Battle of the Coral Sea

Where might I find a listing of the U.S. vessels and pilots involved in the Battle of the Coral Sea?

 

Battle of the Coral Sea:

USS Lexington CV-2
Commander Lexington Air Group
CDR William B Ault

VB-2 (Bombing 2)
LCDR Weldon Lee Hamilton - CO
LT Ralph Wynne Cousins
LT Walter Franklin Henry
LT James Harold Newell
LTJG Harry Brinkley Bass
LTJG Robert B Buchan
LTJG Paul J Knapp
LTJG John Grace Sheridan
LTJG Mark Twain Whittier
LTJG George Orr Wood
ENS T J Ball
ENS A J Behl
ENS John M Clarke
ENS Clem B Connally
ENS William C Edwards Jr
ENS Russell Paul Lecklider
ENS Frank Ronald McDonald
ENS J A Riley
ENS W H Schoen
ENS R E Scudder
ENS H B Shonk Jr
ENS Alva A Simmons
ENS J Donald Wakeham
ENS Robert Pershing Williams

VF-2 (Fighting 2)
LCDR Paul Hubert Ramsey - CO
LT Richard S Bull Jr
LT Noel Arthur Meredyth Gayler
LT Albert O Vorse Jr
LTJG Paul Gerald Baker
LTJG Fred Borries Jr
LTJG H F Clark
LTJG Marion William Dufilho
LTJG Willard Ernest Eder Jr
LTJG Robert James Morgan
LTJG C F Rinehart
ENS John Burton Edward Bain
ENS Leon Wilder Haynes
ENS George A Hopper Jr
ENS John H Lackey
ENS George F Markham Jr
ENS Newton H Mason
ENS D W Peterson
ENS R S Rowell
ENS Edward R Sellstrom Jr
ENS Milton Tootle IV
ENS William Wolfe Wileman
AP1c Robert F Kanze

VS-2 (Scouting 2)
LCDR Robert Ellington Dixon - CO
LT Edward Henry Allen
LT Thomas E Edwards Jr
LT Hoyt C Mann
LTJG Evan Peter Aurand
LTJG Roy Orestus Hale Jr
LTJG L C Koch
LTJG Joseph G Smith
LTJG Chandler Waterman Swanson
LTJG Anthony J Quigley
LTJG Max E E Woyke
ENS Marvin M Haschke
ENS John Arthur Leppla
ENS Frank Ronald McDonald
ENS Richard F Neely
ENS Arthur Joseph Schultz Jr
ENS Robert E Smith
ENS Jesse J Walker Jr
ENS E D Willems
ENS John Davis Wingfield
ENS Hugh Wood Jr

VT-2 (Torpedo 2)
LCDR James Henry Brett Jr - CO
LT Robert F Farrington
LT Edwin William Hurst
LTJG Lawrence F Steffenhagen
LTJG Lawrence Wilson Thornhill
ENS Harold R Mazza
ENS Tom Brice Bash
ENS Curtis Hamilton
ENS Norman Anderson Sterrie
GUN Harley Eugene Talkington
RDOEL Johnnie E Mattis
CAP Bruce Cleveland Shearon
CAP Dwayne H Campbell
CAP Melvin H Georgius


USS Yorktown CV-5
Commander Yorktown Air Group
LCDR Oscar Pedersen

VB-5 (Bombing 5)
LT Wallace Clark Short Jr - CO
LT Keith E Taylor
LT Samuel Adams
LT John J Powers
LT William Selman Guest
LT Harlan R Dickson
LT John Ludwig Nielsen
LTJG Floyd E Moran
LTJG William Francis Christie
LTJG Nels Luther A Berger
LTJG Charles Neal Conatser
LTJG Henry Martin McDowell
ENS Lavell Meldrum Bigelow
ENS David Render Berry
ENS Benjamin Gifford Preston
ENS James Taylor Crawford
ENS John Windsor Rowley
ENS Leif Walther Larsen
ENS Thomas E Brown
ENS John N Ammen Jr
ENS Robert F Edmondson
ENS Richard K Batten
ENS Harry A Fredrickson
ENS Davis Elliott Chaffee

