The Japanese invasion of Lae and Salamaua on the northern coast of New Guinea began March 8, 1942. The Allied response was a bombing raid March 10 with 104 carrier aircraft launched south of New Guinea by USN Task Force 17 that included USS "Lexington" and USS "Yorktown." They were joined by land-based B-17 bombers from a field at Townsville, Australia. Thirteen of the 18 Japanese vessels targeted were damaged or sunk, including sinking of a cruiser, two destroyers and three transports. Only one American dive bomber was lost. The Japanese were now on notice that USN carriers were roaming unchallenged and could strike by surprise. It caused a postponement of the move against Port Morseby and spurred consideration of adding IJN fleet carriers to that operation. Other American carriers were then making surprise raids from Marcus Island to the Marshalls. All these actions fueled Japanese consideration of how to be rid of these annoying enemy carriers.