The Battle of the Coral Sea 1942: The First Aircraft Carrier Battle in History

in May of 1942 the first aircraft carrier battle in history would take place in the South Pacific it will be one of the most confused and confusing battles of all time and because it was a first duel between aircraft carriers it would be the first time that neither sized ships sighted or fired directly upon the other the Battle of Coral Sea is often overshadowed by the more famous Battle of Midway but nonetheless its significance cannot be understated the outcome of this engagement would have direct consequences for the Midway operation operation mo caught for the invasion of Port Moresby from there the Japanese can launch attacks on northern Australia and it could serve as a launching pad for further incursions into the islands of New Caledonia the Fiji's and Samoa ultimately what the Japanese wanted to achieve was to cut off Australia supply lines with the US and hopefully strangle it into submission for this operation they needed air support so Admiral Yamamoto reluctantly agreed to lend two of his carriers he wanted them back as soon as the operation was completed because he needed them for the upcoming Midway offensive as was typical in Japanese operational planning the operation was unnecessarily complex first Tuilagi will be taken on May 3rd while receiving air cover from the carrier strike force any covering force on the rear admiral koto which contained a light carrier and four cruisers a seaplane base will be set up for air reconnaissance go to us covering forests with Dan head north and team up with the invasion convoy that would have departed Rabaul on May 4th the six-day voyage would pass through the joe mart passage additional seaplane bases will be set up along the way to supplement the air searches this was a dangerous stretch for the Japanese since they would be subjected to air raids from land-based bombers based in Australia for no worries that's what the Carrier Strike first was therefore to provide air cover and finally on May 10th the invasion party would land and Port Moresby will be taken but as you can see the plan relied on perfect coordination with five separate groups the Japanese were depending on encountering a passive enemy who would follow the Japanese script if they were to run into any determined counter-attack their plan was surely unbound in regards to enemy opposition the Japanese were optimistic that most there could be two American carriers present but they weren't counting on it and if they showed up Vice Admiral Takagi was confident his own cares would make easy work of them plus they also had surprise on their side well sort of because little did they know the Americans were completely aware of the upcoming invasion at this stage of the war the greatest American weapon was their radio intelligence thanks to skilled US Navy code breakers enough pieces and fractions of messages were deciphered that a rough timeline for the operation was made available to the Americans however to meet the Japanese the Americans had only one carrier available the USS Yorktown the US Navy had five carriers in the Pacific at this stage in the war one had been torpedoed and will be in repairs for several months two were coming back from the recent Doolittle raid and were unavailable so they could only reinforce the Yorktown with one more the old but reliable USS Lexington the American plan was simple stay at the edge of Japanese air range and launch counter-attacks when deemed suitable the Americans relied not only on Australian bombers to conduct their searches but also on their own Scout planes the Japanese differ from this doctrine they strictly used her own carrier aircraft for offensive capabilities not scouting thus they solely relied on land-based aircraft sea planes and flying boats to do all the reconnaissance their sea planes had an extraordinary range of 3,000 miles meaning they could search up to a thousand miles still this wasn't enough in war one must do his utmost to get the most accurate reconnaissance the one who can spot the enemy first and spot them accurately is the one who gets to strike first and thus achieve victory keep in mind that weather could play an important role during air searches who ever operated under cloud cover had an advantage it gave them protection from enemy reconnaissance and it would make it difficult for the enemy aviators to attack them during the first days of the battle the Americans would benefit from this if there is something to be learned from this battle it's that reliable reconnaissance is key you'll see how it will fail both sides in the following days there were five separate groups for operation MO including two invasion convoys a light carrier the show ho would provide air cover for each of the invasion forces but it was the carrier striking force that provided a main punch it was composed of the shukaku and the zu e Kaku together they had 121 aircraft it was under the command of Vice Admiral Takagi but tactical control was given to Rear Admiral Hara a veteran of naval aviation warfare the Americans had tasked 417 with the Yorktown in the South Pacific it would later be reinforced when an Australian American Cruiser force under the command of Rear Admiral Crais Royal Navy once the Lexington arrived the two carriers would have a hundred and thirty-four planes between them Rear Admiral Fletcher was in command but tactical control was given to Rear Admiral Fitch the preliminary phase on may 2nd Fletcher was waiting to render view with the Lexington however Lexington needed to refuel intelligence reports indicated to Fletcher that operation mo was beginning so he headed north alone at a slow pace at 1900 hours he got a report of the Tuilagi invasion force making its way towards Tuilagi he decided to launch an attack on his own he increased the speed and headed north although attacking the landing force on Tuilagi would reveal the presence of a US carrier in the area to the Japanese Fletcher deemed it justified if he could deliver a punishing blow the next day on May 4th Fletcher launched an early morning strike he was under some protection because he was operating under heavy weather the Japanese were caught completely by surprise and were practically defenseless three attacks in total were launched throughout the day despite such a large amount of ordnance being dedicated to this attack the damage was