On the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese army invaded the Philippines in many ways, madly attacked Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, which were then Dutch colonies, and then continued to March into New Guinea and neighboring islands. By the end of February 1942, the Japanese army had reached the gate of Australia. At this time, Japan faces the following strategic choices: First, the maritime fleet composed of Britain, Australia, the United States, the Netherlands and other countries, although retreating westward to the Indian Ocean and temporarily entering Sri Lanka for consolidation, is likely to make a comeback. Therefore, further pursuit and annihilation of this fleet in the Indian Ocean to protect Indonesia, Malaysia and other places newly occupied by Japan and prevent the allied forces from launching a counterattack from the Indian Ocean has become the first option of the Japanese army.
Australia, which is just across the water from Indonesia, is fully supported by the United States and is likely to become the base for the US military to counterattack, so it is also a great threat. New Guinea, located in northern Australia, is an important gateway to attack Australia. At that time, New Guinea was divided into Dutch New Guinea in the west and Australian New Guinea in the east. At that time, the Japanese army had occupied the western part of New Guinea, which belongs to Dutch Indonesia, so it planned to continue to push eastward on the island and occupy port moresby, the most important port in the southeast of New Guinea. At the same time, it also occupied Fiji, Samoa and other islands in the northeast of Australia at sea, cutting off the support of the United States to Australia, thus eliminating the threat of Australia and even further occupying part of Australia's territory.
And the third option is that Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese naval joint fleet at that time, always believed that the thief should be caught first, and the key to Australia's threat was American military support. The fleet headed by the British navy in the Indian Ocean can continue to fight because of the logistical support of the United States, so the United States is the key to the problem. Moreover, Isoroku Yamamoto has always regretted that he failed to destroy the US Navy's aircraft carrier in one fell swoop when he attacked Pearl Harbor. Therefore, his battle plan is to attack Hawaii directly, which can not only destroy the most important base of the US Navy in the Pacific Ocean, but also immediately threaten the west coast of the United States. The threat from Australia will be solved without a fight, and the United States will be unable to continue to support the allied fleet in the Indian Ocean.
Isoroku Yamamoto's theory is not completely unreasonable, but it was severely opposed by the Japanese Admiralty. The reason is that the Japanese army expanded rapidly in a short time, occupied most parts of Southeast Asia, and its strength was tight. It's really hard to attack Hawaii halfway across the Pacific Ocean. Moreover, even if Hawaii is successfully occupied, the US military will definitely fight back with all its strength to remove the danger on the local west coast. It is difficult for the Japanese to hold Hawaii so far away from Japan. At the same time, it is not certain whether the US Navy and its aircraft carrier can be wiped out in one fell swoop, so this plan is considered too risky and put on hold. In particular, the army was extremely opposed to Isoroku Yamamoto's plan. Instead, it supports the first removal of threats from Australia and the Indian Ocean to ensure that the army's combat troops in Southeast Asia can obtain safe shipping routes.
At that time, Japan finally decided on a compromise battle plan, which was to attack the allied fleet in the Indian Ocean first and prepare to attack Fiji and Samoa at the same time. After successfully weakening the possible threat from the Indian Ocean, we will attack Australia's New Guinea, Fiji and Samoa with all our strength, so that we can cut off American military assistance, besiege Australia, lift the threat, and even send troops to occupy a part of Australia. Therefore, at the end of March, the Japanese aircraft carrier fleet entered the Indian Ocean for the first time, and attacked the allied fleets in the Bay of Bengal and Sri Lanka on a large scale until April 10, and achieved extremely fruitful results. The Japanese aircraft carrier gave full play to its air superiority, leaving the British army powerless to fight back. The Japanese army sank dozens of ships, including an aircraft carrier and two cruisers. This also made the British army misjudge that the next step of the Japanese army is probably to occupy Sri Lanka, instead of giving up the counterattack plan and strengthening Sri Lanka's defense.
Above: The British aircraft carrier Competitive God was attacked by Japanese carrier aircraft in the Indian Ocean and is sinking.
