The Battle of Coral Sea was next on the Lexington's radar. She and TF 17 spotted an enemy task force sent to escort a New Guinea invasion force tasked with the capture of Port Moresby. Port Moresby would serve the Japanese Army and Navy well as a stepping stone to the ultimate invasion of the Australian mainland. The carrier force was counting on an Allied response to the invasion force and was to attack such a response from the vulnerable rear, crushing the attempt in the process. The Japanese Task Force included the light carrier IJN Shoho and the large carriers IJN Shokaku and IJN Zuikaku. USS Lexington and USS Yorktown formed the backbone of the American force ready to match metal for metal.
Bad weather persisted from May 5th to May 6th, to which neither force spotted one another. All that changed on the 7th however as the Japanese invasion force was located. The Americans responded by launching two-thirds of their planes thinking that the Japanese carriers were also among the group of transports. This forced a change of course for the Japanese invasion force but left the IJN Shoho as the primary target to the incoming Allied attack. All she could make do with were her close-range anti-aircraft guns and a small contingent of just 21 aircraft. While the Lexington's aircraft were repelled in the subsequent action by the force of ships, Yorktown's wave hit the Shoho with no less than thirteen 1,000lb bombs, several torpedoes and one crashing SBD Dauntless (her two-man crew was killed in the process). Amazingly, the Americans lost just three aircraft in the fray.
May 8th saw each carrier group only 200 miles apart and both spotted the other in turn, launching their warplanes. Shokaku was hit twice by USS Yorktown dive-bombers, one bomb disabling the launch deck and essentially taking her out of the fight. USS Lexington's aircraft arrived late but an aviator managed a hit to Shokaku to worsen the damage. While she survived the battle, she lost most of her air group at Coral Sea.
On the other side of the battlefield, a 69-strong Japanese aircraft group appeared and laid a direct hit on Yorktown but the resulting destruction was not overly critical to operations. At the same time, Japanese aircraft engaged Lexington and hit her squarely with two torpedoes along her forward portside bow. Simultaneously, Japanese dive-bombers swooped in and managed two direct hits on her from above - one on the funnel structure and one on the forward portside flight deck. The attack jammed the Lexington's elevator in the raised position but her flightdeck was left intact.
The direct blasts and near misses of the Japanese bombs and torpedoes did more internal damage than initially noted. The ripple effect of the explosions had jarred aviation fuel tanks under her flightdeck that, though the internal fires had been put out by crews, the explosive gasses still permeated about the confines of the ship. Approximately an hour after the initial explosions were felt, a seemingly random spark occurred somewhere in the ship, in turn igniting the potent gasses, causing a series of explosions to ripple about the vessel and fires broke out. The ship listed to port and billowed smoke.
Realizing the Lexington was most likely a loss, the remaining aircraft were ordered to fly to their new home aboard the USS Yorktown. Lexington herself was subsequently abandoned per captain's order at 17:00 hours and ultimately done in by two torpedoes from the destroyer USS Phelps to prevent her capture by the enemy. In true honorable fashion, the last persons to leave the ship were Captain Frederick Carl Sherman and his Executive Officer, Commander Morton T. Seligman. The USS Lexington was officially given to the sea at 19:56 and her part in the war was over. She was struck from the US Naval Register on June 24th, 1942. During her World War 2 tenure, the ship earned herself and her crews the American Defense Service Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (with 2 Stars) and the World War 2 Victory Medal. Of the 2,951 crew aboard Lexington at the time of the Battle of Coral Sea, 216 were killed in action.
While technically a victory for Japan, the Battle of Coral Sea proved their first major setback in their conquest of the Pacific and did away with any though of invading the Australian mainland. The Americans lost a major carrier in the process and hard lessons were learned for future combat actions that would play well into total victory for the Allies in the Theater. USS Lexington proved a fighter till the end, a boxer on the ropes not ready to accept defeat. The price for victory proved high on that fateful day.
During her tenure at sea, USS Lexington (CV-2) became affectionately known by the nicknames of the "Gray Lady" and "Lady Lex". As an aside, five days after the report of her sinking was made public, workers at the Fore River Shipbuilding Company in Quincy, Massachusetts petitioned the US Navy Secretary, Frank Knox, to rename the current carrier (USS Cabot) then under construction at the shipyard. The petition was accepted and the Cabot now became USS Lexington (CV-16) in honor of the CV-2.
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