Battle of the Coral Sea
산호해 해전
The naval battle fought in the Coral Sea on 4–8 May 1942 between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. The Americans, warned by signals intelligence, opposed Operation MO, Japan's plan to seize Port Moresby and Tulagi. It was the first naval action in which the fleets never sighted each other and fought only with carrier aircraft, and the first battle between aircraft carriers. A tactical Japanese victory in ships sunk, it led to the cancellation of the Port Moresby invasion and kept two damaged Japanese carriers out of Midway.
In depth
To strengthen its defensive position in the South Pacific, Japan decided to occupy Port Moresby in Papua and Tulagi in the south-eastern Solomon Islands. Operation MO, under the overall command of Shigeyoshi Inoue, was covered by two fleet carriers and a light carrier. The Americans sent two carrier task forces and a joint Australian-American cruiser force. Japan took Tulagi, but in the carrier battle that followed lost the light carrier Shōhō, and Shōkaku was badly damaged; Lexington was critically damaged and scuttled, and Yorktown was damaged.
Both sides withdrew after heavy aircraft losses, and Inoue, without air cover, recalled the Port Moresby invasion fleet. The battle was the first time since the start of the war that a major Japanese advance had been turned back; a tactical Japanese victory, it is described as a strategic victory for the Allies. The damage to Shōkaku and the aircraft losses of Zuikaku kept both carriers out of the Battle of Midway the following month, whereas the Americans repaired Yorktown at Pearl Harbor in 72 hours and sent her to Midway.