The Battle of Coral Sea

Just after midnight on June 4th,1942, the United States attacked a fleet of Japanese transport ships. One American torpedo plane took out fleet tanker "Akabono Maru". Later that morning at about 6:30am, Japanese planes began bombing midway island installations, though causing minimal damage to the U.S. naval

Returning to their aircraft carriers to refuel and rearm the Japanese bombers noticed the U.S. fleet and prepared for their attack. Sent from the aircraft carriers were Devastator Torpedo Bombers and Dauntless Dive Bombers. The first to attack were the Torpedo Bombers, flying low to the sea the Japanese were able to defend their ship’s with ease. The Japanese destroyed 35 Torpedo Bombers, only 6 made it to their target destination which was one of the four Japanese aircraft carriers, but to their surprise none of their torpedo’s hit the intended target. Although the Torpedo Bombers did not hit their target their sacrifice was not in vain. High above the Dauntless Dive Bombers were closing in on their targets without any resistance. With just enough cloud coverage the Dive Bombers were able to approach their targets with ease. Within the first day the Japanese carriers Akagi, Kaga, and Soryu, were hit, set ablaze, and abandoned (). According to ..: Over the next two days, the US Navy and US forces on Midway continued their attacks, forcing the Japanese to abandon the battle and retreat to Japan. The Japanese lost approximately 4,800 men, four carriers, one cruiser, and hundreds of aircraft, while the United States lost approximately 307 men, one carrier, one destroyer, and over 100 aircraft.

The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest lasting battle of World War II. The Battle was to control the Atlantic Shipping Lanes and lasted from September 3rd 1939 to May 8th 1945, mainly in The Atlantic Ocean, but later spread to the United States and The Caribbean Sea. The Battle of the Atlantic was originally fought by Britain and Canada against Germany until 1940 when the Italians joined the German side. In 1941 the United States joined Britain and Canada in the battle, leading to the defeat of Germany. A significant even that lead up to The Battle of the Atlantic was when U-30 (U-boat 30) attacked Athenia, the passenger liner, a British auxiliary cruiser, within just hours of the British declaring war on Germany, killing 112 civilians that were aboard. These ships were the ones the submarines were told not to attack by The German Navy. This is what some say was the beginning of The Battle of the Atlantic. The Germans were also humiliated from World War One and felt they had not deserved to lose and have the harsh treatment put upon them, as outlined in The Treaty of Versailles.

The Battle of the Philippine Sea was an engagement between the United States Pacific Fleet and the Japanese navy in World War II. This Battle occurred started on June 19 and ended on June 20 in 1944. The Japanese goal at the very beginning of this conflict was to discourage American forces by incurring such great damage to the military that the public majority would become weary of the war and discontinue its support of the war. The loss of support from the public would then cause the US Government to retract its forces from Japan.( Willmott, H.P. June 1944. New York, NY: Blandford Press, 1984. ISBN 0-7137-1446-8) Willmott 1984, p. 143.)

On April 18, 1942, the Japanese capitol city of Tokyo and the nearby cities of Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe were bombed by sixteen United States Army B-25 bombers. In these attacks the United States damaged ammunition factories and steel plants. These small bombings did not really do much damage, but they did do their job, however, boosting the confidence of the American people. Captured Americans flying in the B-25 bombers were not considered Prisoners or War, but criminals, and went to trial. The Americans were put to death in some cases. Japan continued to build up a massive fleet that included four aircraft carriers, seven battleships, thirteen cruisers, forty destroyers, sixteen submarines and many troop transport ships (McGowen 24). The Japanese sailors had great morale and felt

Prior to the upcoming Coral Sea battle, a number of Japanese military messages had been intercepted by the U.S. Navy signals intelligence unit. The first, dated March 28, 1942, was encoded as stating “The objective of MO will be first to restrict the enemy fleet movements and will be accomplished by means of attacks on the north coast of Australia.” (“Battle of the Coral Sea”) Subsequent messages were intercepted that provided allied forces with updated details concerning IJN fleet progress, as well as elements of IJN plans that included battleship and carrier logistics. This resulted in the U.S. Navy’s deployment of a cotillion of numerous warships and support craft, and also the carriers Lexington and Yorktown (“Battle of the Coral Seas”). In the upcoming battle, these ships would do battle against a superior IJN force comprised of far more battleships, submarines and support craft, as well as aircraft carriers.

