Coral Sea As A Turning Point In Australia's History

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Introduction: World War 2 was a very significant time in Australia’s history and it was a defining point because it played a large part in shaping the way other countries viewed it. One of these events was the battle of the Coral Sea in 1942. This battle was a triumphant point for the allied forces (Australia and US) as they fought through a number of naval engagements to keep the Japanese from cutting Australia’s supply lines from America. The battle of the Coral Sea was a turning point in the war for multiple reasons such as the major events throughout the battle, the outcome and the measures taken to cause that outcome. Paragraph 1: Firstly, the major events in this battle are what made this battle so important compared to others. The battle …show more content…

The battle of the Coral Sea was Japan’s first defeat and was Americas first win (Hamilton, 2012). The battle took place in the Coral Sea, between the Solomon islands, the eastern point of papa new guinea and the north-eastern tip of Australia. This covers ocean thousands of kilometres wide and therefore for a large portion of the battle the opposing sides could often not find each other. Each carrier group often sent out planes to find each other but due to limited range in the planes, limited skill amongst the aircrews and ship identification, the often bad weather conditions and the vast area all equated into it being very difficult for them to find their targets (Lewis, 2015). As the list of defeats for the allied military and naval forces began to mount the feeling amongst all Australians began to drift into depression and acceptation that the Japanese could invade at any minute. The Japanese were aware of this and using it to their advantage by examining the possibility of capturing Port Moresby, Tulagi, New Caledonia, Fiji and Samoa (Navy & Straczek, 2015). The objective of this plan was to expand and improve the Japanese perimeter as well as cutting America and Australia’s lines of

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