But what the Japanese never expected was that the attack fleet led by Du Lide was also moving in the direction of Japan. The US military plans to use the Army's B-25 bomber to take off from the aircraft carrier and launch air strikes against Tokyo from the sea. Obviously, the symbolic significance of this air strike is far greater than the substantive significance, and the most important thing is to show the will of the United States to fight back. However, neither the US military nor Du Lide expected that the air raid would change the strategic direction of the Japanese army.
Above: A B-25 bomber is taking off from an aircraft carrier during the air raid in Du Lide.
Because of the air raid in April 18, American bombers dropped bombs near the Japanese Imperial Palace, which shocked the Japanese high-level. They think there is no way to protect the imperial palace, which is a great shame for the military. Therefore, how to prevent the US military from continuing to launch similar attacks has become the top priority of the Japanese navy.
The Japanese must defend their homeland and try to solve the US Pacific Fleet as soon as possible. The Japanese aircraft carrier fleet in the Indian Ocean was quickly recalled to prepare for a decisive battle in midway.
Isoroku Yamamoto's plan was revived because of this, but the planned attack on Hawaii was still considered too risky, so he changed to attack Midway Island to obtain a forward combat base for the Japanese army and prevent the US military from sneak attack; Secondly, it is intended to induce the US aircraft carrier fleet to participate in the war and annihilate the US air force in the Pacific. However, the Japanese navy is still unwilling to give up the original plan completely. As a result of the compromise, some aircraft carriers will go south to support the offensive of attacking Mobius port and besieging Australia before launching the midway operation. At the same time, they will attack the Iliukhin Islands farther north when they launch the Midway operation, as a deterrent to feint. The revised battle plan was quickly approved.
Above: Japan's final battle plan is to pretend to attack the Aleutian Islands first, but the main force will attack midway.
But what the Japanese army didn't expect was that the two carriers, Xianghe and Ruihe, which supported the southern attack on Mobius Port, suffered heavy losses in the Coral Sea naval battle, and the other lost most of its carrier-based aircraft, so that it could not participate in the subsequent Midway naval battle, which reduced the number of aircraft carriers that the Japanese navy could use by one third. Although the US military was at a disadvantage in the Coral Sea Battle, which sank an aircraft carrier "Lexington" and hit another aircraft carrier "York City" hard, it not only prevented the Japanese army from getting an important springboard to attack Australia, but also laid the foundation for the subsequent battle of midway, which was a typical tactical defeat but a strategic victory.
To make matters worse, the Japanese password has already been cracked by the US military. Before the war, the United States decided that the Japanese army would attack midway island, so it set a trap first, and even the Yorktown, which was badly hit in the coral island naval battle, immediately re-entered the battlefield after an emergency stop for a few days.
If we simply look at the Coral Sea naval battle, it is a small victory for the Japanese army, but if we look at the Coral Sea naval battle and the Midway Island naval battle together, it is a great victory for the American army.
It is a serious strategic mistake for the Japanese to carry out coral naval battle. Japan is ready to fight the American army in midway. It should not disperse the carrier fleet and participate in the coral naval battle. The result was broken by the American army. However, the Japanese army paid little attention to the coral naval battle and failed to send a superior fleet to ensure victory. The division of Japanese troops was a failure. The Japanese didn't think so at that time. They were carried away by short-term victories or advantages and didn't realize such mistakes at all.
Therefore, the Coral Sea Battle is regarded as a typical "tactical failure, but strategic victory" campaign. In this campaign, the losses of American troops were higher than those of Japanese troops, but they gained the most important strategic opportunity and reversed the whole Pacific War.
If you are not satisfied with the Pacific War and want to know about naval warfare, you can watch the Pacific War Trilogy, which gives a deep interpretation of the Pacific War and a more detailed description of the two battles of Coral Sea and Midway Island. After reading it, I was very impressed. War is really a terrible practice of reason and fanaticism. Never relax your vigilance against Japanese militants.