Eight ships were sunk and most of the others in the harbour were severely damaged by bombs or machine gun fire. The only air defence our allied forces could muster were ten fighter planes that engaged the Japanese planes. Only one allied fighter survived the first attack, with the Japanese suffering only 1-2

In was on this day 19th February 1942, during World War II, where Australia as a Nation was changed forever. The Japanese launched a major attack on the Northern Territory’s capital, Darwin, causing major chaos in the town, due to the lack of essential necessities being destroyed and being cut-off. This attack led by Japanese Naval Air Service Captain Mitsuo Fuchida, was one of the many attacks in the Pacific by the Japanese, in their hope to take control of all the countries and islands in the Pacific Rim.

The Japanese and Australians fought for approximately four months, in this time, Japan progressed up the Kokoda track, at one stage being less than 30 kilometres from Port Moresby in September. Port Moresby was the campaign target hence the Japanese thought they had won the campaign when they reached close proximity. This was the turning point in the campaign, to the extent that Japanese forces were pushed back from Port Moresby and Australian forces finally staged a counter-offensive, pushing the Japanese back.The Australian forces had been overcome by the Japanese offensives and were pushed back to Imita Ridge where they staged their counter-offensive. This was the first time that the Australian forces had moved forward to a large

In the beginning of war, Japanese victory in Pacific terrified West Cost Americans. Partial victory for Americans appeared when Japanese capital Tokyo was bombed. It was less of a material loss but huge in terms of psychological attack. It was followed by the Battle of Coral Sea in May 1942 and after that the decisive Battle of Midway Island took place. U.S. aircraft carriers destroyed three out of four Japanese carriers that sabotaged their further plans of invasion and they adopted a defensive strategy.

The Japanese had control of much of the South Pacific including the Philippines. The United States had enough forces in the Pacific to begin to attack Japan back

suffered a major defeat at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, took advantage of the situation the U.S. was put in after its losses during Pearl Harbor (“Japs Risk Large Naval Units...”). With the backbone of U.S. Pacific Fleet torn out, Japan made several attempts to dominate the Pacific. Japan was anxious to settle their differences with the U.S., so they began risking large naval units in Pacific battles. An article posted in the Los Angeles Time, “Japs Risk Large Naval Units in Blows at U.S.” says, “For the sixth time in six months Japan made a deadly bid to capture the mastery of the Pacific, and for the sixth time she has failed after paying a price that is fast becoming prohibitive,” (“Japs Risk Large Naval Units...”). This article was posted days after the Battle of Midway, on June 7th, 1942 reflecting the actions of the Japanese Navy in the previous months. The Japanese were anxious to pounce on the weakened U.S. after Pearl Harbor, backing their attacks with large naval units. The Japanese felt that they needed to take over Midway Island in order to claim dominance over the U.S. in the Pacific.

Typical of Japanese naval planning during the Second World War, Yamamoto's battle plan was quite complex.[15] Additionally, his designs were predicated on optimistic intelligence information suggesting USS Enterprise and USS Hornet, forming Task Force 16, were the only carriers available to the U.S. Pacific Fleet at the time. USS Lexington had been sunk and USS Yorktown severely damaged (and believed by the Japanese to have been sunk) at the Battle of the Coral Sea just a month earlier. The Japanese were also aware that USS Saratoga was undergoing repairs on the West Coast after taking torpedo damage from a submarine.

There were many battles that occurred in the Pacific during World War II, the most significant ones being the Battles of Midway, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. The Battle of Midway, an American naval victory in June 1942 is considered a significant point in the Pacific war with the Japanese fleet sustaining heavy losses and having to retreat. The Battle of Midway is significant as it firstly, “only lost one carrier… and it meant that four carriers (Enterprise, Hornet, Saratoga, and Wasp) were available when the U.S navy went on the offensive during the battle of Guadalcanal.” Secondly, subsequent to this battle, the Japanese would react to the Americans, and not the other way around, this meant that the “operational initiative” had passed

On May 7, the carrier forces from both sides exchanged airstrikes over two consecutive days. On the first day, the United States used the Lexington and Yorktown to sink the Japanese light carried named Shoho. The Japanese sank an American destroyer and heavily damaged a fleet oiler. On May 8, the Japanese fleet carrier named Shokaku was heavily damaged. The American fleet carrier Lexington was scuttled and the fleet carrier Yorktown was damaged. Both sides suffered heavy losses in aircraft and carriers damaged or sunk. Both fleets disengaged and retired from the battle area. The Japanese called off the invasion of Port Moresby fearing that the Americans still had the capacity to destroy many of their landing craft.