Evening star., 1942-06-19

IOuS tue Ofty AHtCft tCuH fC
porter aboard the aircraft
carrier Lexington in the Coral
Sea bdttleJ
BY STANLEY JOHNSTON,
Foreisn Correspondent OF the Chicago
Tribune.
CHICAGO, June 19-In her last
fight the Lexington was not merely
on the receiving end of battle blows.
Her airmen, banding with those OF
the second carrier in our sea-borne
air force, delivered devastating left
hook, followed by a right cross to
the Japanese chin, almost at the
moment when the japanese were
showering their blitz upon us,
To land these blows the Lexing-
tons pilots and air gunners swept
through almost 200 miles of fierce,
continuous air combats. These were
proportionately more sanguinary
than the dueling I saw over Dover
and the Kentish coasts during the
now historic Battle of Britain in
1910.
And yet the fog of war, the rain
squalls of the hot and muggy Coral
Sea, and confusions in time and dis
tance-you must remember that in
this fight the Japanese and Amer
lean fleets Of ocean vessels never
came closer to each other than 180
miles-tend to obscure the true pic
ture of the effectiveness of our dive
bombers and torpedo planes.
Met Planes From Three Carriers.
The only real records available
for the deeds of the day are the re-
ports and memories of the gallant
boys who few away to do their jobs.
They say that at least three Japan
ese aircraft carriers opposed them in
the fighting that day, with more
than l60 japanese planes. And they
say-many.of them told me as much
within an hour after their return to
the Lexington from battle-that
they sank one of the carriers and
left another totally enveloped in
fierce flames. The least damage the
second carrier could have suffered
would have been a complete quitting.
These stories from the men whose
eyes had beheld the Japanese fleet
spread out below them as they dived
at $50 miles an hour to plant their
bombs on Nipponese carrier decks,
and whose fingers pressed the but
tons that sent streams of machine
gun bullets toward Zero tnavaD
fighters, indicate to me, at least,
that the Nays official communicates
are ultraconservative
The Japanese lost 63 planes that
day-about 80 per cent of the total
involved in both offensive and de-
fensive actions. We lost 16, three
times more than in any other of the
Coral Sea actions. OF these, II
were from the Lexington's squad
rons. The remainder fell from those
of the second carrier. which we Will
call United States Carrier II.
Certainly there were more air.
craft fighting over the Coral Sea
on that final day of the Lexington's
life than in any previous conflict be-
tween sea-borne air armadas. And
the fighting that occurred there
probably established pattern for
the brand-new chapter in Naval
history that aviation is opening.
Today'S story returns TO the morn
ing of May 8. We had observed the
presence of the second japanese
pincer prong on the evening of May
7, when nine Japanese planes tried
to alight on the Lexington's deck,
only to be driven off into rain
squalls by gunflre from the rest of
our feet. Their presence warned
us that We we're in for desperate
battle the next day.
Our scouts were off at dawn. They
made contact with the japanese at
$40 am. on May s. At $50 am.
our dive bombers and torpedo planes
with a small fighter escort took the
air to blast the Japs.
cannot sufficiently emphasize the
part the weather played in the Of
fensive efforts of our pilots on the
Lexington and those of United
States Carrier II. Overhead were
unusually woolly clouds. Under some
of them was a curtain of heavy rain.
These vapor pillars filled the sky to
overf1owing without, however, max
ing a solid layer.
The Japanese were fortunate in
being in an area of the sea where
there was an unusually large num-
Der of hard rainsqualls. These
served to screen parts of their ocean
fieet-one squadron of dozen heavy
dive bombers from the Lexington
never did find Japanese target and
returned without striking q blow.