Battle of the Coral Sea Part 3

 

Another cold morning here let’s continue with some more about the Battle of the Coral Sea.

Almost immediately after the first attack against Admiral Crace and second one took place, this time with more accurate patterned bombing from high altitude. Such bombing caused giant columns of water which threatened to sink the Australia thankfully the ships although soaked with sea water managed to evade the bombs.

As often happens there may have been some friendly fire incidents, however, a less excusable incident happened when three planes flew over just missing the Farragut and Perkins. They were US Army Air Force B17 bombers.

The Japanese thought they had sunk one battleship and damaged a few more, when in fact Crace’ squadron was mostly undamaged and at nightfall cruised away to await further events and orders. Due to radio silence, he really had no idea what was happening with the Allied flotilla.

Back in the main area of battle allied pilots were returning to the Yorktown but they were joined by 18 Japanese bombers who mistakenly thought the Yorktown was their own ship. It was when an American pilot noticed and opened fire on them that realising their boo boo flew off as they had no bombs, they were unable to attack the carrier.

It was at the end of the battle during fierce fighting that Lieutenant J.J. Powers an American pilot inflicted heavy damage on the Japanese carrier Shokaku by waiting till the last minute to drop his bomb on the flight deck. He was of course killed and received the Congressional Medal of Honour posthumous. During the blaze on the Shokaku 150 men were killed or wounded.  

During all the fighting the USS Lexington suffered several direct hits causing it to be ablaze from stem to stern and resulting in it being abandoned. It was sunk by the USS Phelps to prevent the Japanese from trying to salvage it.

By the end of this round of fighting neither side could say they had a victory with scores of losses on both sides, however the Japanese objective of taking Port Moresby had taken a beating and this was a moral boost to the Allies.

I will finish this next week.  

Surinam Toad

 

Hello everyone since it is Tuesday it is freaky creature day and today’s creature is the Surinam Toad.

The common Surinam toad or star-fingered toad is a purely aquatic species of frog in the family Pipidae with a widespread distribution in South America.

It looks like a leaf or flat rock; it is also known as a star-fingered toad due to the tiny star on the tip of each four fingers on its front legs.

It will lay flat on the riverbed with its arms outstretched and uses them to find food, if something brushes up against the stars it sucks it up.

The species is known for incubating its eggs in honeycombed chambers in the skin of the mother's back, releasing fully formed froglets after a period of 4–5 months. Once fully formed they pop free and head for the water’s surface to breathe. The mum then sheds its skin ready for the next breeding season.

This was the last creature in my freaky creature book, so I will have to see what else I can find I do have one on dangerous spiders but I’m not sure about that.

 

Spain

 

Good morning bloggers or is it good afternoon or good evening whatever time you are reading this doesn’t matter, what does matter is how blessed I am to have some wonderful followers, just saying.

This week we are looking at Spain, which is in Western Europe, it has a population of 47 million, the capital is Madrid. It dominates most of the Lberian Peninsula in southwest Europe.

It’s official name is the Kingdom of Spain and was originally called Hispania.

They have a Parliamentary Monarchy with King Felipe VI as the head of state.

The national flag of Spain, as it is defined in the Constitution of 1978, consists of three horizontal stripes: red, yellow and red, the yellow stripe being twice the height of each red stripe. Traditionally, the middle stripe was defined by the more archaic term of gualda, and hence the popular name la Rojigualda.

It is a country famous for its culture, which includes flamenco dancing and bullfighting, it also has some beautiful beaches.

The country’s official language is Spanish or Castilian Spanish, which is spoken by everyone. However, certain Autonomous Communities have their own official language in addition to Spanish. Catalan is spoken in Catalonia, Galician in Galicia, and Basque in the Basque Country and part of Navarre.

Of course, we can’t talk about Spain and not mention bullfighting. Spanish-style bullfighting is a type of bullfighting that is practiced in several Spanish-speaking countries: Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, as well as in parts of southern France and Portugal.

Although it is still legal in Spain there are some Spanish cities that outlawed it and there are only a few countries throughout the world where it still goes on.