War Time: WWII

First Allied naval victory in the Pacific comes at a terrible cost, of two American aircraft carriers: USS Lexington sunk, USS Yorktown crippled by Japanese bombers.

Japanese Navy have lost an aircraft carrier, smaller warships & almost 1000 men; but for first time since the war in the Pacific began, their "irresistible" tide of conquest has been forced back.

After days of desperate air battles over the Coral Sea, Japanese invasion fleet is abandoning plan to attack Allied base of Port Moresby & retreating north.

Coral Sea air battle is one of chaos & confusion, as Japanese & Allied bombers hunt for, misidentify, & attack enemy warships almost at random.

Shōhō ("Lucky Phoenix") is the first Japanese aircraft carrier ever sunk; 600+ crew are dead to bombs, fire, or drowning.

US torpedo bombers have sunk Japanese aircraft carrier Shōhō in the Coral Sea; Navy pilot Robert Dixon radios: "Scratch one flat top!"

For first time in history, two enemy fleets in the Coral Sea are fighting not with warships, but with planes, in a dramatic aerial battle of dogfights & bombing runs.

Japanese & US Navies continue their long-range duel in the Coral Sea, launching fleets of warplanes against each other:

American Colonel Mellnik is one of 11,000 captives from Corregidor: "The silence after the surrender was worse than the shelling. It's uncanny, awful."