Michael Armstrong, Associate Professor of Operations Research in Brock’s Goodman School of Business, wrote a piece recently published in The Conversation about history’s first battle between aircraft carriers.

Armstrong writes:

In May 1942, the Second World War was expanding across the Pacific.

An Imperial Japanese navy invasion fleet was steaming toward Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. To protect that amphibious force, Japan sent the aircraft carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku to patrol the adjacent Coral Sea. The United States navy carriers Lexington and Yorktown sailed out to meet them.

The opposing carriers fought each other on May 8, 1942 in the Battle of the Coral Sea. American bomber aircraft heavily damaged Shokaku. The Japanese planes were more successful: Yorktown was disabled and Lexington eventually sank. (Its wreck was recently discovered.) However, the fierce fighting caused the Japanese invasion fleet to turn around. That saved Port Moresby.

This was the first carrier-versus-carrier battle in history. Tactically, it was a Japanese win. But preventing the invasion was a key success for the American-Australian alliance. The outcome also kept Shokaku and Zuikaku out of the decisive Battle of Midway one month later.

Consequently, the Battle of the Coral Sea is still commemorated in Australia and the U.S. each year.

Continue reading the full article here.