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If CNN had been around in 1942

By James Whorton
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, November 9, 2001

On May 7 and 8, 1942, the badly outnumbered United States Navy struck back at the Japanese at the Battle of the Coral Sea. The action stopped a major Japanese offensive aimed at gaining control of New Guinea and then Fiji and Samoa, which would have isolated Australia and New Zealand.

The U.S. lost a carrier, the Lexington, and the carrier Yorktown was heavily damaged. The Japanese lost the light carrier Shoho and suffered damage to the fleet carrier Shokaku while the carrier Zuikaku lost many of its planes and pilots.

But for the first time since Pearl Harbor, the Japanese fleet had been bloodied. Coral Sea also helped set up the decisive U.S. victory at Midway on June 4, 1942, in which an outnumbered U.S. fleet, including the patched-up Yorktown, decisively defeated the Japanese fleet, minus Shokaku and Zuikaku, and turned the tide of the war in the Pacific.

In The Price of Admiralty, John Keegan writes, "The battle of the Coral Sea electrified America." The nation's morale was raised by the news of the sinking of the Shoho. The loss of the Lexington was kept secret for weeks as America celebrated the victory.

But what if today's American media had been reporting the action? How electrified would we have been?


This is CNN breaking news, Blitz Woolford reporting.

Despite War Department claims of a strategic victory in the naval battle in the South Pacific May 7 and 8, CNN has learned that the battle was actually a critical setback for American naval forces, severely crippling the United States Pacific Fleet. Meanwhile, the Imperial Japanese Navy remains as strong as ever.

The War Department and White House have claimed that the action stopped a major Japanese strategic advance into the South Pacific. War Department sources have tried to portray the battle as an even tradeoff in which the Japanese were given a bloody nose. The War Department has repeatedly trumpeted the sinking of a Japanese aircraft carrier.

But according to informed sources, American losses were actually catastrophic while Japanese losses were light.

Our sources tell us that the fleet carrier Lexington was sunk in the action. Additionally, the fleet carrier Yorktown was heavily damaged and will apparently be out of action for months. The War Department refuses to confirm this information, although this would leave the U.S. with only two fleet carriers in the Pacific Ocean, an amount one War Department source told me is clearly insufficient to stop a major Japanese naval offensive.

War Department claims of the sinking of a Japanese carrier were exaggerated, our sources tell us. The Japanese suffered only the loss of a light carrier identified as the Shoho. Both of the reported two Japanese fleet carriers that inflicted heavy damage on U.S. forces survived the battle and steamed away to fight again.

In the face of these facts, it is hard for the War Department to maintain its claim that the battle was a strategic victory.

This is particularly true in light of the recent debacle during the abortive propaganda bombing raid on Japan last month. CNN was first to report that the bombing raid on Tokyo and other Japanese cities was launched from an aircraft carrier instead of a land base. CNN was also first to report that the raid caused little damage in Japan and numerous civilian casualties that were shown to you exclusively on CNN, while most the U.S. personnel who took part in the raid were killed or captured.

The failure of the bombing raid on Japan coupled with the surrender May 6 of Corregidor and the exposure of the facts surrounding the carrier battle in the South Pacific call the entire American war effort in the Pacific into doubt.

CNN's military experts now tell us that the US Navy does not have sufficient strength to challenge the Japanese fleet if the Japanese make a serious offensive move in the coming months, an offensive that is fully expected in military circles. The United States may indeed have run out of options in the Pacific with the war in Japan less than a year old.

With Japan victorious in the Pacific and with Hitler's Germany ascendant in Europe, a negotiated peace on terms favorable to the Axis seems more and more likely to be the outcome of what is being called World War II. This has been Blitz Woolford reporting with CNN breaking news. We return you now to our taped interview with Reich Information Minister Joseph Goebbels.


James Whorton writes a weekly column for the Bastrop (La.) Daily Enterprise and is a retired major in the U.S. Army Reserve. He served 15 years active duty, including duty as the public affairs officer for the 8th Infantry Division in Germany and for the 5th Infantry Division at Ft. Polk, La.

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