modest and in spite of the attack the Tuilagi seaplane base will be operating two days later on May 5th Fletcher met up with the Lexington and the cruiser force they topped off on fuel and on the six Fletcher combined all the forces at hand into one in large tasks 4:17 Fletcher had correctly deduced that the invasion force was going to pass through the Jomar passage so they began to head Northwest but only after they has sent their only oiler and her escort to the south to a designated safe area he thought the carriers were in the Bougainville area they were probably going to head south to guard the left flank of the convoy boy he couldn't have been more wrong the Japanese carriers were actually on his exposed flank coming right at him and within striking distance but let's see how they got here in the first place to minimize the chances of discovery the Port Moresby operation call for the Carrier Strike Force to conduct a wide sweep around the Solomon Islands so that they could enter Coral Sea from the east however a seemingly simple mission had given loads of trouble to the carrier's they were tasked with ferrying nine zeros to Rabaul to strengthen the airbase there on the 2nd of May the fighters set off but bad weather forced him to return they tried again on the 3rd and again they had to return due to bad weather ultimately they were unsuccessful and this two-day delay is what made them be here instead of here where they could have possibly launched a counter strike against a Yorktown anyways the strike was a shock for the Japanese and to complicate things more takagi was in the middle of refueling when he received the news of the attack he ceased fueling and headed south immediately in pursuit but by then Fletcher was long gone on the evening of May 5th takagi turned west into Coral Sea where he planned to refill on the 6th it must be noted that even at this point given the tactical situation of there being an enemy carrier on the loose the Japanese carriers were still not launching their own searches instead they waited passively for reports from land-based aircraft actually on may 5th a flying boat appeared in the vicinity of Task Force 17 but was shot down the crew either sent no message or did but it failed to reach ecology nevertheless the failure of this aircraft to return gave the Japanese a vague notion of where the American carriers might be and so as it came to be on the 6th of May the Japanese were in a perfect position to launch an ambush on the unsuspecting Americans while the Americans incorrectly searched to the north the Japanese correctly searched to the west at ten hundred hours a flying boat spotted task 417 but once again takagi was caught in the middle of refueling when he received a report by noon he was heading south in pursuit however by the evening enthusiasm had fallen there was bad weather it was getting late and he roughly knew where the American carriers were but he didn't want to send a search to confirm it because he feared that he would alert the Americans to his presence so he decided not to rush it it would be better to launch a comprehensive search the following day locate the enemy and launch a powerful strike to finish the carriers and so Hera caught off the pursuit unbeknownst to him if he had been more aggressive this day it would have paid off handsomely post battle analysis would later reveal that the Japanese carriers got within 70 miles of task force 17 that day 70 miles the report that her originally have received was incorrect but to his advantage it was actually some 50 miles closer if he had launched a search he surely would have found the Americans and if he had launched a strike that evening he would have found task 417 in a vulnerable state since they would have been in the middle of refueling the battle Coral Sea would have ended right then and there with a total Japanese victory Hera and Takagi's timidity and lack of aggression this day cost them their best chance for a victory both sides were ready to give battle on the seventh the mo striking force still had the advantage of surprise the search west and south while task force 17 ignorant of the real Japanese position search north in case the carrier battle didn't go well for the Americans a task force of three cruisers and three destroyers on the rear admiral Crais departed to block the convoy that would pass Jomar passage by this point Hara had unenthusiastically launched twelve of his own kate's to boost the search in order to safeguard his flank he extended their Southwest search to also search south this decision would prove rather unfortunate Harris search planes got a sighting in this sector at 7:22 an American carrier and a cruiser were spotted Hera hesitated but a second plane confirmed the sighting at 7:45 by o 8:15 Hera had launched a massive strike of 78 planes however minutes after the launch he got another sighting of American carriers a hundred and fifty miles northwest turns out his original sighting was incorrect unbelievably both search planes committed the same mistake and misidentified the two ships Hera had just committed his strike against a wrong target he declined to recall the strike he didn't want to break radio silence and he hoped there would be other targets of some value the planes reached a target area found the oiler Neosho which by the way was a Pearl Harbor survivor and the destroyer Sims both had left Fletcher the day before the pilot spread out and waits two hours searching for more valuable targets and of course they found none so they finally settled on these two secondary targets a 15 past 12 the Sims was hit by three bombs that his story are split in half and sank with a heavy loss of life the remaining dive bombers went for Neosho and she was hit by seven bombs she survived for four more days and was eventually scuttled the Japanese strike arrive late that afternoon the launching of a second strike dis late in the day was doubtful however the attack didn't compromise their position only Neosho had sent word at 10:21 that it was under attack by three planes but these could have been long-range aircraft from Tuilagi so Fletcher was still unaware that the carriers were on his flank eerily the Americans are practically committing the Japanese's exact mistakes Fletcher's dawn search resulted in a sighting at Oh a 15 a report of two carriers and four cruisers was given he launched a strike of 93 aircraft