may 1942, lexington lost; the huge floating airport

on May 8, 1942, the huge floating airport lexington, that carried 91 warplanes, got sunk. it  was nearly 900 feet long. what was its story?

u.s. had been nutral during the years, from 1937, that japan was conquering more and more of china. it also was nutral when italy conquered ethiopia. it also did not send soldiers when nazi and soviet conquerd poland. the policy of u.s. government was: soldiers lives should not be risked unless danger to itself.

on dec' 7, 1941 japanese warplanes attacked american warships anchored in hawaii isles.

was lexington there? nope. by the seventh lex' had ALREADY left hawaii on a mission to carry warplanes to an isle named midway. this category of ship was named "aircraft carrier" for carrying warplanes.

after several missions that were not battles, lex' steamd toward a jap air base on a small isle north and near fly river isle cald new giunea. meanwhile u.s. troops, defending wake isle, surrendered on  Dec' 23.

on feb' 20, 1942 two jap warplanes, searching for u.s. warships to provide location for battling, flew near lex'. warplanes from lex' shot both down.

later 17 jap bombers "eighteen enemy planes" attacked lex'. they knew the location from the patrollers who had sent a radio message. during the battle, lex' warplanes shot down all nine of the first group. 

some were shot down, "five were downed." splashing into the sea and others damaged, jap lost 15 as only two of those bombers returned, one seriously damaged. only one intact. [18-17 shot]. 

on march 10, 1942, lex' launched warplanes to prevent the jap invasion of fly isle. they fired at the invading warships. jap started conquering the north coast of that isle. during April, Lexington and her fighter groups repeatedly thwarted Japanese ships and planes.

the next battle involved the boili mount isle chain. jap soldiers conqurd some isles there east from fly isle, and prepared an air base for warplanes. lex' joined a u.s. force  that separated and attacked it, on isle tulagi in that isle chain. then a warship from australia separated to prevent  jap invading the south coast of fly isle. 

lex' sailed near the south-east edge of fly isle.

on may 7, 1942, warplanes from lex sank the shoho a minor jap warplane-carrier. two huge jap w.c. were in that region and 27 of their warplanes attacked. lex' warplanes destroyed nine 9 of them until the rest retreated.

on may 8, 1942, u.s. warplanes attacked and severely damaged the huge jap w.c. named shokaku. 

meanwhile, jap warplanes attacked lex'. 2 jap torpedoes damaged lex'. jap dive bombers dropd bombs and 3 bombs exploded on lex'  further damaging lex'. fires spread so the crew and planes moved to other ships, to evacuate. a u.s. warship sank lex'. it was the first huge aircraft carrier lost. cv16 same name replaced this one.

RESULT: shokaku steamed back to japan escorted by its group including w.c. zuikaku. those two huge w.c. was inactive for many months and also during all 1943and part of 1944. when we add the damage to jap w.c. in the battle midway, u.s. sank four more huge w.c. that totals six of ten removed from action tipping the scale to favor u.s.