The Battle of the Coral Sea - Explained, shows how this 1942 fight off Townsville was essentially a combat action that saved Australia from future invasion.
It prevented the invasion of Port Moresby but also allowed America to use Australia as a base. If Coral Sea had not been fought then the US Navy would have faced six Japanese aircraft carriers at the Battle of Midway rather than four - and likely lost. The way would then have been open for the Japanese to once again consider invading resource-rich Australia.
This graphic and photo-rich book uses original accounts to illustrate the fight of many days, as well as explains how the aircraft on both sides were used.
Coral Sea was the first sea battle in history where aircraft did all of the "sighting and fighting" - a phrase that the author in one his roles as a Navy officer used to use to explain the battle to naval officer trainees at the Royal Australian Naval College in Jervis Bay, south of Sydney.
Historical, Military History
About The Author
Dr Tom Lewis OAM is a military historian, an author of 21 books, and a public speaker and on-screen presenter. He is also a retired naval officer – who served unusually in land combat as an intelligence analyst; and a retired secondary school teacher.
His Order of Australia was bestowed on him for services to naval history. He was the Director of Darwin Military Museum for its 2007-2012 redevelopment. He has won numerous prizes for his literary works, the most recent being as the national winner of the 2021 Australian Naval Institute’s Commodore Sam Bateman Book Prize for The Sinking of HMAS Sydney, an honour he also won in 2021 for Teddy Sheean VC.
Tom’s history works cover WWI, WWII, battlefield behaviour, and medieval combat. He is in popular demand from radio and television stations across Australia for his insightful comments on military history and how it intersects with modern-day life. He is a regular speaker to community groups, and appears often in TV documentaries. Recent program include The Tiwi Warrior and the Samurai from the Sky; Coasts with Neil Oliver; Sir Tony Robinson’s Tour of Duty; Drain the Oceans: the Bombing of Darwin, and The Borella Ride, the Anzac Centenary commemoration of Albert Borella VC.
Dr Lewis appears in around 30 and TV radio interviews a year. He has been the commentator for Anzac Day parades; for military flyovers, and for important anniversaries. He has been a panellist for numerous military history conferences, a consultant historian for programs such as Family History Down Under; and speaks on cruise liners, where his naval background and many years as a scuba divemaster have especial relevance. He was the military historian for the 2011-2013 Anzac Ghan train journeys.
Tom lives in Canberra with his wife Kaylene, and is presently working on Grandad’s Vietnam War, and How Military Aircraft Fought. His most recent releases were The Battle of the Coral Sea – Explained (Avonmore, 2026), and Gallipoli – Dawn of the Anzac Spirit, the 7th volume of the Australia Remembers series (Big Sky).
