Coral Sea and Midway: The Tide Turns in the Pacific
Copyright © 2006, Henry J. Sage
The factor that kept the attack on Pearl Harbor from being a total disaster was that the American aircraft carriers were out at sea on December 7 and thus were not damaged. Although the ship shock and surprise of Pearl Harbor were deeply felt, the United States was not completely unprepared for war—President Roosevelt and Congress had begun beefing up the armed forces as early as 1940. But there was a lot of catching up to do. Both the Germans and Japanese had been fighting for years and were thus experienced in warfare.
Desiring to make at least a symbolic response to Japan for the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, the military command decided to make a daring raid on Tokyo in April, 1945. Under the command of General Jimmy Doolittle, a group of B-25 bombers were carried aboard the carrier USS Hornet far into the western Pacific. From there they were launched and flew over the home island of Japan where they dropped their bombs and proceeded on to China. Although the damage was minimal, the raid boosted American morale.
In May and June of 1942 two great sea battles marked to the turning point in the war in the Pacific. On May 7 and 8 the Battle of the Coral Sea was fought, the first naval battle in history in which the surface ships were not within sight of each other and did not participate in the battle directly against the opposing fleets. Although some of the Navy aircraft squadrons suffered losses, and naval aviators took the fight to the Japanese, sinking one and Japanese aircraft carrier and damaging two others along with several other ships.
Although the Americans lost the aircraft carrier Lexington at Coral Sea, the battle prevented the Japanese fleet from continuing their advance into the Southern Pacific, by which they had hoped to cut the American supply lines to Australia. Following Coral Sea the Japanese attempted to seize Midway Island in June, 1942, but again the United States Navy rose to the occasion.
Although the Americans suffered heavy losses early in the engagement when they had trouble locating the Japanese carrier force, they finally caught a glimpse of the Japanese carriers while they were in the processing of rearming and refueling their planes between strikes. The dive bombers swooped down through the clouds and dealt a crippling blow to the Japanese fleet, sinking four aircraft carriers and destroying 275 planes.
The twin defeats meant that the Hawaiian Islands remained secure and placed the United States Navy in a position where it could begin to carry the battle to the enemy instead of fighting a defensive war.
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