The Fall of Burma
After the fall of Rangoon in early March 1942, the remaining RAF and AVG aircraft withdrew to Magwe airfield in central Burma, from where they hoped to give what air cover they could to the […]
History
Coral Sea: After Action Report
Famously, the Battle of the Coral Sea was the first naval action where the opposition ships never saw each other. All of the offensive action was carried out by aircraft, particularly the carrier bombers of […]
Coral Sea: The Attack on Task Force 17
As Fletcher’s Task Force 17 was launching its strike on the MO Striking Force, RAdm Chuichi Hara was likewise sending his fliers out to hit the American carriers. The Zuikaku and Shokaku launched seven B5Ns […]
Coral Sea: The Shokaku Attack
During the night of the 7th/8th, MO Striking Force was ordered to sail closer to the MO Invasion Force in order to give it additional support following the loss of the Shoho. VAdm Takeo Takagi […]
Coral Sea: Searching for the Enemy
As part of Task Force 17, Admiral Frank J. Fletcher had been provided with a force of cruisers and destroyers from General MacArthur’s Australia-based naval contingent. These ships – the cruisers USS Chicago, HMAS Australia […]
The Sims and the Neosho
Task Force 17 was not the only carrier force to be striking the enemy on the 7th of May. The Japanese MO Striking Force, tasked with supporting the MO Invasion Force as it approached Port […]
The Action off Misima
Having completed his attack on Tulagi, Admiral Fletcher spent most of the 5th of May organising his forces and refuelling his ships, prior to the expected confrontation with the Japanese. His carriers, Yorktown and Lexington, […]
The Tulagi Raid
The Japanese, having completed their conquest of the Netherlands East Indies and Malaya, began to look at activating second-stage operations that would help to secure the perimeter of their new possessions. In April 1942 the […]
In Defence of Port Moresby
After Rabaul had been captured by the Japanese, Australian forces attempted to consolidate positions on the south coast of New Guinea, particularly at the capital of Port Moresby. With the most skilled and experienced Australian […]
The Doolittle Raid
In December 1941, with the shock of Pearl Harbor still evident, many senior commanders in the United States expressed a desire to hit back directly at Japan. President Roosevelt himself was amongst the first to […]