The Battle of the Coral Sea spelled the first setback for the Japanese since the beginning of the Pacific War. More important, the Japanese broke off their invasion attempt. Each side suffered damage to a carrier, while the American lost the carrier USS Lexington (CV-3) and the Japanese lost the light carrier Shoho. On 7–8 May, the first carrier battle of the war took place in the Coral Sea. It was not until early May, when Admiral Inouye had three carriers available, that the operation was initiated. Nimitz, commander in chief, Pacific Fleet.įollowing an American carrier raid on Japanese shipping at Lae and Salamaua on 10 March, which demonstrated to Admiral Shigeyoshi Inouye, commander in chief, Fourth Fleet, that Japanese were not assured of air superiority in the region, the Japanese decided to postpone their planned seizure of Port Moresby. The intelligence centers provided their analysis, through daily COMINT briefings and warning reports, to senior American commanders, including Admiral Ernest J. More important, by translating messages and studying operational patterns, Melbourne and Hypo were able to predict future Japanese operations with some degree of certainty. These facilities intercepted Japanese radio communications and, through traffic analysis and codebreaking, uncovered the location of major fleet units and shore-based air forces. Fortunately, the station’s equipment could be destroyed and its cryptanalysts evacuated to Melbourne. forces there surrendered to the Japanese in 6 May. A third (“Cast”), at Cavite and then Corregidor in the Philippines, was lost when U.S. fleet radio-intercept units were in operation in the Pacific: one in Melbourne, Australia (FRUMEL-Fleet Radio Unit Melbourne), and another at Pearl Harbor ("Hypo" or FRUPAC-Fleet Radio Unit Pacific). By early March, with the seizure of Lae and Salamaua, the entire north coast of Papua/New Guinea had fallen to Japanese forces, who were planning for an amphibious invasion of Port Moresby.Īt this time, two U.S. In the Pacific, this plan envisioned the seizure of bases in Papua/New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, which would then be used to support future operations against New Caledonia, Fiji, and Samoa. The second phase, initiated by Japanese Imperial Headquarters on 23 January, was designed to isolate and neutralize Australia and India. The first phase of these operations, which was the seizure of Malaysia, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, and various island groups in the central and western Pacific, was virtually complete by March 1942. Strategic Background and the Role of Communications Intelligenceįollowing the outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941, the Japanese armed forces conducted military operations against U.S., British Commonwealth, and Dutch possessions in the Pacific and Southeast Asia.
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