Hobby Master Archive

The SBDs first real test came on 7 May 1942, when the US aircraft carriers USS Lexington and USS Yorktown faced three Japanese carriers in the Battle of the Coral Sea. During the two day battle, which was the first naval battle in which victory was decided by aircraft alone, Dauntless dive-bombers flew alongside other US aircraft. Each side lost one carrier (the Japanese carrier Shoho being sunk by Dauntless and Devastator bombers) and the U.S. lost USS Lexington but the U.S. had stopped the Japanese ships from supporting an invasion of Port Moresby, New Guinea, and the proposed air assault on Australia.