珊瑚海战役

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珊瑚海海战
第二次世界大战, 太平洋战争之一部份
1942年5月8日巡洋舰明尼阿波利斯号上的船员拍摄到列克星顿号发生爆炸
日期： 1942年5月4日 - 1942年5月8日 地点： 澳大利亚、新几内亚及所罗门群岛之间的珊瑚海 結果： 日本战术性胜利 联军战略性胜利 起因： {{{casus}}} 領土變更： {{{territory}}}
參戰方
美国, 澳大利亚	日本
指揮官
切斯特·尼米兹 弗兰克·弗莱彻	井上成美 高木武雄 五藤存知
兵力
2艘重型航空母舰“列克星敦”号、“约克城”号, 3艘巡洋舰	2艘重型航空母舰“瑞鹤”号、“祥鹤”号, 1艘轻型航空母舰“祥鳳”号, 4艘巡洋舰
傷亡
1艘重型航空母舰 “列克星敦”号, 1艘驱逐舰, 1艘油船, 543人阵亡	1艘轻型航空母舰 “祥鳳”号, 1艘驱逐舰, 1,074人阵亡

珊瑚海战役于1942年春季进行，是太平洋战争的一个重要转折点。这是第一次有航空母舰参与的海战，是第一次双方舰队在视线距离外进行的海战，也是第一次双方战舰没向敌军战舰开火的海战。这次的交锋并没有对双方的战力造成太大的损伤，不仅如此，双方还从这战役中得到了宝贵的经验，并为一个月后的中途岛海战拉开了序幕。

目录 1 战前背景 2 大战开始 3 战后结果 4 参看条目 5 外部链接 6 参考文献

[编辑] 战前背景

1942年初，日本皇军在的短短几个月内，就占领了整个东南亚。这时日本皇军的军力可说是如日中天。相反的，美国及她的盟友屡战屡败。这时的联军正积极的从失败中学习，囤积军备，准备在适当的时候对日本做出反击。联军这时的战略便是尽快提升美国陆军及美国海军陆战队在新喀里多尼亚岛（所罗门群岛以南）上的兵力，同时也提升澳大利亚陆军及澳大利亚皇家空军在新几内亚以南和以东的军力。

3月12日日本内阁首相及陆军大臣东条英机说：

澳大利亚和新西兰正受到日本皇军的威胁。她们应该知道任何反抗都是枉然的。如果澳大利亚政府仍坚决不改变对日本的态度，她将遭受与荷属东印度同样的命运。[1]

1942年4月，日本舰队驶离位于新不列颠岛拉包尔（Rabaul）的基地，向新几内亚岛东南端的莫尔兹比港和位于所罗门群岛南部的图拉吉岛进行登陆作战。日军这次的两面夹攻主要目的有三个：第一，控制拥有水上飞机基地的所罗门群岛及周围海域。第二，攻克莫尔兹比港（此港是联军在日本与澳大利亚之间的最后一个联军基地）。第三，希望在达成第一和第二个目标之后，能迫使美国的航空母舰编队加入战局，因此而有机会将其歼灭。

关于日本人的长期意图，历史学家之间存在分歧。问题在于日本计划极大的增强所罗门群岛，坚持以它作为堡垒，抵抗未来美国的任何反击，并且可能随后试图占领南太平洋的其他群岛，以使澳大利亚从美国当中孤立出来。但是在当时还没有入侵澳大利亚的计划。事实上，日本人的军事计划结构复杂，区域职责划分不明确，被陆军和海军之间不断的激烈的争吵所拖累。关于日本人在南太平洋的长期计划，目前只有一个可信的推论：无论战略如何，制定海军未来的前景，对于一个陆军计划方案是一种挑战。

Three Japanese fleets set sail: the invasion forces for the Solomons and Port Moresby, and a covering force of two large new aircraft carriers (Shokaku and Zuikaku, both veterans of the Pearl Harbor), the smaller carrier Shoho, two heavy cruisers, and supporting craft. Alerted by radio intercepts, the Allies knew that Japanese land-based aircraft were being moved south and an operation was impending. In opposition were three main fleets: USS Yorktown (CV-5) already in the Coral Sea under the command of Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, USS Lexington (CV-2) en route, and a joint Allied surface fleet. The carriers USS Hornet (CV-8) and USS Enterprise (CV-6) were heading south, after the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, but arrived too late to take part in the battle.

[编辑] 大战开始

Lexington arrived to join Yorktown on May 1st. The Japanese occupied Tulagi without incident on May 3rd, and construction of a seaplane base began. After fuelling, Yorktown closed on Tulagi and, on May 4, launched three successful strikes against Japanese shipping and aircraft there — revealing the presence of an American carrier to the enemy, but sinking the destroyer Kikuzuki, crippling the island's seaplane reconnaissance capability, and damaging other vessels, before retiring to the south to rendezvous with the Lexington and the newly-arrived cruisers. Meanwhile, the two large Japanese carriers were approaching from south of the Solomons — neatly placing the Allied fleet between the two Japanese fleets.

Land-based B-17's attacked the gradually-approaching Port Moresby invasion fleet on May 6, with the usual lack of success. Almost another year would pass before air forces realized that high-level bombing raids upon moving naval targets were pointless. Although both carrier fleets flew extensive searches on the 6th, cloudy weather kept them hidden from each other, and the two fleets spent the night only 70 miles apart. Other allied aircraft joined the battle, from airbases at Cooktown and Iron Range on Cape York Peninsula Australia.

