page_title: Battle of the Coral Sea
section_title: Midway
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of the Coral Sea / Significance / Midway
caption_attribution_description: English: The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5) in Dry Dock No. 1 at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, 29 May 1942, receiving urgent repairs for damage received in the Battle of Coral Sea. She left Pearl Harbor the next day to participate in the Battle of Midway. USS West Virginia (BB-48), sunk in the 7 December 1941 Japanese air attack, is being salvaged in the left distance.
context_page_description: The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the battle is historically significant as the first action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other and the first in which the opposing ships neither sighted nor fired directly upon one another.
  In an attempt to strengthen their defensive position in the South Pacific, the Japanese decided to invade and occupy Port Moresby and Tulagi. The plan, Operation Mo, involved several major units of Japan's Combined Fleet. They included two fleet carriers and a light carrier to provide air cover for the invasion forces, under the overall command of Admiral Shigeyoshi Inoue.
  The US learned of the Japanese plan through signals intelligence and sent two US Navy carrier task forces and a joint Australian-American cruiser force to oppose the offensive, under the overall command of US Admiral Frank J. Fletcher.
context_section_description: One of the most significant effects of the Coral Sea battle was the loss of Shōkaku and Zuikaku to Yamamoto for his planned battle in the air with the U.S. carriers at Midway (Shōhō was to have been employed at Midway in a tactical role supporting the Japanese invasion ground forces). The Japanese believed that they sank two carriers in the Coral Sea, but this still left at least two more U.S. Navy carriers, Enterprise and Hornet, which could help defend Midway. The aircraft complement of the U.S. carriers was larger than that of their Japanese counterparts, which, when combined with the land-based aircraft at Midway, meant that the Combined Fleet no longer enjoyed a significant numerical aircraft superiority over the U.S. Navy for the impending battle. In fact, the U.S. would have three carriers to oppose Yamamoto at Midway, because, despite the damage the ship suffered during the Coral Sea battle, Yorktown was able to return to Hawaii. Although estimates were that the damage would take two weeks to repair, Yorktown put to sea only 48 hours after entering drydock at Pearl Harbor, which meant that she was available for the next confrontation with the Japanese. At Midway, Yorktown's aircraft played crucial roles in sinking two Japanese fleet carriers. Yorktown also absorbed both Japanese aerial counterattacks at Midway which otherwise would have been directed at Enterprise and Hornet.
  In contrast to the strenuous efforts by the U.S. to employ the maximum forces available for Midway, the Japanese apparently did not even consider trying to include Zuikaku in the operation. No effort appears to have been made to combine the surviving Shōkaku aircrews with Zuikaku's air groups or to quickly provide Zuikaku with replacement aircraft so she could participate with the rest of the Combined Fleet at Midway. Shōkaku herself was unable to conduct further aircraft operations, with her flight deck heavily damaged, and she required almost three months of repair in Japan.
  Historians H. P. Willmott, Jonathan Parshall, and Anthony Tully believe Yamamoto made a significant strategic error in his decision to support MO with strategic assets. Since Yamamoto had decided the decisive battle with the U.S. was to take place at Midway, he should not have diverted any of his important assets, especially fleet carriers, to a secondary operation like MO. Yamamoto's decision meant Japanese naval forces were weakened just enough at both the Coral Sea and Midway battles to allow the Allies to defeat them in detail. Willmott adds, if either operation was important enough to commit fleet carriers, then all of the Japanese carriers should have been committed to each in order to ensure success. By committing crucial assets to MO, Yamamoto made the more important Midway operation dependent on the secondary operation's success.
  Moreover, Yamamoto apparently missed the other implications of the Coral Sea battle: the unexpected appearance of U.S. carriers in exactly the right place and time (due to cryptanalysis) to effectively contest the Japanese, and U.S. Navy carrier aircrews demonstrating sufficient skill and determination to do significant damage to the Japanese carrier forces. These would be repeated at Midway, for the same reason, and as a result, Japan lost four fleet carriers, the core of her naval offensive forces, and thereby lost the strategic initiative in the Pacific War. Parshall and Tully point out that, due to U.S. industrial strength, once Japan lost its numerical superiority in carrier forces as a result of Midway, Japan could never regain it. Parshall and Tully add, "The Battle of the Coral Sea had provided the first hints that the Japanese high-water mark had been reached, but it was the Battle of Midway that put up the sign for all to see."
caption: Yorktown in drydock at Pearl Harbor on 29 May 1942, shortly before departing for Midway
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