VF-42 (Fighting 42)
LCDR Charles Rudolph Fenton - CO
LCDR James Henry Flatley Jr
LT Vincent F McCormack
LTJG William Nicholas Leonard
LTJG Richard Gunther Crommelin
LTJG Roy M Plott
LTJG Arthur James Brassfield
LTJG Edward Duran Mattson
LTJG Brainard Tucker Macomber
LTJG Elbert Scott McCuskey
LTJG William Stone Woollen
ENS Leslie Lockhart Bruce Knox
ENS William Wesley Barnes Jr
ENS Walter Albert Haas
ENS Edgar R Bassett
ENS Richard Lee Wright
ENS John Paul Adams
ENS John Drayton Baker
ENS Harry Bonaparte Gibbs

VS-5 (Scouting 5)
LCDR William Oscar Burch Jr - CO
LT Charles Rollins Ware
LT Elbert M Stever
LT Turner F Caldwell Jr
LT Roger B Woodhull
LT Stockton Birney Strong
LTJG Stanley Winfield Vejtasa
LTJG Arthur L Downing
LTJG Frederick L Faulkner
LTJG Hugh Wilber Nicholson
ENS Thomas A Reeves
ENS William E Hall
ENS Walton A Austin
ENS Samuel Jackson Underhill
ENS Kendall C Campbell
ENS Walter Wesley Coolbaugh
ENS Richard E Brown
ENS Elmer Maul
ENS Edward Blain Kinzer
ENS John H Jorgenson
ENS Laurence Gilworth Traynor
ENS H N Ervin
ENS Ralph H Goddard
ENS Harold Lloyd Buell
ENS W E Brown Jr

VT-5 (Torpedo 5)
LCDR Joseph F. Taylor - CO
LT Edwin Byron Parker Jr
LT Albert Brely Furer
LT Leonard Emil Ewoldt
LTJG Radcliffe Denniston Jr
LTJG Thomas Ballard Ellison
ENS Anthony Joseph Schultheis
ENS George Everett Bottjer
ENS Francis R Sanborn
GUN John C Livezey
CAP Edward James Williamson
AP1c Sidney William Quick

 

Other rated US naval aviators on the scene, certainly not all in the case of Lexington, but who were there include, for example aboard USS Yorktown:

CAPT Elliot Buckmaster - Commanding Officer
CDR Dixie Kiefer - Executive Officer
CDR Irving D Wiltsie - Navigator
CDR Murr E Arnold - Air Officer
LCDR Gordon Alexander McLean - CO VCS-4 TAD as Staff Aviation Officer, TF-17
LCDR Robert G Armstrong - Asst Air Officer
LT R F Mahachek - Air Operations Officer
LT Norwood A Campbell - Landing Signal Officer
LT S L Mead - Asst Air Operations Officer
LT Albert H Wilson Jr - Flight Deck Officer
LT John David Huntley - Asst Fire Control Officer
LT Lionel Alexander Arthur - V1 Jr Division Officer
LT John O Curtis - Aviation Ordnance Officer
LT Alberto C Emerson - V2 Division Officer
LT John P Preston - V2 Jr Division Officer, Assist Landing Signal Officer

And a rather incomplete list from USS Lexington
RADM Aubrey Wray Fitch – ComTG-17.5 / ComAirTaskForPac
CAPT Frederick Carl Sherman - Commanding Officer
CDR Morton T Seligman - Executive Officer
LT Roscoe Lee Newman - Landing Signal Officer
LT Albert David Pollack Jr - Assist Landing Signal Officer

 

Allied warships in addition to the carriers Lexington and Yorktown:

ComDesRon2 - CAPT Gilbert C Hoover
USS Morris - CDR Harry B. Jarrett
USS Anderson - LT CDR John K.B. Ginder
USS Hammann - CDR Arnold E. True
USS Russell - LT CDR Glenn R. Hartwig

Task Group 17.2 (Attack Group) - RADM Thomas C. Kincaid
USS Minneapolis - CAPT Frank J. Lowry
USS New Orleans - CAPT Howard H. Good
USS Astoria - CAPT Francis W. Scanland
USS Chester - CAPT Thomas M. Shock
USS Portland - CAPT Benjamin Perleman
USS Phelps - LT CDR Edward L. Beck
USS Dewey - LT CDR Charles Chillingworth, Jr.
USS Aylwin - LT CDR George Phelan
USS Monaghan - LT CDR William P. Burford