at 9:26 soon the pilot that made the sighting landed on board at Yorktown and revealed that he had never spotted two carriers turns out his coding device had a malfunction and when he reported two cruisers and two destroyers it came out as two carriers and four cruisers therefore by about 10:15 the situation was that both carrier forces had simultaneously launched their strikes against the wrong targets just like Takagi Fletcher declined to recall the strike it pressed on however the American strike fared better when the report at 1022 indicated the presence of at least one carrier there here you realize the foolishness in not delaying the rest of the mo operation since the carrier striking first was behind schedule for two days the vulnerable convoy had been advancing this whole time with practically no air cover except for the show hope the invasion force knew it had been spotted with all the sightings of aircraft overhead so it pulled back north but it was too late a gap was formed between the show ho and his protective screen of cruisers to show ho was in very clear weather her 18 aircraft would be no match against a 93 that were coming her way less intense air group was spotted at 10:50 show ho had only three fighters in the air show ho made a turn to port she skillfully dodged the first three bombs then the next 10 bombs she launched another three fighters to boost her defense however her luck ran out fifteen dive-bombers came and scored a hit then another 1000 count bomb hit the ship torpedo bombers conducted an anvil attack and hit her with 5 torpedoes the ship was now crippled the Yorktown squadrons came next at 11:25 they should have ignored her and gone for other targets but he didn't they landed another 5 to 6 more hits on the carrier and another 2 to 5 torpedo hits in total they had overkill on this carrier with about 12 hits and 7 torpedoes at 11:31 abandon ship was ordered all 18 planes were lost either by ditching or being destroyed all for the loss of three American aircraft - oh-hoh had a heavy loss of life and was the first Japanese carrier to be sunk in the war the invasion force dispersed in terror and all the forces not involved with dealing with the American carriers were ordered to temporarily withdraw North fletcher's force was recovered by 1316 but he was hesitant to launch a second strike against the convoy because he still didn't know where the main Japanese force was he knew of the loss of the sims in the Neosho but that still didn't pinpoint the exact location of the carriers also on the 7th Crisis Cruiser force was spotted and attacked by force of 31 bombers and 11 fighters in the afternoon luckily none of the ships were hit he was even attacked by three friendly b-17s by accident but also survived out without a scratch the Japanese heard about show hos loss and were eager for revenge with the number of aircraft involved during the show ho attack it was clear that two carriers were on the loose only now were the Japanese inclined to take risk they decide to make a dusk attack a long-range search in destroy mission with their best pilots based on a sighting as 16:15 they sent 27 bombers to search West mind you these products have just returned from a seven-hour mission and were exhausted the strike was launched but the weather was terrible and they ended up missing the Americans American radar detected the flight in an ambush was set up on a portion of them nine were shot down the rest continue their mission unaware that they had passed the enemy fleet they finally gave up jettisoned their bombs and torpedoes to lighten their weight and headed back home and it was only on the return trip that they run into the Americans but they didn't have their bombs anymore and something noteworthy happened in all the confusion settle in that night some Japanese aircraft actually tried to land on the Yorktown thinking it was her own carrier they quickly sped away when they received anti-aircraft fire Hara turned on his searchlights and the remaining 18 were able to land but the loss of nine bombers and their elite pilots in this desperate attempt will be sorely missed the next day the carriers were about a hundred miles away from each other at twenty hundred hours Fletcher finally knew the location of the carriers the Japanese Trump Carter surprised have it thrown away in the 24 hour period that straddled the 6th and the 7th the Japanese lost two good opportunities to force battle on the American carriers when the odds were in their favor on the afternoon of the six had the Japanese attacked they would have found the Americans in the process of refueling and on the seventh the Japanese were on the rear of a distracted enemy and squandered their chance by launching their strike against secondary targets had they found an attack Task Force 17 and not the Neosho in the Sims the Japanese would have caught them by surprise while they were attacking the show Howe and so now battle was assured for the 8th the Japanese would now give battle more or less on the basis of equality and with an enemy alerted to their presence you this day Lady Luck was on the Japanese side as cloud cover had moved and was now over the Japanese force both Fletcher and Takagi found what they were looking for the Americans launched a full 360 degree search at zero 625 and that only 20 the Japanese were spotted a hundred and seventy-five miles away on this day Fletcher had a hundred and seventeen operational aircraft he dispatched a striking force of 75 planes by zero 9:25 to two air groups proceeded separately the Japanese search aircraft were launched at Oh 615 and made a spotting at Oh 822 the mo striking force had fewer aircraft 95 operational planes but managed to put together a strike of 69 planes almost simultaneously both strikes occurred the Yorktown dive bomber spotted the Japanese carriers at 10:32 they decided to wait for the torpedo bombers to catch up but it wasn't worth it this 20-minute delay allowed the zoo ikkaku to disappear under the clouds also this allowed more Japanese fighters to be launched to strengthen the air defense at 10:57 the attack finally commenced the planes of Yorktown and Lexington attacked separately in shikaku being the only carrier visible took the brunt of the entire attack the first seven bombs missed then came 17 dive bombers a bomb struck the bow which started a fire the rest of the squadron followed one of her pilots Lieutenant