CORAL SEA BATTLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24915, 14 May 1942, Page 5

CORAL SEA BATTLE

JAPANESE VERSION WEATHER PREVENTED VICTORY (Rec. 11.45 p.m.) NEW YORK, May 13 According to a United Press of America despatch, the Japanese naval spokesman at Shanghai asserted to-day that bad weather and nothing else had prevented the Japanese Fleet from achieving a knock-out victory in the air and naval battle in the Coral Sea. The spokesman added that if it had not been for the weather the Japanese would have been able to pursue and completely destroy the United Nations’ forces. He declared that the United Nations’ forces consisted of two aircraft carriers, two battleships, three 10,000-ton cruisers, and six or seven destroyers. The Tokio official radio tacitly admitted the importance of the Coral Sea battle by the disclosure that the Japanese warships were commanded by Admiral Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, to whom the Prime Minister-. General a message of felicitations on “ the brilliant achievements attained by the Japanese Navy against the combined British and American Fleet.”