bigpigeon.us webpage WWII-Japan > Japan Overreaches > Coral Sea, © 2023 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated by RAC 15 Mar 2023.
Operation Mo Thwarted, Battle of the Coral Sea - 4-8 May 1942
Operation Mo Thwarted, Battle of the Coral Sea - 4-8 May 1942
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Operation Mo was the 1942 Japanese plan to seize Port Moresby, the major town in southeastern New Guinea, thus obtaining a base area possessing both harbor and air facilities. Operation Mo was viewed as the first step in isolating and then possibly invading Australia.
In May 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy initiated Operation Mo, sending an invasion fleet protected by a carrier striking force into the Coral Sea. The Japanese naval forces were intercepted by elements of the US and Australian navies in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first sea battle in which all offensive action was by carrier-launched aircraft. Although Coral Sea was tactically a draw with equal losses on both sides, it was an Allied victory as the Japanese forces turned back, leaving the Port Moresby undamaged and in Allied hands. The US Navy lost the destroyer Sims and oiler Neosho to Japanese aircraft attacks on 7 May and the carrier Lexington on 8 May. Incidentally, for the next 17 months, all major combat between United States and Japanese forces, except for the Battle of Midway, operations in the Aleutians, and the submarine war, took place in the portion of the Pacific shown on these maps. |
The Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea
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Sources for Big Pigeon's Japan Overreaches > Coral Sea webpage:
Pottawattamie Area WWII Dead - Japan Overreaches > Coral Sea:
† O’Dell, Charles Henry, SN 316-78-35, US Navy, Pott. Co.
- The Coral Sea - map c/o https://geog.ucsb.edu at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
- The Battle of the Coral Sea - map c/o historyonthenet.com and was found at https://www.historyonthenet.com/the-coral-sea-key-battle-2.
Pottawattamie Area WWII Dead - Japan Overreaches > Coral Sea:
- Taken from the bigpigeon.us WWII Roster module.
† O’Dell, Charles Henry, SN 316-78-35, US Navy, Pott. Co.
- Aircraft Carrier USS Lexington (CV-2); KIA 8 May 1942, Coral Sea, South Pacific, ~ 500 miles E of Cairns, Australia; Lexington sunk by Japanese aircraft, 216 dead; Japan Overreaches > Battle of the Coral Sea; BNR.