Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942...
Item # 725657
May 10, 1942
THE NEW YORK TIMES, May 10, 1942
* Battle of the Coral Sea - U.S. victory ?
* Imperial Japanese verses United States Navy
* USS Lexington aircraft carrier sinking fame
* First ever naval battle with aircraft carriers
The top of the front page has a five column headline: "U. S. FLEET HUNTS BATTERED ENEMY" with subheads. (see images) More on page 3.
Complete 1st section only with all 46, rag edition in nice condition.
Background: On May 9, 1942, both the United States and Japan issued claims about the outcome of the Battle of the Coral Sea that reflected their differing perspectives and propaganda aims. The U.S. framed the engagement as a strategic victory despite suffering the loss of the carrier USS Lexington and damage to USS Yorktown, emphasizing that the battle had halted the Japanese seaborne advance on Port Moresby, thereby protecting Australia and weakening Japan’s carrier strength for future operations like Midway. Japanese reports, particularly via Radio Tokyo and contemporary newspapers, initially claimed a more decisive success, exaggerating U.S. losses by asserting that two carriers and a battleship had been sunk, though in reality only Lexington was lost and Yorktown damaged; from a tactical standpoint, they had inflicted significant damage, but strategically, the battle forced them to abandon or delay their invasion plans. Historians now largely agree that while Japan achieved limited tactical gains, the overall strategic outcome favored the Allies, marking Coral Sea as the first major check on Japanese expansion in the Pacific, even if on May 9 contemporaneous Japanese claims suggested otherwise.
* Battle of the Coral Sea - U.S. victory ?
* Imperial Japanese verses United States Navy
* USS Lexington aircraft carrier sinking fame
* First ever naval battle with aircraft carriers
The top of the front page has a five column headline: "U. S. FLEET HUNTS BATTERED ENEMY" with subheads. (see images) More on page 3.
Complete 1st section only with all 46, rag edition in nice condition.
Background: On May 9, 1942, both the United States and Japan issued claims about the outcome of the Battle of the Coral Sea that reflected their differing perspectives and propaganda aims. The U.S. framed the engagement as a strategic victory despite suffering the loss of the carrier USS Lexington and damage to USS Yorktown, emphasizing that the battle had halted the Japanese seaborne advance on Port Moresby, thereby protecting Australia and weakening Japan’s carrier strength for future operations like Midway. Japanese reports, particularly via Radio Tokyo and contemporary newspapers, initially claimed a more decisive success, exaggerating U.S. losses by asserting that two carriers and a battleship had been sunk, though in reality only Lexington was lost and Yorktown damaged; from a tactical standpoint, they had inflicted significant damage, but strategically, the battle forced them to abandon or delay their invasion plans. Historians now largely agree that while Japan achieved limited tactical gains, the overall strategic outcome favored the Allies, marking Coral Sea as the first major check on Japanese expansion in the Pacific, even if on May 9 contemporaneous Japanese claims suggested otherwise.
Category: World War II
