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... an intriguing side story: "Navy Had Word of Jap Plan to Strike at Sea."It was a fascinating, and detailed, description of much of what American intelligence knew beforehand of the enemy's fleet and plans. Indeed, it was too detailed. The report - 14 paragraphs long - suggested a secret U.S. intelligence coup, and became one of the biggest and potentially damaging news leaks of World War II. "This is the only time in American history that the United States government has ... taken steps toward prosecuting a member of the media under the Espionage Act," The story went on...

Dated May 25 and delivered by plane while the Yorktown was about a hundred miles from Oahu, the report that Nimitz read was sobering...One day ahead of schedule, on May 27, the Yorktown limped into Pearl Harbor. The next morning, after Nimitz had cut orders voiding the safety rule of spending a day purging her tanks of stored aviation fuel, the Yorktown eased into Drydock Number One. The caissons closed behind her, and pumps began draining out the water. With at least a foot of water still remaining in the drydock, men in waders gathered to inspect the hull. One...

Battle of the Coral Sea, (May 4–8, 1942) World War II naval and air engagement in which a U.S. fleet turned back a Japanese invasion force that had been heading for strategic Port Moresby in New Guinea. By the end of April 1942 the Japanese were ready to seize control of the Coral Sea (between Australia and New Caledonia) by establishing air bases at Port Moresby in southeastern New Guinea and at Tulagi in the southern Solomons. But Allied intelligence learned of the Japanese plan to seize Port Moresby and alerted all available sea and air power. When the Japanese...

World War II was less than six months old when the American public, already stunned by the debacles at Pearl Harbor and Guam, faced one of its darkest moments. Thousands of miles across the Pacific, the American commander in the Philippines, Maj. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, surrendered to the Japanese. But the tides of war often turn dramatically. Within 72 hours, American ships, planes, and sheer guts would turn gloom and despair into optimism and hope in a little-known portion of the South Pacific. The naval encounter in the Coral Sea, the lustrous waters bordering Australia’s northeast coast, would knock the...

The wreck of a US aircraft carrier that was sunk during World War Two has been found off the coast of Australia. The USS Lexington was found 3km (2 miles) underwater in the Coral Sea, about 800km off Australia's east coast. The ship was lost in the Battle of the Coral Sea, fought with Japan from 4-8 May 1942. More than 200 crew members died in the fighting. The US Navy confirmed the ship had been discovered by a search team led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Part I. The Pacific in Eruption. A segment on the WWII Battle of Coral Sea from the series War in the Pacific.

Battle of the Coral Sea - Lest We Forget The Coral Sea holds great historical significance for Australia and the United States. In May 1942, it was the scene of a naval battle that reversed the tide of World War II in the Pacific. The Protect Our Coral Sea campaign has produced an 8-minute documentary in honour of those who fought and died in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Special thanks to veterans Tommy Simms and Ted Simpson and their families and naval historian Dr David Stevens and everyone else involved with this documentary for their contribution.

The Battle of the Coral Sea was fought between the Japanese and Allied navies from May 4 through May 8, 1942 in the Coral Sea, about 500 miles northeast of Australia. Occurring only six months after the surprise Japanese attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and a month before the decisive battle at Midway, it was one of the first naval battles fought in the Pacific during World War II. The battle, roughly a draw, was an important turning point in the Pacific campaign. My uncle, Bill Leu, fought at the Battle of the Coral Sea on the...

Hope you have a nice Fourth of July. Maybe you'll watch the fireworks, grill a few hot dogs, give a little thanks to those keeping watch — now and then. Dave Cohea knows where he was on the Fourth of July in 1944: on board the USS Boston, which was shelling the island of Iwo Jima, softening it up for invasion the following spring. The Boston was Cohea's second ship, the first having been blasted out of the water 18 months earlier at Guadalcanal. "We were torpedoed. The ammo blew up, and fuel was all over me," says Cohea, 85,...

ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY MAJOR GENERAL MICHAEL JEFFERY AC CVO MC GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA ON THE OCCASION OF SERVICE OF COMMEMORATION OF THE BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA AUSTRALIAN-AMERICAN MEMORIAL, FIELD MARSHAL SIR THOMAS BLAMEY SQUARE, CANBERRA The recent discovery of HMAS SYDNEY after more than 66 years - with so many lives lost, so many grieving families - has been a poignant reminder, if one were needed, of the significance of Australian and United States naval operations in the Second World War. You will recall that in 1941, Australian divisions, fighter squadrons and naval units were...

Pete Mongilardi’s wife, Patricia Perrine, comforts their daughter, Julie Sims, as they talk about the man they lost more than 40 years ago. Bill Tiernan/The Virginian-Pilot The bones were broken and weathered, their edges softened by three decades of tropical rain: four pieces, the largest about 3 inches, tip to tip. They were mixed in the silty loam of a Vietnamese hillside with the wreckage of a Navy jet. Most of the debris had been dragged off by scavengers, but what remained included pieces of belt, parachute and boot sole. The pilot had not ejected.A team sifting through the...

A column by David Mittell in today’s Providence Journal caught my eye. It was devoted to enumerating John Kerry’s many deceits over the years -designed to advance his personal interest. As one who protested the Vietnam War long before it was fashionable (I wrote a scathing, open letter to President Johnson about the Haiphong bombings), I feel some authority to talk about the copperhead from Massachusetts and to gloat a little when I read a column like Mittell’s.

This Day In History | World War II May 3 1942 The Battle of the Coral Sea begins On this, the first day of the first modern naval engagement in history, called the Battle of the Coral Sea, a Japanese invasion force succeeds in occupying Tulagi of the Solomon Islands in an expansion of Japan's defensive perimeter. The United States, having broken Japan's secret war code and forewarned of an impending invasion of Tulagi and Port Moresby, attempted to intercept the Japanese armada. Four days of battles between Japanese and American aircraft carriers resulted in 70 Japanese and 66 Americans...

Allies Show Off Maritime Security Skills Sunday September 14, 2003 1:09 AM By MIKE CORDER Associated Press Writer ON BOARD HMAS SUCCESS (AP) - Japanese coast guardsmen slid down ropes from a helicopter to a cargo ship Saturday, during a high seas exercise showing rogue nations that the world is serious about preventing the transport of weapons of mass destruction. The maneuvers on the Coral Sea allowed the United States, Japan and Australia to fine tune moves to intercept ships suspected of carrying the deadly armaments. The exercises served as a special warning to North Korea and Iran because of...

PETER O'CONNOR Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia - Joint Australian-U.S. naval exercises scheduled for next month may be used to practice boarding vessels suspected of exporting weapons of mass destruction from rogue states, the Australian government said Monday. Officials from the United States, Australia, Japan and eight European countries - agreed in principle last month to begin training for high seas "interdictions" of ships believed to be carrying weapons of mass destruction. While officials here have not named any nations that would be targeted by such raids, North Korea is thought to be high on the list. No date has been...

Dear Lord, There's a young man far from home, called to serve his nation in time of war; sent to defend our freedom on some distant foreign shore. We pray You keep him safe, we pray You keep him strong, we pray You send him safely home ... for he's been away so long. There's a young woman far from home, serving her nation with pride. Her step is strong, her step is sure, there is courage in every stride. We pray You keep her safe, we pray You keep her strong, we pray You send her safely home...

Dear Lord, There's a young man far from home, called to serve his nation in time of war; sent to defend our freedom on some distant foreign shore. We pray You keep him safe, we pray You keep him strong, we pray You send him safely home ... for he's been away so long. There's a young woman far from home, serving her nation with pride. Her step is strong, her step is sure, there is courage in every stride. We pray You keep her safe, we pray You keep her strong, we pray You send her safely home...