Scratch One FlattopBy the beginning of May 1942, five months after the Pearl Harbor attack, the US Navy was ready to challenge the Japanese moves in the South Pacific. When the Japanese sent troops to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, the Americans sent the carriers Lexington and Yorktown to counter the move, setting the stage for the Battle of the Coral Sea. In Scratch One Flattop: The First Carrier Air Campaign and the Battle of the Coral Sea, historian Robert C.