That night Fletcher, mindful that his primary role was to protect Port Moresby, took the difficult decision to detach the Allies' main surface fleet, under the Australian Rear Admiral John Crace, to block the probable course of an invasion fleet. Crace's force consisted of the cruisers HMAS Australia, USS Chicago, HMAS Hobart, and the destroyers USS Perkins, USS Walke and USS Farragut. Fletcher and Crace knew that exposing surface ships to attack by land-based aircraft, without air cover was to risk a repeat of the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse five months before. Their fears were realised when the cruisers were located by a squadron of Japanese torpedo bombers, and came under intense air attack, on the afternoon of May 7. Whether as a result of luck or skill, the Allied ships escaped with few casualties and little damage. Only a matter of minutes after the Japanese raid, Crace's force was inadvertently attacked by friendly B-17s, and Farragut and Perkins once again survived narrow misses.

On the 7th, both fleets flew off all available aircraft, but neither found the main body of the other, and both mistakenly attacked subsidiary forces. Japanese aircraft found and attacked the US fleet oiler USS Neosho (AO-23) and the escorting destroyer USS Sims (DD-409), mistaking them for a carrier and a cruiser. Sims was sunk, while Neosho was crippled. Meanwhile, the US aircraft had missed Shokaku and Zuikaku but found the invasion fleet, in company with the small carrier Shoho, which was soon sunk. In the previous five months, the Allies had lost a dozen battleships and carriers, and had been unable to sink a single major Japanese unit in return. Shoho was small by carrier standards, but the laconic "scratch one flattop", radioed back to the Lexington, brought news of the first Allied naval success of the Pacific war.

Finally, with dawn searches on May 8, the main carrier forces located one another, and launched maximum effort raids, which passed each other in the air. Hidden by rain, Zuikaku escaped detection, but Shokaku was hit three times by bombs. Listing, and on fire, Shokaku was unable to land her aircraft, and effectively, was put out of action.

Both American carriers were hit by the Japanese strike: Yorktown by a bomb; the larger, less maneuverable Lexington, by both bombs and torpedoes. Although she survived the immediate damage, and was thought to be repairable, leaking aviation fuel exploded a little over an hour later. The Lexington had to be abandoned and torpedoed, to prevent her capture.

Crace's force continued to stand between the invasion force, and Port Moresby. Inoue was misled by returning fliers' reports, as to the strength of the Allied cruiser-destroyer force, and ordered the invasion fleet to return. With Shokaku damaged and Zuikaku short of aircraft, neither was able to take part in the crucial Battle of Midway a month later. The damaged Yorktown returned to Pearl Harbor.

[编辑] 战后结果

In tactical terms, the Japanese had had a narrow victory: one small carrier lost and a large carrier damaged, against the loss of a large carrier and equivalent damage to another. But from the Allied point of view, after five months of continuous defeat, a battle that came out almost even was close enough to a victory as not to matter.

The seaborne invasion of Port Moresby was averted. Moresby was vital to Allied strategy, and could not have been defended by the ground forces then stationed there. Without a toehold in New Guinea, the subsequent Allied advance, difficult though it was, would have been much harder still. As a result of the Coral Sea battle, the Japanese were forced to attempt taking Moresby overland. The consequent delay was just long enough to permit the arrival of veteran AIF soldiers to fight the Kokoda Track campaign and the Battle of Milne Bay, which in turn relieved pressure on US forces at the Battle of Guadalcanal.

The US Navy learned a great deal from the Battle of the Coral Sea. From the loss of Lexington, the Navy learned better ways to contain aviation fuel, and control defensive fighter aircraft; from the attacks on the Japanese carriers, it learned more about coordination of dive-bombers and torpedo bombers to best effect (too late to help with Midway, but of value longer-term), and, perhaps most importantly of all, it learned that the Japanese could perhaps be beaten.

The loss of Lexington was a severe blow, but in time, the US was able to replace the ship, aircraft, and trained crew with others, superior in all respects. The damage to Yorktown was estimated to require months in port, but in a miracle of improvisation, she was made more-or-less battle-worthy after just three days in Pearl, and was then able to play a vital part in the most important battle of the Pacific war: Midway.

Although Zuikaku was only slightly damaged, with only 40 aircraft left, she was in no condition to fight, and had to return to Japan to replenish. Shokaku took six months to repair. Neither carrier was able to take part in the crucial battle of Midway—a very close-fought encounter that either carrier may have been able to have turned.

Less directly but no less significantly, the loss of highly-trained aircrew from the Japanese carriers was never to be made up. Prior to the battles of the Coral Sea and (even more so) Midway, Japanese naval aviation was unchallengeable in two oceans. Long years of hard peace-time training, and real-life exercises against the hapless Chinese, and the scarcely less-hapless Western Allies, had honed an elite group of flyers. Japan could manufacture plenty of replacement aircraft, and at least a few replacement carriers, but could not replace the most skilled naval pilots in the world. From this point on, Japanese naval aviation began to decline.

[编辑] 参看条目

• Coral Sea Order of Battle
• 中途岛海战
• Axis naval activity in Australian waters
• Planned invasion of Australia during World War II
• Christmas Island Invasion
• USS Coral Sea (aircraft carrier)

[编辑] 外部链接

• Australian War Memorial: Battle of the Coral Sea awm.gov.au
• The Battle of the Coral Sea — 4-8 May 1942 ww2pacific.com
• Naval Historical Center: Battle of the Coral Sea, 7-8 May 1942 history.navy.mil
• Hyperwar: The Coral Sea ibiblio.org

[编辑] 参考文献

• Don Sinclair. Cooktown at War: A Record of Activities in Cooktown During World War II. Cooktown and District Historical Society. (1997).