The Battle of the Coral Sea ended Japan's first offensive thrust at securing a perimeter around their new conquests. The goal was to escort an invasion fleet around New Guinea and take Port Moresby from the sea. The covering force included two large Japanese carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku and the smaller Shoho. In the area to counter them are USS Lexington and Yorktown.
| Date | Events | |
|---|---|---|
| 3-May-42 | Tulagi captured. | |
| 4-May-42 | "80 bombers" (USN aircraft) attack Tulagi; destroy DD Kikuzuki and several planes. Port Moresby invasion fleet leaves. | |
| 6-May.42 | Morning: A H4K Mavis flyingboat based in Tualgi spots 1 US carrier group sighted 600 miles south of Tulagi. B-17s attack the invasion fleet in the afternoon to little effect. | |
| 7-May-42 | 0532 hrs | US carrier sighted 200 miles south of Shokaku. It is actually the tanker USS Neosho and an escort. |
| 0610 hrs | Japanese launch a raid: 18 A6M2 Zeros, 36 D3A1 Val, 24 B5N2 Kates with Torpedos | |
| 0640 hrs | Japanese scouts report another US carrier group 200 miles south of Kinugusa, 280 miles northwest of the Japanese carriers. | |
| 0820 hrs | A Jake flying off the seaplane tender Kamikawa-Maru sights a US naval force 150 miles SSW of Deboyne Island. Warns Rabaul. | |
| 0935 hrs | Raid searches for the US carrier; finds USS Neosho. About at the same time, US aircraft hit CVL Shoho. | |
| 1230 hrs | The US force SSW of Deboyne Island is attacked by 33 GM3 Nell medium bombers (20 armed with torpedos, 18 with bombs) 500 miles out of Rabaul. This unit was green, having lost 15 of 17 aircraft on 20-Feb-42 while attacking the USS Lexington. Four bombers are lost. The battle report of 1 battleship sunk, 1 damaged, with a cruiser left flaming was exagerated. The actualy force was HMAS Australia, HMAS Hobart, USS Chicago, and two destroyers, and there was no actual damage. | |
| 1430 hrs | 12 D3A1 vals, 15 B5N2 Kates sent after US carriers. | |
| Near sunset | In cloudy conditions with the setting sun,the raid met the US CAP. F4Fs shot down 8 B5N2 kates and 1 Val. Several Japanese planes almost land on the USS Enterprise, thinking they were home. Several more aircraft were lost on the trip back to their carriers. | |
| 8-May-42 | 0715 hrs | After early recon flights, the Japanese send out a strike force of 18 A6M2 Zeros, 33 D3A1 Vals, 18 B5N2 Kates armed with torpedos. |
| 0735 hrs | Japanese locate 2 US carriers and vector their strike force. | |
| 0920 hrs | Japanese attack US carriers. They claim 9 torpedos anmd 10 250 kg bomb hits on the Lexington (actually 2 torpedos and 2 bombs), and 3 torpedos, 8-10 bombs on the Yorktown (actually 1 bomb). Japanese losses were heavy - 26 bombers. | |
| An American strike renders Shokaku unable to fly off or recover aircraft. Several aircraft are jettisoned from Zuikaku to make enough round for recovering all the aircraft. Left with only 1 working carrier and few planes (24 Zeros, 9 Vals, 6 Kates), they left the area. | ||
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