Prof. Greg Jackson

And not long after 11 a.m., both sides find their respective targets.

Hundreds of miles apart, the machine guns of Japanese Zeros and American Wildcats are both singing the same song, accompanying the sound of bombs striking aircraft carriers from the sky.

The Americans hit Japan's Shokaku with three 1,000-pound bombs, forcing many of her aircraft to land on her sister carrier, Zuikaku.

Meanwhile, far out of sight from this action, the Japanese are landing their punches too.

They strike the Lexington with two bombs and torpedoes.

Alas, Lady Lex, as she's known, won't survive the day.

The Yorktown is struck too, and she's leaking oil.

Badly.

Despite neither side's carriers ever seeing the other, both have lost hundreds of men by the day's end.

And as each recoils to lick their wounds, Bill Liu and other surviving sailors are still stuck on the listing near show, praying that their distress call is heard.

Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck.

I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story.

Bill Lew and his fellow survivors do pull through.

The destroyer USS Henley saves them a few days later.

It then scuttles the oil tanker, sending the Neosho to join the Sims at the bottom of the Coral Sea.

The Battle of the Coral Sea is often overlooked, yet it is truly noteworthy.

This isn't only because it's where the US first sinks a Japanese aircraft carrier, nor is it because the battle is a strategic victory for the allies, even if a tactical victory for the Japanese, who lost more men but fewer ships.

Naturally, both sides will claim victory.

No, the Coral Sea is also of great significance because it is the first full step into the modern world of naval warfare, a world in which planes, not ships, do the attacking.

Did you notice that aircraft did all the attacking here?