 Ryūjō and her escorts were the first Japanese ships spotted and sunk by the Americans later that morning , but Zuikaku and Shōkaku were not spotted until the afternoon . Shortly before an unsuccessful attack by the pair of Douglas SBD Dauntlesses conducting the search , the sisters launched half of their dive bombers to attack the American carriers Enterprise and Saratoga . Most of the American carrier aircraft were already airborne by this time , either on CAP , returning from search missions , or from sinking Ryūjō , so only a small airstrike was launched in response to the spot report . About an hour after the first Japanese airstrike took off , a second airstrike that included the rest of the dive bombers was launched , but their target location was mistaken and they failed to find the Americans . The first airstrike attacked the two American carriers , scoring one hit on the battleship USS North Carolina and three hits on Enterprise , but they were mauled by the large number of airborne American aircraft and heavy anti @-@ aircraft fire . Uncertain of the damage inflicted on each other , both sides disengaged later that evening . 
