Battle Of The Coral Sea Essay

1. The Battle of the Coral Sea was a significant milestone of WWII; markedly, the first operational failure of the Japanese in the Pacific Theatre. The series of naval engagements fought between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and a combined task force of the United States (US) and Australian naval and air forces ultimately prevented the sea-borne Japanese invasion of Port Moresby. The Japanese endeavoured to eject “British and American strength from the Netherlands indies and the Philippines, [and] to establish a policy of autonomous self-sufficiency and economic independence” (Parker 1993) by invading and capturing islands in the South Pacific region in May 1942.

2. The battle is historically considered the first carrier air power interaction,

Both the Allied forces and IJN strategically highlighted air craft carrier domination in fleet organisation during the Battle of the Coral Sea. This approach ultimately defined the overall outcome of the battle, however was undermined by the specific capabilities of the carrier force. Allied strategy in the Pacific Theatre was to maintain an aggressive front by using carrier task forces to raid critical Japanese targets. Therefore consequently the Japanese made attempts to destroy Allied carriers and thereby thwart future raids (Reynolds 1994).

6. From 4-8 May 1942 the battle covered an expansive area of thousands of square kilometres, suggesting for much of the time the enemy’s location was unknown to the opposing force. This context gives reasoning as to why the Battle of the Coral Sea is famously known as the first naval battle in which surface ships at no stage sighted or fired directly upon each other (Lewis n.d.). All attacks were conducted by aeroplanes based off aircraft carriers and nearby land, suggesting the limited range of planes, commonly poor weather and a vast zone of combat would have hindered capacity to locate targets (Lewis