Prof. Greg Jackson

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It's mid-morning, May 7th, 1942, and 20-year-old Naval fireman, third class, Bill Lew, is in the depths of the oil tanker USS Neosho, hard at work with two other sailors in the stuffy and cramped number one magazine as their vessel cuts through the waters of the Southwest Pacific's Coral Sea.

You can only imagine what exact duties he might be fulfilling at the moment.

Is he assisting in moving ammunition to the guns above?

Perhaps he's inspecting for fire hazards.

After all, the Neosho may have just refueled the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown and the cruiser USS Astoria yesterday, but it's still the case that one little spark here could easily send this 25,000-ton ship and its nearly 300 souls to the depths.

But whatever typical task he's doing, it comes to an end as he picks up the JV phone and a sailor describes the action above.

Here comes three.

Three off our bow.

Okay, time out.

Before we get too deep into this battle, the Battle of the Coral Sea, let's get just a touch more background.

As we know from recent past episodes, the Japanese Empire has spread rapidly through the Pacific, perhaps especially after its attack on Pearl Harbor last year, December 7th, 1941.