On 4 May 1942 aircraft from the carrier USS Yorktown struck Japanese ships at Tulagi in the Solomon Islands, where Japanese troops had landed the day before. It was the opening blow of the Battle of the Coral Sea, which ran until 8 May. Over the next four days the American and Japanese carrier forces fought without their ships ever coming in sight of each other, and the Japanese invasion of Port Moresby in New Guinea was turned back.
Japan reaches for Port Moresby
By the end of April 1942 Japan planned to take Port Moresby in southeastern New Guinea and Tulagi in the southern Solomons, which would give it air bases controlling the Coral Sea between Australia and New Caledonia. The Australian War Memorial says the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in April had stirred the Japanese to push their defensive perimeter outward and cut the links between Australia and the United States. That raid is told in our article on the Doolittle Raid.1
The landings were to be covered by a striking force built around the large carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku. But Allied codebreakers had read the plan. The Allies gathered a force around the carriers Yorktown and Lexington, joined by the Australian cruisers Australia and Hobart. Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher led the Yorktown group.2
The strike at Tulagi
Japanese troops went ashore at Tulagi on 3 May without opposition. According to the U.S. Navy's wartime combat narrative of the battle, Fletcher received the report that evening and took Yorktown north at speed without waiting for the rest of his ships. On the morning of 4 May her aircraft attacked the ships in Tulagi harbor, in poor flying weather. The combat narrative records the first dive bombers going in at 08:45 and three waves of attacks through the day, the last aircraft landing back on board at 17:02. World History Encyclopedia adds that the Japanese at Tulagi had no fighter cover, because the Zero fighters meant for them had been held back by bad weather.3
What the strike achieved is told differently. The pilots believed they had sunk two destroyers, a cargo ship and four gunboats, and the combat narrative printed those claims. Britannica gives a smaller result: one destroyer, some minesweepers and some landing barges. World History Encyclopedia says the destroyer Kikuzuki was so badly damaged that her captain had to beach her, and that three minesweepers, four landing barges and five flying boats were also destroyed. The combat narrative puts American losses at two fighters, whose pilots were rescued, and one torpedo plane, and quotes the Pacific Fleet command finding the results disappointing for the ammunition spent.4
The first carrier battle
Britannica notes that the main Japanese invasion force sailed from Rabaul for Port Moresby the same day, 4 May. On 5 and 6 May the carrier groups searched for each other in poor weather. On 7 May American aircraft sank the light carrier Shoho, while Japanese aircraft sank the destroyer Sims and an oiler that they had mistaken for a carrier group. On 8 May the two carrier forces struck at each other. Japanese aircraft sank Lexington and damaged Yorktown, and American aircraft damaged Shokaku so badly that she had to leave the battle.5
No ship on either side fired on an enemy ship it could see. Britannica quotes Admiral Ernest J. King calling it the first major engagement in naval history in which surface ships did not exchange a single shot, and World History Encyclopedia calls it the first naval battle fought between aircraft carriers. The full story of the battle is in our article on the Battle of the Coral Sea.6
A strategic victory
Japan lost the smaller carrier but sank the larger one, and World History Encyclopedia calls the result a Japanese tactical victory. Strategically it was an Allied success: with too few aircraft left to cover it, the invasion force turned back and Port Moresby was saved. World History Encyclopedia gives losses of 77 aircraft and 1,074 casualties on the Japanese side, against 66 aircraft and 543 casualties for the Allies.7
The battle also reached into the next month. Because Shokaku was damaged and Zuikaku had lost so many aircraft, World History Encyclopedia says, neither carrier could take part at Midway in June 1942. That battle, the turning point of the Pacific War, is told in our article on Midway.8
Also on this day
- 1471: Battle of Tewkesbury. Edward IV and the Yorkists caught the Lancastrian army at Tewkesbury as it tried to reach Wales, in a decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses.
