpg\" alt=\"Japanese light carrier Shoho under attack by US Navy aircraft in the Coral Sea, 7 May 1942\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The light carrier <em>Sh\u014dh\u014d<\/em> under attack late on the morning of 7 May 1942, photographed from a <em>Lexington<\/em> aircraft. A TBD Devastator torpedo plane is visible at right, beyond the splash. U.S. Navy photo 80-G-17024, National Archives, via the National Museum of the U.S. Navy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Blind man\u2019s buff across the Coral Sea<\/h2>\n<p>The first blow fell on 4 May. Aircraft from <em>Yorktown<\/em> caught the Tulagi invasion force at anchor and sank the destroyer <em>Kikuzuki<\/em> and several minesweepers. It was a useful raid with an expensive side effect: Tokyo now knew an American carrier was in the area.<\/p>\n<p>For the next two days both fleets groped for each other under a band of heavy weather. On the evening of 6 May the carrier forces were only about 70 nautical miles apart, and neither knew it. Then, on the morning of 7 May, both sides launched full strikes at the wrong targets.<\/p>\n<p>A Japanese scout reported a carrier and a cruiser to the south. It was actually the fleet oiler <em>Neosho<\/em> and the destroyer <em>Sims<\/em>, detached from the task force for a refuelling rendezvous. Seventy-eight aircraft went after them. When the Japanese realised their mistake, the dive bombers took it out on what they had found: <em>Sims<\/em> broke in two and sank, and <em>Neosho<\/em> was left burning and adrift.<\/p>\n<p>Fletcher\u2019s scouts made an error of their own. A coding slip turned a sighting of cruisers into two carriers, and Fletcher threw more than 90 aircraft at it. Through sheer luck the strike found <em>Sh\u014dh\u014d<\/em> instead, escorting the Port Moresby convoy. <em>Lexington<\/em>\u2019s air group, led by Commander William B. Ault, struck first with bombs and torpedoes; <em>Yorktown<\/em>\u2019s followed. <em>Sh\u014dh\u014d<\/em> sank in minutes, and Dixon made the radio call that became one of the most famous lines of the Pacific War.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/U0K0Sqsg4cU\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:-10px 0 24px;font-style:italic\">The Operations Room\u2019s animated reconstruction tracks every task force, search plane and strike across the Coral Sea, which is the clearest way to follow who was looking for whom.<\/p>\n<p>That evening, Rear Admiral Ch\u016bichi Hara gambled. He sent 27 dive and torpedo bombers, flown by his most experienced crews, on a dusk strike towards where he thought the Americans were. <em>Lexington<\/em>\u2019s radar picked them up, and Wildcats fell on the formation under the cloud. The survivors jettisoned their weapons and turned back in the dark. Some of them, lost and low on fuel, tried to join the landing pattern of the American carriers before gunfire drove them off.<\/p>\n<p>By the end of 7 May the Coral Sea carrier battle had produced one sunk carrier, one sunk destroyer, one wrecked oiler and a great deal of confusion. Decades later Vice Admiral H. S. Duckworth, after reading the Japanese records, judged the day the most confused battle area in world history.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">8 May: the strikes cross in mid-air<\/h2>\n<p>The next morning there was no confusion left. At about 08:20 a <em>Lexington<\/em> Dauntless found the Japanese carriers through a gap in the cloud; two minutes later a <em>Sh\u014dkaku<\/em> search plane found the Americans. The fleets were roughly 210 nautical miles apart. Both launched everything, and the two strike forces passed each other on the way out.<\/p>\n<p><em>Yorktown<\/em>\u2019s dive bombers reached the enemy first, around 10:30. <em>Zuikaku<\/em> had slipped under a rain squall, so they went for <em>Sh\u014dkaku<\/em>. Two 1,000 lb bombs tore open her forecastle and wrecked her flight deck; a third hit from <em>Lexington<\/em>\u2019s group added to the damage. The American torpedo bombers, slow TBD Devastators with notoriously unreliable torpedoes, scored nothing.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/shokaku-under-attack-coral-sea-8-may-1942.jpg\" alt=\"Japanese carrier Shokaku under attack by USS Yorktown aircraft, 8 May 1942\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Bombs burst around <em>Sh\u014dkaku<\/em> as <em>Yorktown<\/em>\u2019s aircraft attack on the morning of 8 May 1942. Two bomb hits from this strike, and a third from <em>Lexington<\/em>\u2019s group, left her unable to operate aircraft. U.S. Navy photo, National Archives \/ Wikimedia Commons, public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<p><em>Lexington<\/em>\u2019s own strike paid a price in the weather. Many of her dive bombers never found the Japanese carriers at all. Ault, the air group commander who had led the attack on <em>Sh\u014dh\u014d<\/em> the day before, became lost in the cloud on the way home. The ship\u2019s radar could not see him. At 14:54 he was told he was on his own and should try to find land. His reply was taken down by the radio log.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;O. K. So long, people. Remember we got a 1,000-pound hit on the flat top.