Task Group 17.3 (Support Group) RADM J.G. Crace, RN
HMAS Australia - CAPT H.B. Farncomb, RAN
HMAS Hobart - CAPT H.L. Howden, RAN
USS Chicago - CDR Howard D. Bode
USS Perkins - LT CDR Walter C. Ford
USS Farragut - CDR George P. Hunter
USS Walke - LT CDR Thomas E. Fraser

Task Group 17.6 (Fleet Train) Captain John S. Phillips
USS Neosho - Captain Phillips
USS Tippecanoe - CDR Atherton Macondray
USS Sims - LT CDR Willford M. Hyman
USS Worden - LT CDR William G. Pogue

Task Group 17.9 (Search Group) CDR George H. DeBaun (in Noumea)
USS Tangier - CDR DeBaun
VP-71 with 12 PBY
Partial list of VP-71 pilots. With 12 PBYs there would be at least 36 naval aviators for operations (not to mention their aircrews). These are the ones I have been able to identify to date.
LCDR William J Mullins - CO
LT G G Mead
LTJG Richard B Hughes
LTJG John W Erhard
ENS Paul H Alter
ENS Robert W DeReamer
ENS F L Feind Jr
ENS M V Montgomery Jr
ENS H C Davis
AP1c Ulrich L Neidlinger
AMM1c Cleo Wells
AP2c John R Bourchier

 

Sheesh - if you don't have an answer, just say so .
Good job there.

 

Excellent. Thank you much for the intel.

 

Okay. I'm a little confused. Lieutenant Commander Burch lead a squadron of SBDs from the CV-5 to my understanding. I see VS-5 (Scouting 5)
LCDR William Oscar Burch Jr - CO. Where am I crossed up?

 

VS-5, VB-5, VS-2, & VB-2 all operated SBDs. S=Scouting B=Bombing D=Douglas

 

White Flight - R A Leonard's excellent response should give you plenty to work on. However, I would like to make a couple of corrections to Leonard's list. 1/ ENS Thomas A Reeves (my dad) was NOT present at the Battle of the Coral Sea. 2/LTjg Earl Vincent Johnson should be added to the list of VS-5 as a participant.

 

Thanks.

 

Any details on sub support and mine layers?

 

No minelayers.

USN submarine forces supporting operations during the Battle of the Coral Sea:

Task Group 42.1 - Capt Ralph Waldo Christie
- USS Griffin (AS-13) - CDR Stanley Dexter Jupp [at Brisbane]
- - SubDiv 53 - LCDR Elmer Eugene Yeomans
- - - S-42 - LCDR Oliver Grafton Kirk
- - - S-43 - LCDR Edward Robert Hannon
- - - S-44 - LCDR John Raymond Moore
- - - S-45 - LCDR Ian Crawford Eddy
- - - S-46 - LCDR Ralph Clinton Lynch Jr
- - - S-47 - LCDR James White Davis
- - SubDiv 201 - CDR Ralston Brito Vanzant
- - - S-37 - LCDR James Richard Reynolds
- - - S-38 - LT Henry Glass Munson
- - - S-39 - LT Francis Elwood Brown
- - - S-40 - LCDR Nicholas Luckner Jr
- - - S-41 - LCDR George Michael Holley

These S Boats all patrolled in the vicinity of the Solomon Islands.

Nancy - Your father appears on the Yorktown NAV-37 for 1 May 42 which is what I use for my standard Coral Sea air groups listing. Not saying you're wrong, and I like to keep the lists correct, so where can you tell me what happened between 1 May & 7 May? I was under the impression that Buckmaster put the ki-bosh on letting his pilots getting transferred leave aboard Neosho (and a good thing, too). Flatley, Vejtasa, and Faulkner all stayed aboard when they were supposed to leave.

 

As the Last Historian of the USS Lexington CV2 Minutemen Club and Coral Sea Battle Survivor I am impressed with this information you have provided. By the way, I have photos of all the Lexington's Squadron Commanders and many of the Lexington pilots in the Coral Sea Battle. 12 Lexington CV2 pilots that were killed in action in the Coral Sea Battle had a Navy ship named after them.

 

May I add a hearty “Welcome Aboard!”

