Battle of the Coral Sea 1942

About the battle

The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the battle was the first naval action in which the opposing fleets neither sighted nor fired upon one another, attacking over the horizon from aircraft carriers instead. It was also the first military battle between aircraft carriers.

To strengthen their defensive position in the South Pacific, the Japanese decided to invade and occupy Port Moresby (in the Territory of Papua) and Tulagi (in the southeastern Solomon Islands). The plan, Operation Mo, involved several major units of Japan's Combined Fleet. Two fleet carriers and a light carrier were assigned to provide air cover for the invasion forces, under the overall command of Admiral Shigeyoshi Inoue. The US learned of the Japanese plan through signals intelligence and sent two US Navy carrier task forces and a joint Australian-American cruiser force to oppose the offensive, under the overall command of US Admiral Frank J. Fletcher.

On 3–4 May, Japanese forces invaded and occupied Tulagi, although several supporting warships were sunk or damaged in a surprise attack by the US carrier Yorktown.

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Coral Sea (revision 1372041792), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.

Other battles of the New Guinea campaign

• Battle of Buna–Gona 1942
• Battle of Milne Bay 1942
• Battle of Wau 1943
• Battle of Driniumor River 1944
• Battle of Hollandia 1944

All 6 battles of the New Guinea campaign →

Browse more: battles at sea · Oceania · World War II era battles

Further reading

• Wikipedia: Battle of the Coral Sea
• Wikidata Q207165