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Commander William B. Ault<\/strong> &mdash; Commander, Lexington Air Group, last radio message, 8 May 1942, as recorded in the Office of Naval Intelligence Combat Narrative <em>The Battle of the Coral Sea<\/em> (1943)<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>Neither Ault nor his radioman was ever found. Meanwhile the Japanese strike, 69 aircraft strong, had arrived over the American carriers at about 11:13. <em>Yorktown<\/em>, smaller and handier, combed the torpedoes aimed at her but took a 250 kg bomb that punched through four decks before it exploded. <em>Lexington<\/em>, a converted battlecruiser hull with a wide turning circle, was caught in a classic pincer by the torpedo bombers and hit by two torpedoes on the port side, then by two bombs.<\/p>\n<p>By noon it looked survivable. <em>Lexington<\/em> had a list, but her fires were out, her flight deck was working and she was recovering aircraft. That was the trap.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The slow death of Lady Lex<\/h2>\n<p>The first torpedo had cracked <em>Lexington<\/em>\u2019s port aviation-gasoline stowage. Vapour spread silently into the compartments around it. At 12:47 sparks from electric motors ignited it, and an explosion deep in the ship killed 25 men and knocked out the central damage-control station. Her commanding officer later wrote the obituary of his own ship in one line.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/captain-frederick-c-sherman-uss-lexington.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"flex-shrink:0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/captain-frederick-c-sherman-uss-lexington.jpg\" alt=\"Captain Frederick C. Sherman\" style=\"width:96px;height:96px;border-radius:50%;object-fit:cover;object-position:center 30%;display:block;border:2px solid #ddd\"><\/a><div><em>&ldquo;In any event, from this time on the ship was doomed.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Captain Frederick C. Sherman<\/strong> &mdash; Commanding officer, USS <em>Lexington<\/em>, in his report on the explosion of 12:47, quoted in the ONI Combat Narrative (1943)<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>For four more hours her crew fought it anyway. Hoses were led in from aft as the forward fire main lost pressure. Further explosions followed at 14:42 and 15:25. Torpedo warheads in the hangar were reported to be at 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit. When the engineering plant was finally secured, all water pressure went with it, and destroyers came alongside to pass over hoses and take off the wounded.<\/p>\n<p>At 17:07 Rear Admiral Fitch ordered Sherman to abandon ship. It was an orderly evacuation. Men slid down lines into the water and onto destroyer decks; some gun crews had to be ordered to leave their mount. Sherman and his executive officer, Commander Morton T. Seligman, were among the last to go, sliding down a line over the stern.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;I must again comment on the heroism of personnel. It was an inspiration. The first thought of all was for the wounded.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Commander Morton T. Seligman<\/strong> &mdash; Executive officer, USS <em>Lexington<\/em>, report on the loss of the ship, quoted in the ONI Combat Narrative (1943)<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/uss-lexington-explosion-coral-sea-1942.jpg\" alt=\"A heavy explosion aboard USS Lexington blows an aircraft over her side, 8 May 1942\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The great explosion: a blast aboard <em>Lexington<\/em> hurls an aircraft over the side, probably the detonation of torpedo warheads in the hangar just after Captain Sherman left the ship. The bow of the destroyer <em>Hammann<\/em>, backing away with survivors, is at far left. U.S. Navy photo 80-G-11916, National Archives, via the National Museum of the U.S. Navy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<p>That evening the destroyer <em>Phelps<\/em> fired torpedoes into the burning hulk, and shortly before 8 p.m. <em>Lexington<\/em> slipped under. Of her 2,951 men, 216 were lost. Fletcher later noted that the decision to keep the task force together had saved the great majority of her crew, who would otherwise have been in the water with no ships nearby.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6trNkAm-ByE\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:-10px 0 24px;font-style:italic\">British Path\u00e9\u2019s 1942 newsreel of the end of the USS <em>Lexington<\/em>: period footage of the burning carrier and her crew going over the side.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Who won the Coral Sea?<\/h2>\n<p>Counted in tonnage, Japan won. The United States lost a big fleet carrier, roughly a quarter of its carrier strength in the Pacific at the time, plus a destroyer and a precious oiler. Japan lost a light carrier and some small ships. The Japanese announced that they had sunk two American carriers; American newspapers were told of a much bigger victory than had occurred. Both sides exaggerated.<\/p>\n<p>Counted in what each side set out to do, the Allies won. With <em>Sh\u014dkaku<\/em> crippled and <em>Zuikaku<\/em>\u2019s air group shredded, Inoue had no carrier cover left for the Port Moresby convoy, and on the afternoon of 8 May he turned it back. It was the first time in the war that a major Japanese advance had been stopped short of its objective. Japan would later try to take Port Moresby overland, along the Kokoda Track, and fail there too.