[SunkenCiv]

Prior to the December 7th attacks, there wasn't sentiment for US entry into the second world war. Immediately after, American men were circling the cities looking for induction centers. The boneheaded idiocy of the Japanese attacking the US led to the destruction of the Axis Powers.

In the Battle of the Coral Sea the US lost the carrier Lexington (on the 8th), but remarkably enough (it sez here) "Of her crew, 216 were lost and 2,735 rescued."

In an interview excerpt, from recent decades, one of the carrier Yorktown's surviving crew said they were lucky -- during one evasive maneuver, no fewer than four Japanese torpedoes barely missed them, either forward or astern, in a matter of a few minutes. The Japanese lost the use of two carriers that had been intended for the next large battle in June.

The Yorktown steamed to Pearl for repairs to be ready for Midway -- and it actually survived that battle, making contributions to US victory, but was evac'd due to damage, then sunk by a Japanese sub attack during the tow back to Pearl.

As we all know, the four best Japanese carriers did not survive Midway.

The rather small US sub fleet was sent after Japanese shipping, which prevented the iron ore, coal, and oil from getting from Japanese-occupied Borneo to the J home islands. The US figure for merchant tonnage sunk was determined by verification of the sinking (to assure crews didn't get credit for unverified sinkings) is 8 million tons. The Japanese figure is 11 million tons. Losses of both warships and merchant marine vessels couldn't be replaced as a consequence.

From the low-dozens of US subs in 1941, the US ended the war with circa 250 subs. By the beginning of 1944 sinking shipping was much more difficult, because of the earlier successes -- there were few Japanese merchant marine vessels, making them harder to encounter.

[Grampa Dave]

The four-day engagement was a strategic victory for the Allies.

“The battle, which U.S. Adm. Ernest J. King described as the first major engagement in naval history in which surface ships did not exchange a single shot,” foreshadowed the kind of carrier warfare that marked later fighting in the Pacific War.”

[Andyman]

I have two friends whose fathers both survived the sinking of the Lady Lex.

[Alas Babylon!]

Great, informative post!

[Grampa Dave]

“Shortly after, Pearl, American men were circling the cities looking for induction centers.”

We had two relatives signup shortly after the attack on Pearl. One was a younger cousin of my Dad. He joined the 45th and fought in Africa, Italy and was serverely wounded in Italy and survived with a metal plate in his head.

The other was a maternal uncle, who was a collegiate tennis player and a great shot. He became a radio operator, and he and his helper somehow survived physically. Mentally, it took him about 2 decades to mentally relax particuliarly at bedtime. He never talked about his service.