 Ryūjō and her escorts were the first Japanese ships spotted and sunk by the Americans later that morning, but Zuikaku and Shōkaku were not spotted until the afternoon. Shortly before an unsuccessful attack by the pair of Douglas SBD Dauntlesses conducting the search, the sisters launched half of their dive bombers to attack the American carriers Enterprise and Saratoga. Most of the American carrier aircraft were already airborne by this time, either on CAP, returning from search missions, or from sinking Ryūjō, so only a small airstrike was launched in response to the spot report. About an hour after the first Japanese airstrike took off, a second airstrike that included the rest of the dive bombers was launched, but their target location was mistaken and they failed to find the Americans. The first airstrike attacked the two American carriers, scoring one hit on the battleship USS North Carolina and three hits on Enterprise, but they were mauled by the large number of airborne American aircraft and heavy anti-aircraft fire. Uncertain of the damage inflicted on each other, both sides disengaged later that evening.
