http://www.foxnews.com/opinion...-way-to-victory.html

First battle at sea where the opposing forces could not see each other.

We lost a fleet carrier, but turned the Japanese away from attacking Port Moresby.

Thanks for posting. A reminder of the debt owed to my parents generation.

Silent

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
We lost a fleet carrier, but turned the Japanese away from attacking Port Moresby.

We lost the Tanker Neosho, Destroyer Sims, and the large Carrier Lexington. We sank Light Carrier Shoho.

On paper, for the US it was a strategic victory (stopped the Japanese invasion of Moresby), but a tactical defeat (the Lex was more valuable to us than the Shoho, as we had fewer carriers in the Pacific than the Japanese).

HOWEVER, we also decimated the air groups of the large carriers Zuikaku and Shokaku, taking them out of the fight for months. So, at Midway next month, they only could put 4 carriers instead of 6 against our 3. Midway was a crushing disaster for the Japanese; they could never replace the experienced aircrews and personnel they lost, and that put them at a qualitative and quantative disadvantage for the remainder of the war.