Wreck of Aircraft Carrier USS Lexington Located in Coral Sea After 76 Years

[mahatmakanejeeves]

[PJMcK]

1. Remarkable!

Great video, mahatmakanejeeves. Thanks for posting it.

Do you have a link to the source?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. Yes. It's in LBN too.

Link to tweet

https://www.paulallen.com/uss-lexington-wreck-located-rv-petrel/

Battle of the Coral Sea

[PJMcK]

5. Thank you (n/t)

[turbinetree]

2. Too the sailors that died defending this country....on this ship in the Battle of the Coral Sea.

[SCantiGOP]

4. Interesting thing I just learned about Pearl Harbor

The general who was in charge of the planning for Pearl Harbor said he viewed the attack as a failure. For every Sunday of the previous year, all of the aircraft carriers - I believe there were four - were in the Harbor and would have been sunk. The Japanese military thought that it would take the US at least a year, maybe two to get their Navy ready to fight in the Pacific. By missing the carriers they brought the US into the war, but with the carriers intact so they could basically end the war in the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway.

[Docreed2003]

8. There were three stationed at Pearl at the time

The Enterprise, Lexington, and Saratoga...the “Big E” and “Lady Lex” missed the attack by mere days. Truly the saving grace of the Pacific War was the fact that those three carriers were saved.

[lapfog_1]

9. could have been luck, but also it could have been breaking the Japanese code

and sending the carriers out before the attack, at least as a precaution if the actual target of the attack wasn't known ahead of time.

[Docreed2003]

10. The code wasnt truly broken until Midway

Prior to Midway, the US Navy was convinced an attack would come on the Aleutian Islands. The code breakers were able to break the Japanese Code in late spring of ‘42 which allowed the fleet to be in the vicinity of Midway at the time of the attack.

The Lexington was deployed on a mission to reinforce Midway Island, the Saratoga was embarking a flight group at San Diego, and the Enterprise, which was scheduled to be back in port for Dec 7 had been delayed by storms. In fact, several planes from the Enterprise were attacked as they returned into port at Pearl. The carriers just happened to be doing routine stuff...there was no suspicion of an attack. Frankly, at that time, most naval warfare specialists would not have viewed carriers as vital to naval strength, that was reserved for the big boy battleships.

[cab67]

12. The US Navy also led the world with damage control.

Several ships hit during the Pearl Harbor attack were back at sea weeks before Japanese strategists thought possible.

That, and US commanders had the good sense not to try to move their ships out of the harbor. Had one of them been hit in or near the channel, Pearl Harbor could have been blocked up for quite some time. As it was, the ships were hit in relatively shallow water.

[Docreed2003]

6. Amazing! Such an incredible find!

“Fair winds and following seas” shipmates...

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. We (humans) just never give up, do we?

I get to end my online day with an upbeat post.

[Turbineguy]

11. One of my neighbors

was a survivor of that sinking.

[FailureToCommunicate]

13. R.I.P. "Lady Lex." Here's an account of the torpedo attack that ended her life...

"...I was able to look up through the slot in the overhead and observe the demeanor of the young lieutenant junior grade who was in command of the pom-poms. I was very impressed with his calmness and the way he kept his crew and guns firing at maximum efficiency–a fine example of courage in this, his first taste of combat.

It was then we felt the shock of a torpedo striking the ship. Although my leg was braced against the side of the stand, I almost lost my footing.

I could not imagine anything that would take a ship almost 50,000 tons and shake it like a dog would shake a bone, but that one torpedo did it. I recall my first reaction was that we would probably have to go back to the States and the navy yard for repairs, and that didn’t seem bad. Later, another torpedo struck, and then in a few moments it seemed another..."

http://www.historynet.com/uss-lexington-walter-hassell-recalls-the-torpedo-attack-that-ended-lady-lex.htm