 Shōhō was quickly located again that morning and sunk . In turn , the Japanese spotted the oiler , Neosho , and her escorting destroyer , which were misidentified as a carrier and a light cruiser . A single dive bomber was lost during the consequent airstrike that sank the destroyer and damaged Neosho badly enough that she had to be scuttled a few days later . Late in the afternoon , the Japanese launched a small airstrike , without any escorting fighters , based on an erroneous spot report . The American carriers were far closer to the Japanese than they realized and roughly in line with their intended target . Alerted by radar , some of the American Combat Air Patrol ( CAP ) was vectored to intercept the Japanese aircraft , the rest being retained near the carriers because of bad weather and fading daylight . The American fighters mauled the Japanese attackers who were forced to call off the attack , but some of the surviving Japanese pilots became confused in the darkness and attempted to verify if the American carriers were their own before being driven off . 
