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
Japanese aircraft carrier Hōshō striking force, "Hōshō" missed the major portion of the battle in which Nagumo's four fleet carriers were ambushed and fatally damaged by US carrier aircraft on 4 June. The next day, "Hōshō" aircraft helped guide the remnants of Nagumo's force to a rendezvous with the Main Body. Around the same time, one of "Hōshō's" aircraft, crewed by pilot Shigeo Nakamura and observer Kiyoshi Ōniwa, discovered the burning, sinking . Photographs of the abandoned carrier taken by Ōniwa have been described as "among the most dramatic of the war in the Pacific". With the battle lost, a significant strategic defeat for