page_title: Battle of the Coral Sea
section_title: References
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of the Coral Sea / References
caption_attribution_description: English: Damage in the port forward 127 mm gun gallery aboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2), from a Japanese bomb that struck near the gallery's after end during the Battle of the Coral Sea, 8 May 1942. View looks aft, with the damaged number four 127 mm/25 gun in the foreground, trained to port and aft. The gun crew was killed by the explosion.
context_page_description: The Battle of the Coral Sea was a battle fought during 4–8 May 1942. It was a major naval battle in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. The battle was between the Japanese Navy and Allied naval and air forces from the United States and Australia. The battle was the first battle between aircraft carriers. It was also the first naval battle in which the warships of neither side actually saw the warships of the other side. Instead, each side sent planes to attack the ships of the other side.
  Japanese forces made a plan to invade and occupy Port Moresby in New Guinea and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands. When the U.S. discovered this plan, it sent two Navy aircraft carrier groups and a combined Australian–American cruiser force.
  On 3–4 May, Japanese forces invaded and occupied Tulagi. The Japanese aircraft carriers entered the Coral Sea to try to destroy the Allied naval forces.
  On 7 May, the carrier forces from the two sides sent planes to attack the ships of the other side. The first day, the U.S. sank the Japanese light carrier Shōhō, while the Japanese sank a U.S. destroyer.
context_section_description: Parker, p. 3, Millot, pp. 12–13.
  Murray, pp. 169–195; Willmott (1982), p. 435; Willmott (2002), pp. 3–8; Millot, pp. 12–13; Henry, p. 14; Morison, p. 6.
  United States Army Center of Military History (USACMH) (Vol II), p. 127; Parker, p. 5; Frank, pp. 21–22; Willmott (1983), pp. 52–53, Willmott (2002), pp. 10–13; Hayashi, pp. 42–43; Dull, p. 122–125; Millot, pp. 24–27; D'Albas, pp. 92–93; Henry, pp. 14–15; Morison, p. 10; Parshall, pp. 27–29. The Senshi Sōshō does not mention Inoue's role in the decision to invade Port Moresby, only stating it was a product of an agreement between the IJN and IJA in January 1942 (Bullard, p. 49).
  Gill, p. 39, Hoyt, pp. 8–9; Willmott (1983), p. 84; Willmott (2002), pp. 12–13 & 16–17; Hayashi, pp. 42–43 & 50–51; Dull, pp. 122–125; Millot, pp. 27–31; Lundstrom (2006), p. 138; Bullard, p. 50; Parshall, pp. 27–29 & 31–32.
  Jersey, p. 57, Willmott (2002), pp. 16–17, Dull, pp. 122–124; Lundstrom (2006), pp. 121–122; D'Albas, p. 94; Morison, p. 11; Parshall, pp. 57–59.
  Parker, pp. 20–22; Willmott, (2002), pp. 21–22; Parshall, p. 60. For unknown reasons, the IJN delayed changing the RO code from 1 April to 1 to 27 May 1942 (Wilmott, pp. 21–22; Lundstrom (2006), p. 119).
  Prados, p. 301.
  Parker, p. 24; Prados, pp. 302–303; Hoyt, p. 7; Willmott (2002), pp. 22–25; Lundstrom, Pearl Harbor to Midway, p. 167; Cressman, p. 83; Millot, pp. 31–32; Lundstrom (2006), pp. 121–122, 125, & 128–129; Henry, pp. 14–15; Holmes, pp. 69–72; Morison, pp. 11–13; Parshall, pp. 60–61; Crave, p. 447. The British radio interception station was at Colombo on Ceylon (Lundstrom). The U.S. mistakenly believed (in part due to erroneous transliteration of the characters of her name) that Shōhō was a previously unknown fleet carrier, Ryūkaku, with 84 aircraft (Holmes, p. 70). A Japanese prisoner captured at the Battle of Midway informed the U.S. of the correct reading of the carrier's kanji and identified her as actually a light carrier (Lundstrom and Morison, p. 11). The Japanese apparently had not developed cipher codes for several of the islands in the Louisiade Archipelago and thus transmitted the island names in Katakana in the clear, making it easier for the Americans to decipher the meaning of the messages (Holmes, p. 65). According to Parker (pp. 22–23), MacArthur refused to believe the radio intelligence forecasts of the MO operation and did not acknowledge that the Japanese were attempting to invade Port Moresby until his reconnaissance aircraft actually sighted Japanese ships approaching the Louisiades and New Guinea in the first week of May.
  Lundstrom, Pearl Harbor to Midway, pp. 135–153, 163–167, Willmott (2002), pp. 25–26; Hoyt, pp. 15–19; Cressman, pp. 83–84; Millot, pp. 32–34; Lundstrom (2006), pp. 126–127; Henry, p. 15.
  Willmott (2002), pp. 25–26; Lundstrom (2006), p. 139; Spector, p. 157.
  Hashimoto (1954), p. 54; Hackett and Kingsepp "RO-33" and "RO-34".
  Bullard, p. 65, Hoyt, p. 8, Dull, pp. 124–125; D'Albas, p. 110; Gill, p. 42; Jersey, p. 58; Hayashi, pp. 50–51; Lundstrom (2006), p. 138; Cressman, p. 93; D'Albas, p. 94; Bullard, p. 147; Rottman, p 84. The South Seas Detachment was commanded by Major General Tomitarō Horii (United States Army Center of Military History (USACMH) (Vol 1), p. 47). Rottman states that the South Seas Detachment included 4,886 total troops including the 55th Infantry Group and 144th Infantry Regiment from the 55th Division, 47th Field Anti-Aircraft Battalion, and attached medical and water supply support units. Senshi Sōshō only lists nine transports by name (Bullard, pp. 56–57).
  McCarthy, pp. 82, 112; Willmott (1983), p. 143. McCarthy does not give exact numbers, but states that 1,000 troops, including an infantry battalion, were at Port Moresby in December 1941 and that two more battalions arrived the next month. Willmott (p. 143) states that 4,250 troops were delivered on 3 January 1942 bringing the Port Moresby garrison to three infantry battalions, one field artillery battalion, and a battery of anti-aircraft guns.
  USACMH (Vol 1), p. 48.
  Jersey, pp. 58–60; Dull, p. 124.
  Millot, p.
caption: Damage to Lexington 5-inch (130 mm) gun gallery
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