1942 USS LEXINGTON. The loss of the Lexington in the first naval battle fought exclusively by aircraft
Through the first five months of the Second World War, the Japanese seemed invincible. They rolled southwards, dominating the western Pacific rim, but then, in May 1942, they came up against an effective Allied force at last, in the Coral Sea.
ISOLATE AUSTRALIA
The Japanese Spring Offensive of 1942 had the isolation of Australia as its main objective. This was to be achieved by taking the powerful Allied base at Port Moresby in Papua and then moving on through the Solomon Islands to Fiji and Samoa. The operational plan was complex, and involved three carriers with a total of 180 aircraft and six cruisers, split into three battle groups: an invasion group, a covering group including the light carrier Shoho and a striking force centred on the carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku. Unbeknownst to the Japanese, however, the US Navy knew all the details, having broken their code. Chester Nimitz, in overall command of the US Navy in the region, sent his two available carriers, Yorktown and Lexington, with 121 aircraft, and a screening force of seven cruisers and destroyers designated as Force 17, into the Coral Sea between Australia and the island chain, intent on bringing the Imperial Japanese Navy to battle on something like equal terms.
THE BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA
The first action came on 3 May, when the Japanese landed on the island of Tulagi in the Solomons; aircraft from the Yorktown responded early the following morning, and sank a destroyer, three minesweepers and several smaller craft. On 5 May the long-expected aerial bombardment of Port Moresby began, and Nimitz relaxed a little, knowing that his intelligence had been accurate. Yorktown and Lexington, which had linked up that morning, were now steaming westwards towards the Japanese fleet; at breakfast time on 7 May a reconnaissance aircraft reported sighting two carriers and four heavy cruisers to the north. The two American carriers turned towards the target and launched a strike force of 93 aircraft from 0930. In fact, the sighting report was erroneous, the result of a coding error but the mistake was to be fortuitous, for at about 1100 the lead aircraft from the Lexington spotted an aircraft carrier and a mixed force of cruisers and destroyers it was the covering force. Within minutes, Shoho was a burning wreck, and at 1135 she sank. Scratch one flat-top! the bomb group leader screamed over his radio as he turned for home. First blood to the Lexington.
Half an hour later the first blow fell on Force 17 with the destruction of the destroyer Sims and the fleet oiler Neosho, detached and far away to the south of the main group. By then, realising the danger it was in, the main Japanese invasion group had turned back, but the striking force, which had as its own objective the destruction of the American carriers, came on. At 1630 a small bomber force from Shokaku and Zuikalcu set out to attack, but missed its target in bad weather, losing nine of its number to American fighters, vectored onto them by superior radar. Eleven more failed to recover aboard their ships, while one was shot down passing over the Yorktown a fatal error; in all, just six of the 27 airplanes launched returned safely.
THE END OF THE LEXINGTON
Force 17 turned back south-westwards after the destruction of the Shoho, and coincidentally the Japanese had turned to parallel it. Before dawn, both turned to port; by 0900 on 8 May, each force knew exactly the location of the other, and both had launched strikes the first ever carrier vs carrier battle was joined. In a poorly co-ordinated attack, Shokaku was hit three times by bombs; she transferred her remaining aircraft to her sister-ship and then headed north away from the action. Meanwhile, even as the American bombers were heading back to their ships, those ships were coming under attack by Japanese air craft. At 1118, the Lexington, less manoeuvrable than the Yorktown, came under torpedo attack over both port and starboard bows, making it impossible for her captain to comb the missiles tracks. At 1120 she was hit twice in succession on the port side, and almost immediately also took hits from dive bombers. Despite having taken on a seven degree list to port, it seemed as if the Lady Lex would live to fight another day, but at 1247 an enormous explosion, caused by the ignition of fuel vapour, shook the ship. Another, at 1445, put the situation beyond human control; by 1630 she was dead in the water, her crew making preparations to abandon her. That order came at 1710, and an orderly evacuation took place, the captain being the last to leave the ship. At 1956 the destroyer Phelps was ordered to sink her, and at 2000, USS Lexington disappeared beneath the waves.
