1942 ⟶ US Carrier Strike on Tulagi
US Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher's Task Force 17 makes th...
Year
1942
✈️ US Carrier Strike on Tulagi
US Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher's Task Force 17 makes the first carrier strike of the Battle of the Coral Sea, attacking Japanese naval targets near Tulagi.⟶
Battle of the Coral SeaAircraft CarrierNaval BattleFrank Jack FletcherPacific TheaterTulagiNaval AviationUS Navy
🚢 Japanese Forces Land on Tulagi, Opening the Battle of the Coral Sea
In the initial move of the Japanese strategic plan to capture Port Moresby, Japanese forces under Admiral Kiyohide Shima make unopposed landings on Tulagi, opening the Battle of the Coral Sea.⟶
Battle of the Coral SeaTulagiPacific TheaterJapanese NavyPort MoresbyNaval BattleSolomon IslandsMilitary Strategy
🔍 Carrier Aircraft Search for Each Other in the Coral Sea
In the Coral Sea, both Japanese and American carrier aircraft spend this day and the following one searching for each other's ships, with no success, even though at one point the opposing carrier groups are separated by less than a hundred miles of ocean.⟶
Battle of the Coral SeaAircraft CarrierNaval BattlePacific TheaterNaval AviationSearch and DestroyUS NavyJapanese Navy
🚢 Coral Sea: Japanese Sink US Ships, Misled by Decoy
In the Coral Sea, Japanese search planes spot refueling ship USS Neosho and destroyer USS Sims, which have retired from Fletcher's Task Force 17 into what should have been safer waters to refuel Sims. They are mistaken for an aircraft carrier and a cruiser. Japanese Admiral Takagi, believing he has at last found the location of Fletcher's main force, orders a full out attack by carriers Shōkaku and Zuikaku and sinks both ships. This distraction helps prevent the Japanese from finding the real location of Fletcher's carriers. Meanwhile, Fletcher has a similar false alarm, the spotting of two cruisers and two destroyers being mistakenly encrypted as "two carriers and four cruisers." By chance, though, planes from USS Lexington and USS Yorktown stumble across light carrier Shōhō while pursuing the false lead and sink her, leading to the first use in the American Navy of the signal, "Scratch one flattop." Admiral Inoue is so alarmed by the loss of Shōhō he halts the Port Moresby invasion group north of the Louisiades until the American carriers can be found and destroyed.⟶
Battle of the Coral SeaNaval BattleCarrier WarfarePacific TheaterAircraft CarriersStrategic BlunderUS Navy
🛳️ Naval Battle of the Eastern Solomons
The naval battle of the Eastern Solomons; USS Enterprise is badly damaged and the Japanese lose one light carrier, Ryujo.⟶
Eastern Solomonsnaval battleUS NavyJapanese Navyaircraft carrierUSS EnterprisePacific TheaterWorld War IISolomon IslandsAsia