Seventy yeas ago, the Japanese and navies of the United States and Australia fought the Battle of the Coral Sea in the waters southwest of the Solomon Islands and eastward from New Guinea in a series of naval battles from May 4-8, 1942.   It was the first of six major carrier battles in the Pacific in World War II and was also the first in which neither side’s ships sighted or fired directly upon the other.  A tactical victory for the Japanese, in the sense that they lost fewer ships, it was a strategic victory for the Allies who succeeded in stopping the Japanese advance for the first time since Pearl Harbor.  The Battle of the Coral Sea also denied the Japanese critical ships and planes that would contribute to its major loss in the Battle of Midway only a month later.

Battle of the Coral Sea, 7-8 May 1942