Coral Sea 1942: Turning the Tide by Richard Freeman

Author:Richard Freeman [Freeman, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2020-01-24T00:00:00+00:00

12. Target Lexington

It was 09.32 when Lexington found the first radar tracks of Japanese planes at a distance of 39 miles on 8 May. She reported incoming ‘strange aircraft’ to her defence screen. Ten minutes later the ships went to General Quarters. On the Portland her battle stations were manned by 09.43 and control of the ship had been switched from the bridge to the cramped and claustrophobic conning tower. One minute later the Astoria was in condition ZED, with all her watertight does locked down. Yorktown’s radar now picked up the approaching threat with more aircraft on a different bearing and at 34 miles. A few minutes later both carriers took in their air patrol fighters launched earlier in the day. Yorktown launched four new patrol fighters under the code names Brown and Orange. (Lexington would use Red and White. Individual patrol pilots would have code names such as Doris Red or Agnes White.)

By 10.00 the two carriers began to experience a problem that would trouble them all day. Three incoming aircraft had been seen on the radar. Both Lexington and Yorktown sent planes to investigate. Four minutes later the planes were a perilous 15 miles from the carriers. On Yorktown work began on draining parts of the fuel system in anticipation of an attack. Then came the news from the Fighter Director that the enemy planes were actually Lexington’s returning scouts. Only three minutes later the same confusion began again. This time Lexington had a torpedo plane coming in at the same time that Yorktown was reporting incoming Zeros. In response Lexington launched six more bombers and scouts. One of Yorktown’s fighters then came on the radio with an ‘all stations’ alert of a Japanese seaplane bomber. Doris Red from Lexington was sent to investigate, but warned not to get out of formation. One minute later the seaplane was in flames, corkscrewing its way down to the ocean. Yorktown concluded that it had been shadowing the carriers for some time, but had not been on a bombing mission. Although only one enemy plane had come near enough to be shot at, there was still some jumpiness on Yorktown. The Fighter Director, Lieutenant Commander Oscar Pederson, radioed to Lexington to ask whether she wanted more fighters launched. Lexington, less jumpy, replied ‘Standby X Don’t launch additional combat patrol yet.’ (‘X’ in a signal is the equivalent of ‘STOP’ in a British telegram.)

More fighters were launched by 10.30 into the clear blue sky with its unlimited visibility. A few clouds scudded overhead in the 15 knot wind. It was perfect weather for finding incoming planes, but also ideal weather for the enemy to locate the carriers.

The confusion in the air continued as planes came back to the carriers or wandered off station. Then came a more serious sighting at 10.32: ‘unidentified aircraft’ at 82 miles. Five minutes later the message was strengthened to ‘many planes’. By 10.55 the ‘many’ had become ‘a very large group’. On the Lexington Captain Sherman reminded Johnston that the planes had arrived at exactly the time that he had predicted.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.