Kinzer, Edward Blaine, ENS

Memories
To Admiral Nimitz, there seemed to be "excellent indications that the Japanese intended to make a seaborne attack on Port Moresby the first week in May." Yorktown accordingly departed Tongatabu on 27 April, bound once more for the Coral Sea. TF 11-commanded by Rear Admiral Aubrey W. Fitch, who had relieved Brown in Lexington-departed Pearl Harbor to join Fletcher's TF 17 and arrived in the vicinity of Yorktown's group, southwest of the New Hebrides Islands, on 1 May.

At 1517 the next afternoon, two Dauntlesses from VS-5 sighted a Japanese submarine, running on the surface. Three Devastators took off from Yorktown sped to the scene, and carried out an attack that only succeeded in driving the submarine under.

On the morning of the 3d, TF 11 and TF 17 were some 100 miles apart, engaged in fueling operations. Shortly before midnight, Fletcher received word from Australian-based aircraft that Japanese transports were disembarking troops and equipment at Tulagi in the Solomon Islands. Arriving soon after the Australians had evacuated the place, the Japanese landed to commence construction of a seaplane base there to support their southward thrust.

Yorktown accordingly set course northward at 27 knots. By daybreak on 4 May, she was within striking distance of the newly established Japanese beachhead and launched her first strike at 0701-18 F4F-3's of VF-42, 12 TBD's of VT-5, and 28 SBD's from VS and BY-5. Yorktown's air group made three consecutive attacks on enemy ships and shore installations at Tulagi and Gavutu on the south coast of Florida Island in the Solomons. Expending 22 torpedoes and 76 1,000-pound bombs in the three attacks, Yorktown's planes sank a destroyer (Kikuzuki), three minecraft, and four barges. In addition, Air Group 5 destroyed five enemy seaplanes, all at the cost of two F4F's lost (the pilots were recovered) and one TBD (whose crew was lost).

Meanwhile, that same day, TF 44, a cruiser-destroyer force under Rear Admiral Crace (RN), joined Lexington's TF 11, thus completing the composition of the Allied force on the eve of the crucial Battle of the Coral Sea.

Elsewhere, to the northward, the enemy was on his [536] way. Eleven troop-laden transports-escorted by destroyers and covered by the light carrier Shoho, four heavy cruisers, and a destroyer-steamed toward Port Moresby. In addition, another Japanese task force-formed around the two Pearl Harbor veterans, carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku, and screened by two heavy cruisers and six destroyers-provided additional air cover.

On the morning of the 6th, Fletcher gathered all Allied forces under his tactical command as TF 17. At daybreak on the 7th, he dispatched Crace, with the cruisers and destroyers under his command, toward the Louisiade archipelago to intercept any enemy attempt to move toward Port Moresby.

Meanwhile, while Fletcher moved northward with his two flattops and their screens in search of the enemy, Japanese search planes located the oiler Neosho (AO-23) and her escort, Sims (DD-409) and identified the former as a "carrier." Two waves of Japanese planes-first high level bombers and then dive bombers-attacked the two ships. Sims-her antiaircraft battery crippled by gun failures-took three direct hits and sank quickly with a heavy loss of life. Neosho was more fortunate in that, even after seven direct hits and eight near-misses, she remained afloat until, on the 11th, her survivors were picked up by Henley (DD-391) and her hulk sunk by the rescuing destroyer.

In their tribulation, Neosho and Sims had performed a valuable service, drawing off the planes that might otherwise have hit Fletcher's carriers. Meanwhile, Yorktown and Lexington's planes found Shoho and punished that Japanese light carrier unmercifully, sending her to the bottom. One of Lexington's pilots reported this victory with the radio message, "Scratch one flattop."

That afternoon, Shokaku and Zuikaku-still unlocated by Fletcher's forces-launched 27 bombers and torpedo planes to search for the American ships. Their flight proved uneventful until they ran into fighters from Yorktown and Lexington, who proceeded to down nine enemy planes in the ensuing dogfight.

Near twilight, three Japanese planes incredibly mistook Yorktown for their own carrier and attempted to land. The ship's gunfire, though, drove them off; and the enemy planes crossed Yorktown's bow and turned away out of range. Twenty minutes later, when three more enemy pilots made the mistake of trying to get into Yorktown's landing circle, the carrier's gunners splashed one of the trio.

However, the Battle of the Coral Sea was far from over. The next morning, 8 May, a Lexington search plane spotted Admiral Takagi's carrier striking force-including Zuikaku and Shokaku, the flattops that had proved so elusive the day before. Yorktown planes scored two bomb hits on Shokaku, damaging her flight deck and thus preventing her from launching aircraft; in addition, the bombs set off explosions in gasoline storage tanks and destroyed an engine repair workshop. Lexington's Dauntlesses added another hit. Between the two American air groups, the hits scored killed 108 Japanese sailors and wounded 40 more.

While the American planes were bedeviling the Japanese flattops, however, Yorktown and Lexington-alerted by an intercepted message which indicated that the Japanese knew of their whereabouts-were preparing to fight off a retaliatory strike. Sure enough, shortly after 1100, that attack came.

American CAP Wildcats slashed into the Japanese formations, downing 17 planes. Some, though, managed to slip through the fighters and the "Kates" that did so managed to launch torpedoes from both sides of Lexington's bows. Two "fish", tore into "Lady Lex" on the port side; dive bombers-"Vals"-added to the destruction with three bomb hits. Lexington developed a list with three partially-flooded engineering spaces. Several fires raged belowdecks, and the carrier's elevators were out of commission.

Meanwhile Yorktown was having problems of her own. Skillfully maneuvered by Capt. Elliott Buckmaster, her commanding officer, the carrier dodged eight torpedoes. Attacked then by "Vals," the ship managed to evade all but one bomb. That one, however, penetrated the flight deck and exploded belowdecks, killing or seriously injuring 66 men.

Yorktown's damage control parties brought the fires under control, and, despite her wounds, the ship was still able to continue her flight operations. The air battle itself ended shortly before noon on the 8th; and within an hour, "Lady Lex" was on an even keel, although slightly down by the bow. Her damage control parties had already extinguished three out of the four fires below. In addition, she was making 25 knots and was recovering her air group.

At 1247, however, disaster struck Lexington, when a heavy explosion, caused by the ignition of gasoline vapors, rocked the ship. The flames raced through the ship, and further internal explosions tore the ship apart inside. Lexington battled for survival; but, despite thXevalXiant efforts of her crew, she had to be abandoned. Capt. Frederick C. Sherman sadly ordered "abandon ship" at 1707. Her men went over the side in an orderly fashion and were picked up by the cruisers and destroyers of the carrier's screen. Torpedoes fired by Phelps (DD-361) hastened the end of "Lady Lex."

As Yorktown and her consorts retired from Coral Sea to lick their wounds, the situation in the Pacific stood altered. The Japanese had won a tactical victory, inflicting comparatively heavy losses on the Allied force, but the Allies, in stemming the tide of Japan's conquests in the South and Southwest Pacific, had achieved a strategic victory. They had blunted the drive toward strategic Port Moresby and had saved the tenuous life-line between America and Australia.