Sun City Palm Desert resident Vincent Anderson is a United States Marine Corps veteran of World War II. / Marilyn Chung, The Desert Sun
USS Lexington CV-2 being abandoned, May 8, 1942, Battle of the Coral Sea. / Courtesy of Vincent Anderson
Vincent Anderson
AGE: 87
HOMETOWN: Palm Desert
MILITARY BRANCH: U.S. Marine Corps; Marine detachment on USS Lexington (served as corporal); also served on the 1st and 7th Anti-Aircraft Artillery battalions in the South Pacific.
YEARS SERVED 1940 - 1946
RANK: Platoon sergeant
FAMILY: Wife: Caroline; two children, three grandchildren
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Cpl. Vincent Anderson said his fellow Marines aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lexington were upbeat in early May 1942.
“We had been attacked in February by 18 Japanese two-engine bombers. We shot down all but one,” the 87-year-old Palm Desert resident said. “They bombed us but never hit the ship, and then we raided Salamaua on March 10.”
U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, including the Yorktown and Lexington, attacked the Japanese naval forces after they invaded Lae-Salamaua to construct an airfield and base.
After being at sea for 56 days, the Lexington and its crew headed back to Pearl Harbor, where they added more anti-aircraft guns to the ship.
They headed to the Coral Sea, where Naval intelligence learned of a possible Japanese invasion “off the southeast coast of New Guinea just off Australia,” he said.
“Our charge was to stop that invasion.”
On May 4, Task Force 17 — consisting of two carriers, five cruisers and eight destroyers — headed out in search of the Japanese aircraft carriers, the Shoho, Shokaku and Zuikaku.
Three days later, the Lexington's scout planes found the Japanese invasion group.
The Lexington and fellow carrier Yorktown immediately launched fighter planes, dive bombers and torpedo bombers in the attack of the Shoho.
“At dawn on May 7, we were at general quarters manning our guns, when Capt. Frederick C. Sherman told the radio room to turn on the loudspeakers so that the men on board could hear the pilots as they were attacking the Shoho.
“And then we heard over the loud speaker, ‘Dixon to carrier, scratch one flattop,' and we knew then that our pilots had just sunk the first Japanese aircraft carrier.”
The planes returned, refueled and went out again.
As evening approached — and the late-afternoon patrol was on the way back to the Yorktown and Lexington — there was a report of three unidentified aircraft in the landing pattern of the Yorktown.
“We were ordered not to do any firing,” he said. “Then all of a sudden, apparently, these three Japanese planes saw that wasn't their carrier and they peeled off,” headed back to their ships.
The crew manned their battle stations all through the night, Anderson said.
“On the morning of May 8 at about dawn, we launched our morning scouts and then about 9:30 or 10, they reported that they had found the Shokaku and Zuikaku, so we launched our attack aircraft.”
Imminent attack
About the same time came reports the Japanese aircraft were heading toward the U.S. ships.
“So we were prepared for the attack that was going to come any minute,” he said. “About 11:15 in the morning, we spotted the first Japanese torpedo bomber coming at us on the port side.
“It was horrendous. All the guns from our ship and all the guns from our support ships — everybody was firing at the incoming Japanese torpedo bombers and then suddenly we felt a tremendous vibration on the ship.
“We knew we'd been hit by a torpedo — it hit us portside close to our Gun 2 battery. Then just a few minutes later, we felt it again and they hit us again with another torpedo.
“Then the dive bombers started coming at us. So we switched to firing at dive bombers.
“We got hit by three bombs. One hit the flight deck portside forward and exploded in the ready ammunition locker for our Marine Gun 6, killing all 14 members of that gun crew,” he said.
Another torpedo hit severed the ship's siren, jamming the siren valve open, adding to the deafening noise of combat.
“Then a bomb just missed our Gun 10 gun battery and a wave of water came up and washed us all off the guns, we were scattered all over the deck. We quickly got back to the guns and started firing again, but it was all over by about 11:45 in the morning. When we stopped firing, the ship was in a 7-degree list to the port.”
They flooded compartments on the starboard side to even the ship back out.
New dangers begin
But it wasn't over.
“As we were refueling our planes after they returned, we had a horrendous explosion up forward, below decks. Come to find out it was from high-octane fuel lines, ruptured by torpedo hits,” he said.
The fire, ignited by a spark from an electric motor, started a blaze four to five decks below, eventually getting completely out of hand.
“About 4 in the afternoon, the ship went dead in the water. All power was off. Guys were trapped below decks.
“About 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the captain gave the order to abandon ship — by word of mouth because there were no other means of communication.”
The Marine battery remained on the guns until all divisions had abandoned ship.
“About 5:15, Capt. Sherman came down to our battery and relieved us and ordered us to abandon ship. At that moment, our first sergeant said, ‘Men let's give three cheers to the captain,' and we did. It was very emotional.”
