Japanese aircraft attacked Allied fleet off New Guinea according to the U.S. Joint Intelligence Committee. Daily summary dated 27 February 1942

An item referred to a statement of the Japanese Imperial Headquarters at Tokyo, Japan reporting that Japanese naval aircraft attacked on 21 February several hundred miles north east of New Guinea an Allied fleet damaging or even possible sinking an aircraft carrier and heavily damaging a second ship.

Source

Map Room Papers (Roosevelt Administration), 1942 - 1945. MR0423. U.S. Joint Intelligence Committee. Daily summary No. 79 dated 27 February 1942