# USS YORKTOWN AT THE BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA & RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE NEWSREEL 1942 70862

This sound newsreel dates from 1942 and begins with the fighting on the Eastern Front as Russian forces defend Stalingrad. As shown in the film, they eventually force the German Sixth Army to surrender, a major turning point in the war. The second half of the film shows events in the Pacific, where a U.S. carrier task force led by "Carrier X" (actually the USS Yorktown with USS Lexington) battles Japanese planes in the Battle of the Coral Sea. (Apparently due to secrecy concerns the newsreel commentators were forbidden from actually naming the carrier shown in the film). The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought during 4–8 May 1942, was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and naval and air forces from the United States and Australia. The battle was the first action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other, as well as the first in which neither side's ships sighted or fired directly upon the other. In an attempt to strengthen their defensive positioning for their empire in the South Pacific, Japanese forces decided to invade and occupy Port Moresby in New Guinea and Tulagi in the southeastern Solomon Islands. The plan to accomplish this, called Operation MO, involved several major units of Japan's Combined Fleet, including two fleet carriers and a light carrier to provide air cover for the invasion fleets, under the overall command of Japanese Admiral Shigeyoshi Inoue. The US learned of the Japanese plan through…

- Kind: Newsreel
- Year: 1942
- Genres: War, News, Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/70862CarrierFightsForLifeCastleSnd)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/70862CarrierFightsForLifeCastleSnd?play=1)