With those few words Lieut. Commander Robert Dixon effectively ended the era of the battleship and ushered in the era of airpower for naval combat. This also marked the first major Japanese surface warship sank by the allies.

The morning of May 7 1942 brought much improved weather so both sides launched full loads of aircraft to search out the enemy. Both sides struck blows to one another that day. The Japanese first sunk the oiler Neosho and destroyer Sims. The US sunk the carrier Shoho. The battle was brewing up to turn into a major engagement. Japan had a numerical advantage over the allies and they also had experience on their side.

The Carriers Yorktown and Lexington were no match for the three Japanese carriers. Wasp and Enterprise were too far off to help and came upon the battle too late. Raids on May 6th from high flying B-17’s did little to slow the Japanese advance toward Port Moresby.


Although the fleets passed within 30 miles of one another they never saw each other. All of the combat took place be aircraft. All the damage inflected on each other was by aircraft. The allied fleet was hit hard and was hurting. Tomorrow would bring the decisive day of the battle.


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Images from Wikipedia