WI: USS Lexington survives Battle of Coral Sea?

POD: Lady Lex's has better luck and manages to avoid the two torpedoes and thus only has some bomb damage (as IOTL) to contend with. Also damage control comes through and successfully manages to deal with the fires etc.

Edit: USS Yorktown gets damaged as IOTL
 
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Only one of Yorktown/Lex makes it to Midway. The repair facilities at Pearl probably have to prioritize one ship.

Assuming Midway goes the same with one US carrier lost, there is another deck to throw into the post Midway battles.

Possible butterflies are HMS Victorious staying in the Atlantic or Wasp missing getting torpedoed.
 
Did Yorktown also suffer damage as OTL?
If that is the case then both Lexington and Yorktown are undergoing emergency repairs at Pearl Harbor. If Lexington can be repaired faster then maybe it’s Lexington, Hornet and Enterprise at Midway. Yorktown continues to undergo repairs and waits for Saratoga to arrive back in Hawaii. Lexington could go into Midway with a composite air group of aircraft from two carriers.
I really think it is going to come down to which carrier is considered to have the least amount of damage and all resources available are put into getting that carrier up and running.
 
Only one of Yorktown/Lex makes it to Midway. The repair facilities at Pearl probably have to prioritize one ship.

Assuming Midway goes the same with one US carrier lost, there is another deck to throw into the post Midway battles.

Possible butterflies are HMS Victorious staying in the Atlantic or Wasp missing getting torpedoed.
More than likely you still loose a carrier at Midway or at Guadalcanal so Wasp still comes to the Pacific. There is the chance that Wasp or another carrier survives the war.
 

SsgtC

Banned
Well, for one CV-16 gets commissioned as USS Cabot instead of Lexington. And if Yorktown survives by virtue of not being at Midway, then CV-10 remains Bon Homme Richard
 
The Lexington is almost certainly going to be sent to the west coast to get the same refit that Saratoga had done to her and thus is not available in the South Pacific until November.
 
The Lexington is almost certainly going to be sent to the west coast to get the same refit that Saratoga had done to her and thus is not available in the South Pacific until November.

Post Midway yes but if she only takes two bombs and no torpedoes as per the OP she will be patched up as quickly as possible and get used at Midway.

Now, if she takes the two bombs and two torpedoes and the generator is not left on like OTL and she makes it back (remember at the time of the explosion she was doing 20 knots and conducting flight operations) then she goes straight to Bremerton for a full blown refit because there is no way she can be made ready for Midway.
 
POD: Lady Lex's has better luck and manages to avoid the two torpedoes and thus only has some bomb damage (as IOTL) to contend with. Also damage control comes through and successfully manages to deal with the fires etc.

Edit: USS Yorktown gets damaged as IOTL

Give the US the Lexington instead of Hornet at Midway and TF 16 and TF 17 sweep the board at the open action with an alpha strike. Wilson Brown is a lot tougher and smarter than (expletive deleted) Marc Mitscher.
 
Give the US the Lexington instead of Hornet at Midway and TF 16 and TF 17 sweep the board at the open action with an alpha strike. Wilson Brown is a lot tougher and smarter than (expletive deleted) Marc Mitscher.

Keep Hornet but make her the reserve and scouting carrier - you know the role Yorktown had OTL. I don't know what dummy thought that was a good idea - have the one carrier that had actually engaged in carrier vs. carrier combat and make her the reserve carrier while the brand new carrier full of pilots who had never flown a combat mission was part of the schwerpunkt.
 
Keep Hornet but make her the reserve and scouting carrier - you know the role Yorktown had OTL. I don't know what dummy thought that was a good idea - have the one carrier that had actually engaged in carrier vs. carrier combat and make her the reserve carrier while the brand new carrier full of pilots who had never flown a combat mission was part of the schwerpunkt.

Nimitz. He was unsure of Fletcher, unsure of the mix of Lexington, Yorktown and Saratoga fliers who were Yorkie's air group and he estimated the Yorktown as 70% combat capable with a still damaged elevator and battered flight deck. He was wrong, but how was he to know Mitscher was no damn good?
 
Nimitz. He was unsure of Fletcher, unsure of the mix of Lexington, Yorktown and Saratoga fliers who were Yorkie's air group and he estimated the Yorktown as 70% combat capable with a still damaged elevator and battered flight deck. He was wrong, but how was he to know Mitscher was no damn good?
Not to mention the need to not put undue pressure on the temporary repairs to her bulkheads meant that Yorktown could not maintain high speeds for very long.
 
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