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| The USS Lexington at Pearl Harbor. |
My grandfather was serving aboard the USS Lexington (CV-2), flying Brewster F2As (his squadron referred to it as "the Peanut Special"), when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The Lex was at sea at the time, having sailed on Dec. 5 on a plane-delivery mission to Midway Island, but was diverted to try to locate the Japanese fleet, which she did not find.
Towards the end of December, his VF was converted to Grumman F4F-3s, the famous "Wildcat" that bore the burden of the earliest and most severe fighting of the Pacific War.
The photo at left shows the Lexington berthed at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard on April 11, 1942. By that time she had seen a lot of action and her aviation complement had handed the Japanese some rough payback for the Pearl attack.
In February, less that two-and-a-half months after Pearl Harbor, the Lex, as part of Task Force II, sailed into Japanese controlled waters off New Britain to strike at the main Japanese naval base at Rabaul, where was based the legendary 22nd Air Flotilla, veteran of the China war, bombing Chunking, blasting the British out of Malaya and the Dutch out of the East Indies and, most recently, bombing Darwin, Australia.
The 22nd's big H6K flying boats spotted the Lexington and radioed her position before being shot down by the ship's air patrol. The 4th Squadron, flying 18 of the the new G4M bomber, equipped with 20mm cannon defensive armament, was launched to deal with the Lex. One bomber had to abort but 17 flew on and attacked the carrier. But her intercepting F4Fs shot down 15 of the G4Ms and none achieved any hits on the ship. The two remaining G4Ms made it back to Rabaul with half their crewmen dead, the the planes so badly damaged that they were junked.
This was the first time in the history of Japanese naval aviation that it had suffered such a total defeat. It had always enjoyed, and become used to, victory after victory. The Japanese were shocked by the capability of US naval aviation operating on its own terms. The Japanese had crushed the Chinese, humiliated the British, walked all over the Dutch and battered the Australians and none had the ability to deal counterblows. But the US Navy was demonstrating it was a different foe entirely, and far more formidable.
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| The Lexington at sea. |
In addition to the G4Ms shot down, the US Navy fliers also shot down three H6K flying boats and an E13A floatplane. In all 88 Japanese aircrew were killed, including the squadron commander of the 4th. The cost to us: two F4Fs shot down and one pilot killed.
Less than three weeks later, the Lexington attacked the Japanese naval base at Salamaua, New Guinea, taking the the defenders by surprise. The Lex's dive bombers and torpedo planes virtually annihilated the fleet in the harbor, some 15 ships, sinking five cargo vessels and four warships plus setting afire and and stopping dead in the water four more warships. Two other warships were damaged slightly. One of the Lexington's SBDs was shot down by anti-aircraft artillery and the crew lost.
Among the ships the Japanese lost were the Kongo Maru, Tenyo Maru and Yokohama Maru. The Kokai Maru was beached to save it from sinking, as was the seaplane tender Kiyokawa Maru and the minelayer Tsugaru. The destroyers Asanagi and Yunagi were so severely damaged that they had to return to the main Japanese fleet base at Truk for repairs. The light cruiser Yubari, flagship of the Wake Island invasion fleet, was also damaged and her executive officer killed. Altogether, 130 Japanese sailors were killed and 245 wounded in the attack.
These were the heaviest losses the Japanese Navy had suffered since the outbreak of the war and seriously harmed the ability of that Navy's South Sea Force to carry out offensive operations as well as alarming Japanese naval high command in Tokyo. Vice Admiral Shigeyoshi Inoue, commander of the Fourth Fleet and aboard the Yubari when it was attacked, had to order the postponement (later abandonment) of the planned invasion of Port Moresby as a result of these losses. He also called for Japanese carrier back-up to counter the US Navy carrier force, thus setting the stage for the Battle of the Coral Sea.
An incident of this episode: While heading toward Salamaua a patroling SOC floatplane had failed to return. A large-scale search was not conducted as the carrier was readying its attack. But on the return, the Lexington, calculating the effects of wind and currents on the probably position of the SOC, sailed to where the crew, if they survived, might be found. Seven days after the SOC failed to return, it was spotted floating on the calm sea. As the carrier hove into sight, the SOC started its engine and took off and flew back to the ship, landing as if nothing had happened. The two crew members were hungry and thirsty but otherwise healthy, having survived on their emergency rations. They had gotten lost and landed while the plane still had some fuel left.
The Lexington arrived back in Pearl a couple of weeks later for resupply and maintenance, which is when the top photo was snapped. Shortly after, it would sail again for New Guinea waters and clash again with the Japanese, but this time not being so lucky, being sunk at the Battle of the Coral Sea less than a month after the picture was taken. The Japanese still had plenty of fighting capability and it would take months of hard fighting between two navies, the likes of which had never been seen before in history, for a winner to begin to emerge.
