Task Force 17 Task Force 17 Task Force 17 (TF17) was an aircraft carrier task force of the United States Navy during the Pacific Campaign of World War II. TF17 participated in several major carrier battles in the first year of the war. TF17 was initially centered around . With "Yorktown", TF17 engaged Imperial Japanese Navy forces in actions at the Marshalls-Gilberts raids, Invasion of Lae-Salamaua, Battle of the Coral Sea, and the Battle of Midway. "Yorktown" was sunk at Midway. Reformed around and commanded by RADM George Murray, TF17 supported Allied forces during the Guadalcanal Campaign. At the Battle of the Santa
Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II the Mobile Fleet, along with large numbers of land-based aircraft, would be concentrated. If the Americans attacked the Marianas, they would be attacked upon by land-based planes in that vicinity. Then the Americans would be lured into the areas where the Mobile Fleet could defeat them. A month after Koga's death, Admiral Soemu Toyoda become the new commander of Combined Fleet. This opportunity for a decisive battle came in June 1944 when the Americans landed on Saipan in the Marianas. The Japanese responded with their largest carrier force of the war, with the nine carrier Mobile Fleet, led by the