High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought from 4 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval and air forces from the United States and Australia. The battle was the first fleet action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other. It was also the first naval battle in history in which neither side`s ships sighted or fired directly upon the other.