Just before 14.00 on the same day, a group of Japanese bombers attacked ships under the command of Rear Admiral J C Crace of the Royal Navy. [46], At 08:20, one of the Furutaka aircraft found Fletcher's carriers and immediately reported it to Inoue's headquarters at Rabaul, which passed the report on to Takagi. Churchill, Winston S. The Hinge of Fate. In return, escorting Zeros shot down four Yorktown SBDs. Amazing history. To destroy the Americans carriers in the Coral Sea, Takagi selected his 27 best pilots for a night time attack against the carrier force. Therefore the U.S. won that battle. Vol. [10], Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Combined Fleet, was concurrently planning an operation for June that he hoped would lure the U.S. Navy's carriers, none of which had been damaged in the Pearl Harbor attack, into a decisive showdown in the central Pacific near Midway Atoll. Based on these reports, Takagi, who was still awaiting the return of all of his aircraft from attacking Neosho, turned his carriers due west at 13:30 and advised Inoue at 15:00 that the U.S. carriers were at least 430 nmi (490 mi; 800 km) west of his location and that he would therefore be unable to attack them that day. After recovering its aircraft late in the evening of 4 May, TF 17 retired towards the south. The U.S. destroyer Henley responded and rescued 109 Neosho and 14 Sims survivors later that day, then scuttled the tanker with gunfire. The next day, each side found and attacked the other's fleet carriers, with the Japanese fleet carrier Shōkaku damaged, the US fleet carrier Lexington critically damaged and later scuttled, and Yorktown damaged. [84], That evening, Crace detached Hobart, which was critically low on fuel, and the destroyer Walke, which was having engine trouble, to proceed to Townsville. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Thanks for sharing! The Battle of the Coral Sea was clearly won by the U.S. because the Japanese were stopped by the U.S. in attempt to invade Australia. The strike force was under overall command of Lieutenant Commander Kakuichi Takahashi, while Lieutenant Commander Shigekazu Shimazaki led its torpedo bombers. Crace also turned west to stay within striking range of the Louisiades. In an attempt to strengthen their defensive position in the South Pacific, the Japanese decided to invade and occupy Port Moresby (in New Guinea) and Tulagi (in the southeastern Solomon Islands). Aircraft from Shōhō covered the landings until early afternoon, when Gotō's force turned towards Bougainville to refuel in preparation to support the landings at Port Moresby. Nimitz gave Vice Admiral Frank Fletcher complete freedom in tactics on how to defeat the Japanese invasion fleet led by Inouye. [106], In the meantime, the Allies learned in July that the Japanese had begun building an airfield on Guadalcanal. At that time, Takagi's force was about 300 nmi (350 mi; 560 km) north of Fletcher, near the maximum range for his carrier aircraft. Lost communication with central station. [58], Crace at 15:26 radioed Fletcher he could not complete his mission without air support. Gotō's cruisers surrounded the carrier in a diamond formation, 3,000–5,000 yd (2,700–4,600 m) off each of Shōhō's corners. The crew worked furiously to repair the ship and put out the fires. The Battle of Coral Sea was fought entirely by planes – no ship on either side made any visual contact with any enemy ship. TF 11, commanded by Rear Admiral Aubrey Fitch and consisting of the carrier Lexington with two cruisers and five destroyers, was between Fiji and New Caledonia.

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