I am always in the debt of the Australian fighting men and the men of the USS Lexington for their unselfish duty in defending PNG and Australia. Thank God for those men.

The Battle of the Coral Sea was in May 42 while the Japanese landings at Buna were in July and those at Milne Bay were in August. The Battle of the Coral Sea forced the Japanese to try other avenues to get to Port Moresby. In other words neither would probably have happened if the Japanese hadn't been turned back in the Coral Sea - at the loss of several hundred allied lives.

The Battle of the Coral Sea was one of the turning points in the Pacific theatre of WWII in that it probably halted the advance of Japanese forces in the Pacific.whilst it forced the Japanese to abandon any attempt to take Port Moresby,it seems that most people seem to have forgotten that Australian troops also repulsed an earlier attempted Japanese seaborne landing at Milne Bay around the same time;I'm not too sure of the actual date but it was mid 1942. As to the Japanese actually attempting an invasion of Australia,one must consider the logistics of such an endeavour.The so called "Brisbane Line"has been much maligned by post war commentators,but,in my opinion,the idea was sound. North of a line drawn accross Australia in early 1942 from Brisbane on the East Coast to the West Coast there was not much except desert and jungle around the Gulf country.All towns were on the coastal fringes.The logistical problems alone,in trying to conquer the populated and industrial Southern half of our contintent nation would have defeated the invasion before it could get off the ground.

The Battle of The Coral Sea was significant for Australia, because it denied the Japanese fleet and troops access to Port Moresby and thus delivered Australia from invasion.

All Australians know of the Kokoda Trail. Had the Japanese won the Battle for the Coral Sea, it would have made the sacrifice of those Australian men almost pointless - as the Japanese would have just gone around them. Combined, the two battles prevented the Japanese from occuping Port Moresby, which protected Australia from further attacks on our homeland. It is, without doubt, the most important battle from Australia's point of view, and one that Australia's Navy played an important role in, mixing it up with the "big boys" of Japan and the US.

As an Australian, I should be a bit biased, and Vote for Coral Sea. Tonyhart has summed it up, and I would just like to add that it was a bold move for the USN to send 50% of its Carriers to the South Pacific at that time. That is something I will always remember. It saved Port Moresby, and denied the Japanese the Strategic flexibility they would have had, if they had taken Moresby. An Invasion of Australia, although reputedly not intended, might have been back on the planning board. We Aussies would indeed have been cut off from the US, and Aircraft from Port Moresby could have ranged over the Northern parts of Australia. This Battle was certainly a decisive Battle for Australia.

Even though there were more important battles in the pacific war which influenced its outcome the battle of the Coral Sea is the most important naval battle for Australians. It delayed the Japanese planned invasion of Port Moresby by making it more logistically difficult by going over the Owen Stanley Rangers in PNG where they were defeated late in 42. Had the battle of the Coral Sea been successful for the Japanese they would have been in a position to invade Australia and at the very least cut of the communication link between USA and Aus, which could have delayed victory in the Pacific War for years.