John J powers with his aircraft already damaged dive well below a thousand feet to ensure a hit he wasn't able to pull out the dive in time and both he and his rear gunner were killed his bomb hit shattered the flight deck of the shukaku his bravery earned him a posthumous Medal of Honor the torpedo bombers came next and launched from extreme range and all of the mist by 11:05 choukaku had been hit by two bombs and was popping in and out of cloud cover half an hour later came Lexington strike however 14 planes never even made it to the target because they got lost in the bad weather so only 22 made the attack for dive bombers came and scored one hit at 11:40 the remaining 12 torpedo bombers came and launched their torpedoes but again they all missed by 11:50 the attack was over it was a poor performance although they managed to strike to Chicago with three heavy thousand-pound bombs she was in no immediate danger of sinking the attack had cost the Americans to dive bombers and three Wildcats the Japanese combat air patrol lost only two fighters after the attack the shukaku had to depart the area leaving the zuy kaku as the sole carrier the Japanese attack differed greatly in coordination and precision Warrant Officer Cano Kenzo the pilot who made the original sighting was on his way back to his carrier he made a heroic sacrifice by turning back to lead a strike accurately to his target this spelled a death sentence for him and his crew who now wouldn't have enough fuel to return his plane would be shot down shortly after the battle for their bravery the three men will be awarded a posthumous letter of commendation personally signed by Admiral Yamamoto radar detected the Japanese strike at 10:55 they were 60 miles out the Americans sent five fighters to intercept them but they missed them remember that radar interception was in its infancy at this stage of the war the Japanese were to launch a superior coordinated strike with both their torpedo and dive bombing squadrons of the 18 capes 14 selected a Lexington and four would go for a Yorktown of the 33 dive bombers 19 one for Lexington and 14 for the Yorktown a wave of anti-aircraft fire greeted the Japanese and the Lexington turned to starboard the Lexington was able to avoid damage for several minutes once even allowing a pair of torpedoes to pass her on both sides at 11:20 her luck ran out against the torpedoes and she was hitting quick secession by two on her port side dive bombers got two hits on the Lexington but overall the dive bombing attack caused some minor damage although the lesson tanasul for two bomb hits and two torpedo hits she could still conduct fly operations and keep at a good 24 knots the Yorktown was more maneuverable and was able to dodge all the torpedoes but she was hit by a 500-pound bomb and it went through six decks before finally exploding despite the effort of 20 Wildcats and 23 dauntless azan combat air patrol Japanese losses were light five dive bombers and a torpedo bombers were lost to the Americans American losses were three Wildcats and five dauntless --es however on the return trip the Japanese had to ditch seven aircraft and twelve more were thrown off the decks after they had landed so in total Japanese suffered more losses during the eighth the mo striking force lost 34 aircraft in combat as opposed to 19 for task force 17 but there was trouble on the Lexington as the day went on her condition grew worse as explosions rattled a ship there was an explosion at 12:47 then a huge one at 14 42 and then a third one at 1525 soon fires began to spread uncontrollably throughout the carrier it was then clear that she wouldn't be saved after the crew have been rescued the carrier was scuttled her crew of 2951 216 men died the Lexington took with her 35 aircraft still on board leaving the Yorktown with only 39 aircraft Fletcher had no option but to withdraw this battle had already cost the Pacific Fleet one-fourth of its carrier strength but on the flipside the Japanese situation also didn't look promising this week aku was left with oddly enough 39 operational planes fuel was down because of all the few interruptions pilots were fatigued and with this low aircraft strength the carrier striking force was not capable of supporting the invasion force so they wisely pulled back the battlefield did lay in Japanese hands the Japanese could have pushed forward and taken Port Moresby with little opposition all that was left were army land-based bombers who posed little threat to ships underway at sea but again this is hindsight back then it would have been ludicrous to send the vulnerable convoy without sufficient air cover operation mo was over casualties were as follows for the Allied forces the Americans lost a Lexington a valuable fleet oiler and a destroyer 66 planes were lost and personal casualties were at 543 for the Japanese they lost a light carrier a destroyer and several auxiliaries the Japanese lost 77 planes and a thousand and seventy four men the Japanese lost 90 aircrew compared to the Americans who lost only 35 but strictly speaking in tonnage and material loss the Japanese had a tactical victory here but it was a strategic victory for the Americans because they had stopped the first Japanese offensive since the beginning of the war and it prevented the port moresby invasion the Japanese who later trying to take Port Moresby overland and it would fail the threat to Australia was put away for good [Music] equally important was that this engagement had knocked off two carriers off the order of battle for the upcoming Midway operation the Americans had devastated zuleeka cruise Air Group and damaged two Shikoku so that ultimately none would be able to participate in Midway this could have been offset though if the Japanese had been luckier on may 8th only four torpedo bombers went after the Yorktown eight more could have been added to this attack if they hadn't been lost in the desperate night mission the day before had the Japanese placed a single torpedo hit on the Yorktown history would have been altered even if the Yorktown has survived she certainly would not have been repaired in time to participate in the Midway battle where as we know her aircraft would end up playing an important role [Music] instead it would now just be for carriers for the Midway operation oh well they should be able to handle themselves Yamamoto was confident in his forces you you

