The Battle of the Coral Sea, a major engagement of the Pacific Theatre of World War II, was fought 4–8 May 1942 in the waters east of New Guinea and south of the Bismarck Islands between elements of the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval and air forces from the United States (U.S.) and Australia. The result was a strategic defeat for the Japanese, since their principal goal of landing troops at Port Moresby was thwarted, but a tactical defeat for the Allies, who suffered more significant ship losses. US forces2 fleet carriers, 6 heavy cruisers, 13 destroyers