Buried in the list of Coral Sea aviators from Yorktown, under VF-42, is my father. In the course of Yorktown’s long sojourn in the sunny south Pacific, in mid-March ’42 after the Lae-Salamaua strikes, he rode over to Lexington in the backseat of a TBD. Once aboard he collected one of the F4F-3’s which VF-3 was selling off (as it was quaintly put in the vernacular of the day) in order to bring VF-42 back up to strength. Lexington was on her way back to Pearl, where VF-3 would disembark from their temporary assignment and Lexington’s regular VF-2 - having turned in their F2As, but, alas, broken up the “Flying Chiefs” in the process, and re-outfitted with F4Fs - would come back aboard. Not a few VF-3 types would end up retained by VF-2 . . . Noel Gayler comes to mind. A time of fast shuffles of people and aircraft; makes it hard to keep track of who was where, and when, with what, and why.

Fast forward to the end of July 1942, after the dust settles from Midway, and we find VF-2’s last CO, Paul Ramsey, is CAG of the newly established CVG-11 after briefly also commanding the Lexington Air Group in its stand-down after Coral Sea. Also in CVG-11 is Weldon Hamilton, commanding VB-11, last seen as CO of VB-2, and Charlie Fenton, commanding VF-11, the last CO of VF-42. My father also went to VF-11 after the loss of Yorktown and remained until August 1943. Ramsey transferred out in February 1943 to take over as Director of Flight Test at NATC and by the end of the war was commanding USS Attu (CVE-102). Hamilton moved up to CAG-11 when Ramsey left. By all accounts Hamilton was a popular and very well thought of CAG. He was tragically killed in a transport crash in New Caledonia on 8 June 43 while the air group was operating out of Guadalcanal. Killed in the same crash was VT-11’s John Livesay, a VT-5 Coral Sea veteran. Other Coral Sea veterans in CVG-11 were Max Woyke of VS-2 assigned to VS-11 (redesignated on 1 March ’43 to VB-21) and Sidney Quick of VT-5, in VT-11. Not sure what happened to Woyke; Sid Quick was KIA during the Guadalcanal tour.

Regards,

Rich

 

I apologize for coming into this thread at such a late date. This is my first post. There were other aviators that were participants in the Battle Of Coral Sea. My father, Philip A. Horne (Ens) was an SOC pilot attached to VCS-6 on the USS New Orleans. Each participating cruiser had at least four aircraft and five pilots assigned to the V Division.
The list below is incomplete but I don't want to forget their contribution.

While no SOC pilots flew during the battle their contribution was important. My father was assisting the rescue of Lexington's oil soaked seamen climb up cargo nets to safety. He gave up clothes and shared his stateroom with Lexington's crewmen.


Cdr Nathan S. Haines CO VCS-6 USS Minneapolis
Ens Philip A. Horne VCS-6 USS New Orleans
Ens Royal Dickason VCS-6 USS New Orleans
Ens William H. Kilgore VCS-6 USS New Orleans
Ltjg Russell P. Morse VCS-6 USS New Orleans
Ens Everett C. Strickland VCS-6 USS Astoria
Ens Manuel F. Blanco VCS-5 USS Chester
Ltjg Luke Horrell Miller VCS-5 USS Portland
Ens John W. Baker VCS-5 USS Chicago

Jonathan Horne

 

Jonathan –

Outstanding post! Mostly due to a paucity of information the efforts of the VCS and VO squadrons are largely overlooked, yet, there they were, in every action handling scouting, anti-sub, and rescue missions. They were a vital gear in the engine of victory.

NB – thanks for the names I can add to my great list of naval aviators. I had Nathan Haines in his later assignments as CO of VP-41 and, later, CO of VB-136; Luke Miller as CO of VJ-7; and John Baker as a Lieutenant in VB-144; but none of them in their 1942 VCS service and no info on any of the others at all.

If you could pass along your father’s various assignments over the course of the war, I’d be happy to include them along with his VCS-6 info. What I usually record is rank and assignment changes with associated dates as well as awards and their dates. You can PM the info if you prefer.

Regards,

Rich

 

Another one of the 36 VP-11 PBY pilots during Coral Sea actions not on your list is
Ens Joseph P. O'Connor Aviator #7486

Jonathan Horne