Channel: Montemayor

Views: 2,874,292

Rating: 4.8786354 out of 5

Keywords: IJN, US navy, Imperial Japanese navy, ww2, animated battle, Naval battle, Coral sea, Pacific war, Aircraft carrier, Lexington, Yorktown

Id: NB5hH3ksvKE

Length: 27min 57sec (1677 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 26 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/RadGlitch]

This is awesome. We always hear about these large battles through their outcomes, but never in detail like this. Awesome video

[u/NeonRedHerring]

Really well put together content. Fascinating to see how the best technology at the time was so imprecise. Both sides missing more often than not. Great quality content - would love to watch more of these.

[u/0000000000000007]

Really well done. I didn’t think I’d make it through the whole 26 mins, but it was extremely engaging and now I’m looking for more.

[u/surprisedropbears]

Fantastic analysis.

Some serious research went into this and he really combined the use of visuals, graphics and photographs well.

[u/UnfortunatelyMacabre]

This is unbelievable. Just think about how much fuel was wasted with all these mistakes and how hard it was to refuel at the time.

[u/WCDeuce]

Truly incredible! Thank you so much for sharing this!

[u/DusLeJ]

I binged his whole channel. Really quality stuff lately.

[u/gamask]

I'm confused as to why the Japanese pilot had to sacrifice himself. Can he not just report the location? How can he guide the strike group any more precisely by being there personally? Isn't it just open sea with no distinguishing features?

[u/Colotech]

Fantastic video, its really hard keeping up with the forces movements when reading. This is exactly how all battles should be explained