Coral Sea was the first aircraft carrier battle in history- and you seldom want to be the first to do something like that. It was also the first setback for the architects of Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, Malaya and so forth- the first time the troop ships retreated. You can be sure they didn't see THAT coming. Despite the hours both sides must have spent training for this very day, the reality proved to be rather akin to organized chaos. Signals and sightings were botched by both sides, and air strikes went astray, ...and that was on a good day... A day such as May 7th 1942... A full strike of aircraft from Yorktown and Lexington reached the enemy "carrier force" only to discover it was in fact a cruiser covering force protecting the Port Moresby invasion fleet - with one lone light carrier...the Shoho. To add insult to injury... as the Wildcats, SBDs and TBDs converged upon the little Shoho it became clear that its fighter complement of Zeros had been topped up with a few outdated A5M "Claudes..." (But if you think THAT's bad... the strike from the two nearby Japanese fleet carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku had arrived triumphantly over... one oil tanker... USS Neosho and its accompanying destroyer). Of course, it wasn't over yet... Thanks for viewing and comments. Rendered in Vue 8 Esprit Assets The Digimation/Vanishing Point F4F "Wildcat" Thunderr SDB "Dauntless" Mistubishi A5M "Claude" - my model