GALLANT END

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24950, 24 June 1942, Page 4

GALLANT END

AIRCRAFT CARRIER LEXINGTON LOSSES IN CORAL SEA BATTLE SYDNEY. June 17. The Australian-born correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, Mr Stanley Johnston, who was on board the United States aircraft carrier Lexington, gives a vivid first-hand account of the vessel's gallant end, reports the New York representative of the Sydney Sun. Mr Johnston rsveals that I JO Japanese planes were shot down during the Coral Sea battle, compared with 25 American planes lost in air duels. Probably 60 planes went down with the Lexington, but the Japanese lost many more in a similar fashion. Mr Johnston adds: " There were two American carriers against three Japanese. The battle disclosed how completely the carrier has displaced th? battleship in importance. It was a battle of dive-bombers, torpedo planes, and fighter pilots, and also of antiaircraft gunners. "When the battle finished two Japanese carriers had bean sunk and a third put out of action, while the Lexington was the only American carrier lost. " I stood on the signal bridge of the Lexington and watched the crew fight the Japanese and make desparate efforts to save the ship. I saw them beaten by internal fires, started by explosions which rocked the vessel for hours after the Japanese assailants had been beaten off. " With her officers and men, I slid down 50 feet to the sea, and was picked up by lifeboats from other vessels that rescued everyone who survived the air combats, exploding bombs, and torpedoes. "Finally, I saw her ."•sunk' by an American destroyer. One of her executive officers said to me as we watched her sink, ' She is not wavering. She is keeping up her head and going down like the lady she always was.'"

Mr Johnston expresses the view that the battle saved Australia from invasion. ?.