<\/p>\n<p>The aircrew arithmetic was worse for Japan than the ship count suggests. The Japanese lost far more trained carrier aviators than the Americans did, in a navy that had no system for replacing them quickly. That attrition began at the Coral Sea carrier battle and never stopped.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The road to Midway ran through the Coral Sea<\/h2>\n<p>The most important consequence showed up four weeks later, far to the north in the central Pacific. <em>Sh\u014dkaku<\/em> limped home to Kure, almost capsizing in a storm on the way, and needed months in dockyard hands. <em>Zuikaku<\/em> was undamaged, but her air group was so depleted that the Japanese did not try to make her ready in time. Neither ship sailed for Midway.<\/p>\n<p><em>Yorktown<\/em> had been hit too, and the damage estimate was measured in months. Nimitz gave Pearl Harbor\u2019s yard three days. She sailed for Midway with patched compartments and a borrowed air group made up largely of <em>Saratoga<\/em>\u2019s squadrons, and her aircraft helped sink <em>S\u014dry\u016b<\/em> and <em>Hiry\u016b<\/em>. Two Japanese carriers missing on one side, one American carrier present against all expectation on the other: the margin at Midway was shaped in the Coral Sea.<\/p>\n<p>The tactical lessons fed straight into the next battles. The Americans had seen that their fighter direction, strike coordination and torpedoes all needed work, and that aviation fuel in a damaged ship could kill her hours after the attackers had gone. Damage-control and fuel-handling procedures changed as a result.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Lady Lex, found two miles down<\/h2>\n<p><em>Lexington<\/em> stayed lost for 76 years. On 4 March 2018 the research vessel <em>Petrel<\/em>, funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, found the wreck in the Coral Sea, roughly 3,000 metres down and more than 800 kilometres off the Queensland coast. The remotely operated vehicle\u2019s cameras showed something extraordinary: aircraft that had gone down with the ship still sitting on the seabed, star insignia and squadron markings readable after three-quarters of a century.<\/p>\n<p>Those aircraft include Devastators, <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/sbd-dauntless\/\">SBD Dauntlesses<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/f4f-wildcat\/\">F4F Wildcats<\/a>, the same types that had found <em>Sh\u014dh\u014d<\/em> and fought off the dusk strike on 7 May. Their opponents, the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/a6m-zero\/\">A6M Zero<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/d3a-val\/\">Aichi D3A Val<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/b5n-kate\/\">Nakajima B5N Kate<\/a>, would meet them again at Midway.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/f3s_RPLnnmw\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:-10px 0 24px;font-style:italic\">National Geographic\u2019s report on the 2018 discovery of the <em>Lexington<\/em> wreck, with footage of the aircraft still resting on the floor of the Coral Sea.<\/p>\n<p>The Coral Sea carrier battle is often treated as Midway\u2019s warm-up act. It deserves better. It was the first time carriers fought carriers, the first time the war\u2019s most dangerous navy was turned back, and the reason two of its best flight decks were empty on 4 June. Ault\u2019s last message got one thing exactly right: the hit on the flat top mattered more than anyone could see at the time.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sources: Wikipedia, Battle of the Coral Sea, USS Lexington (CV-2), Robert E. Dixon and William B. Ault; Office of Naval Intelligence, Combat Narrative: The Battle of the Coral Sea (1943, via HyperWar); Naval History and Heritage Command, H-Gram 005 (Battle of the Coral Sea) and Online Library of Selected Images, Battle of the Coral Sea; Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Lexington (CV-2); National Geographic and USNI News on the 2018 discovery of the wreck.<\/em><\/p>\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\n\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\n\n\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>When was the Battle of the Coral Sea fought?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Battle of the Coral Sea was fought from 4 to 8 May 1942, south-west of the Solomon Islands and east of New Guinea. US carrier aircraft struck Tulagi on 4 May, the light carrier Sh\u014dh\u014d was sunk on 7 May, and the main carrier-versus-carrier exchange, in which Lexington was lost and Sh\u014dkaku badly damaged, took place on 8 May.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why was the Battle of the Coral Sea historically unique?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first naval battle in which the opposing ships never sighted or fired directly at each other. Every blow was delivered by carrier aircraft flying well over a hundred miles from their ships, which made it the first engagement fought between aircraft carriers.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Who said Scratch one flat top at the Coral Sea?