I don’t know a lot about the battle. I know we lost a little more than the Japs but we stopped them from maybe invading Australia.
I do think it was important that the American Navy was the first to show they could stand up to the Japanese Navy.
We lost the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Lexington and the destroyer Hammond. They lost a carrier too.And I believe the cruiser ‘’Mikuma’’.But you’re right, it convinced the Japs to abandon plans to invade Australia.
It was a tactical defeat but a strategic victory. We lost more ships but stopped them from advancing, which until that time, seemed like no one could.
In the middle of this, Corregidor surrendered. I always wondered if MacArthur had not screwed up so badly, we might have eventually been able to reinforce/rescue those guys. (If the U.S. hadn't of needed a hero at that time, Mac would have been court-martialed for all his blunders.)
Time to dredge up that bitter bit of doggerel those abandoned guys said:
We're the battling bastards of Bataan
No mamma, no pappa, no Uncle Sam
No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces,
No pills, no planes, no artillery pieces,
And nobody gives a damn!