Battle of the Coral Sea Part 2

 

Ok everyone here is part two of the Battle of the Coral Sea which occurred in May 1942.

Australia’s part in the battle consisted of the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia and the light cruiser HMAS Hobart and aircraft flown from bases in Queensland by both Aussie and American crews. The Australians were under the command of Rear-Admiral Grace.

This was the first engagement in a sea battle where none of the opposing ships were within gunfire range. All the damage done was inflected by aircraft, of course some planes were shot down.

Both sides had a difficult time finding and identifying the enemy. Early on the 7 May the American oiler Neosho was sunk by Japanese planes, who had mistaken it for an aircraft carrier. This was due to its unorthodox superstructure.

Around noon on the same day the Americans sighted and attacked the Japanese vessel Shoho and its escorting light cruiser sinking both.

While this was going on Grace’s squadron away from the main scene was ordered to cruise the Jomard Passage near the Louisiade Islands. This sea route was the one the Japanese would have to go through in order to reach Port Morsby. Grace’s ships had no air cover, so he adopted an anti-aircraft diamond formation for his ships.

In the late morning a Japanese reconnaissance plane spotted them and reported their position to Rabaul.

This resulted in them being attacked by eleven Japanese torpedo bombers with bombs, torpedos and intense strafing. We returned fire with a strong barrage and more then five Japanese bombers failed to return to base.

                    HMAS Australia in WW11

Skilful steering by the Australia’s commander helped the ship to escape being hit, this first attack was over in five minutes.

Amazingly none of the ships were damaged this was in part due to the lousy shooting by the Japanese. The Aussies suffered six casualties and the US three with two of them being mortally wounded.

More next week.