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Lieutenant Commander Robert E. Dixon, commander of Scouting Squadron Two from USS Lexington, radioed Scratch one flat top after US carrier aircraft sank the Japanese light carrier Sh\u014dh\u014d on 7 May 1942. Sh\u014dh\u014d was the first Japanese aircraft carrier sunk by the United States in the Second World War.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How was USS Lexington lost at the Coral Sea?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">USS Lexington was hit by two torpedoes and two bombs on 8 May 1942. A torpedo cracked her aviation-gasoline stowage, and at 12:47 the vapour exploded deep inside the ship. Further explosions and fires followed, the crew abandoned ship from 17:07, and the destroyer Phelps scuttled her with torpedoes that evening. 216 of her 2,951 crew died.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Who won the Battle of the Coral Sea?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Japan won the Battle of the Coral Sea tactically, sinking the fleet carrier Lexington, a destroyer and an oiler for the loss of the light carrier Sh\u014dh\u014d and smaller ships. The Allies won strategically: the seaborne invasion of Port Moresby was cancelled, the first time a major Japanese advance had been turned back in the war.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How did the Battle of the Coral Sea affect the Battle of Midway?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Battle of the Coral Sea kept two Japanese fleet carriers out of Midway. Sh\u014dkaku needed months of repairs and Zuikaku had lost much of her air group. The damaged USS Yorktown, by contrast, was patched up at Pearl Harbor in about three days and fought at Midway, where her aircraft helped sink two Japanese carriers.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Where is the wreck of USS Lexington?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The wreck of USS Lexington lies in the Coral Sea, roughly 3,000 metres deep and more than 800 kilometres off the coast of Queensland, Australia. It was found on 4 March 2018 by the research vessel Petrel, funded by Paul Allen, with aircraft that sank with the ship still visible on the seabed.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"When was the Battle of the Coral Sea fought?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The Battle of the Coral Sea was fought from 4 to 8 May 1942, south-west of the Solomon Islands and east of New Guinea. US carrier aircraft struck Tulagi on 4 May, the light carrier Sh\u014dh\u014d was sunk on 7 May, and the main carrier-versus-carrier exchange, in which Lexington was lost and Sh\u014dkaku badly damaged, took place on 8 May.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why was the Battle of the Coral Sea historically unique?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first naval battle in which the opposing ships never sighted or fired directly at each other. Every blow was delivered by carrier aircraft flying well over a hundred miles from their ships, which made it the first engagement fought between aircraft carriers.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Who said Scratch one flat top at the Coral Sea?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Lieutenant Commander Robert E. Dixon, commander of Scouting Squadron Two from USS Lexington, radioed Scratch one flat top after US carrier aircraft sank the Japanese light carrier Sh\u014dh\u014d on 7 May 1942. Sh\u014dh\u014d was the first Japanese aircraft carrier sunk by the United States in the Second World War.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How was USS Lexington lost at the Coral Sea?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"USS Lexington was hit by two torpedoes and two bombs on 8 May 1942. A torpedo cracked her aviation-gasoline stowage, and at 12:47 the vapour exploded deep inside the ship. 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It was found on 4 March 2018 by the research vessel Petrel, funded by Paul Allen, with aircraft that sank with the ship still visible on the seabed.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/tbd-devastator-torpedo-squadron-8-midway\/\">The Torpedo Bombers Sent to Die at Midway<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/thach-weave-wildcat-zero-beam-defense\/\">The Thach Weave: How Two Wildcats Out-Thought the Zero<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/doolittle-raid-1942-b-25-uss-hornet-tokyo\/\">The Doolittle Raid: Sixteen B-25s That Were Never Coming Back<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/akutan-zero-koga-captured-a6m-zero-1942-test-flights\/\">Akutan Zero: The Crash That Revealed the Zero\u2019s Weaknesses<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In May 1942 American and Japanese carriers fought for four days without their ships ever sighting each other. The Battle of the Coral Sea cost the US Navy the Lexington, saved Port Moresby and quietly decided who would be missing at Midway.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":27396163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27396175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Battle of the Coral Sea: The Carrier Duel | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"May 1942: the Coral Sea carrier battle was the first fleet action fought entirely by aircraft. 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