25 April - 1 May 1942

[merdiolu]

25 April 1942

Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-108 torpedoed and sank British cargo ship Modesta 110 miles northwest of Bermuda at 0831 hours; 18 were killed, 23 survived.

North Sea : German cargo ship Leesee was bombed and sunk by RAF Coastal Command Beafort bombers off Norway.

Rostock , Germany : 110 RAF bombers from Bomber Command attacked Rostock, Germany for the third night in a row, causing damage in the town with area bombing and the nearby Heinkel aircraft factory.

UK : Luftwaffe aircraft conducted a raid on Bath, England, United Kingdom.

Poland : The large group of Polish artists and actors arrested by SS in Krakow, Poland were put on a transport for Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

Corregidor , Philippines : The final US-Filipino stronghold on the island of Luzon in the Philippine Islands, Corregidor, while already under daily Japanese artillery and air bombardment for the past two weeks, began to be subjected to night-time bombardment as well. At 2200 hours, two 240-millimeter shells hit the opening of a tunnel leading into the underground command center, killing 15.

South China Sea : American submarine USS Spearfish torpedoed and sank Japanese freighter Toba Maru near the mouth of the Lingayen Gulf in the Philippine Islands.

Port Moresby , Papua New Guinea : Four B-17E Flying Fortress bombers of US 30th Bomb Squadron were launched from Seven Mile airfield near Port Moresby, Australian Papua at 0300 hours to attack Rabaul, New Britain; one of them would ran off the runway in the darkness and became stuck in thick mud, while another crashed into Mount Obree. At 0800 hours, Zero fighters attacked Seven Mile and destroyed the stuck bomber.

Burma : Alexander, Slim, and Stilwell met at Kyaukse, Burma, 25 miles south of Mandalay. It was decided that all Allied troops were to be pulled out of Burma, but Slim demanded that no British nor Indian units would be withdrawn to China even if the Chinese border was closer to that of India’s. Meanwhile, Japanese and Chinese troops clashed at Loilem, central Burma.

Darwin , Australia : 27 Japanese bombers, escorted by 15 fighters, attacked the airfield near Darwin, Australia; fighters of the US 49th Pursuit Group, flying P-40 Warhawk fighters, shot down 10 bombers and 2 fighters without any losses

South West Pacific : US troops land New Caledonia

China : Troops of the Japanese 22nd Infantry Division began to conduct a search in Zhejiang and Jiangxi Provinces on the Chinese coast, burning down and massacring entire villages suspected of assisting the Doolittle Raiders.

[merdiolu]

26 April 1942

Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-66 torpedoped and sank US cargo ship Alcoa Partner 80 miles north of Bonaire in the Caribbean Sea at 0830 hours; 10 were killed, 25 survived.

US Navy destroyer USS Sturtevant departed Key West, Florida, United States at 1520 hours to make rendezvous with a convoy sailing from New Orleans, United States; at about 1720 hours, 18 miles north of Key West, USS Sturtevant accidenmtly entered a friendly minefield , struck three mines previously laid by minelayer USS Miantonomah and sank; 20 were killed, 132 survived.

Iceland : Allied convoy PQ-15, consisted of 24 merchant ships, 1 fleet auxiliary oiler, and 2 icebreakers departed Reykjavík, Iceland for Murmansk, Russia with 4 destroyers, 1 corvette, 3 minesweepers, 4 trawlers, 1 catapult aircraft merchantman, and 1 anti-aircraft ship in escort.

Murmansk , Kola Peninsula , Russia : Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Edinburgh embarked 5 tons of Soviet gold worth about £5,000,000 at Murmansk, Russia; it was meant to be the down payment for US war goods.

Bath , UK : Luftwaffe bombers conducted a raid on Bath, England.

Finland : Eight Pe-3 bombers of No. 2 Squadron of Soviet 95th Fighter Aviation Regiment attacked the German airfield at Heybukten, Finland, destroying six German aircraft on the ground ; en route home, the Soviet bombers were intercepted by German Bf 109 fighters; five Pe-3 bombers were shot down.

Berlin , Germany : A law passed by the German Reichstag granted Hitler the right to change laws by decree without discussion by the Reichstag. The German dictator had now been given complete despotic power and Germany has ceased to be a state whose structure was based on the rule of law.

It was about Russia that Hitler spoke, on April 26, when he addressed the Reichstag in Berlin. The Russian winter of 1941 had been exceptionally severe, he said, the worst for 140 years, with temperatures as low as minus fifty degrees centigrade; but with the coming of spring he foresaw ‘great victories’ for the German forces. Hitler’s speech contained more than promises; it was dominated by an appeal for ‘obedience to only one idea, namely the fight for victory’. In stern words, full of threat, Hitler warned his listeners: ‘Let nobody now preach about his well-earned rights. Let each man clearly understand, from now on there are only duties.’

Gnaschwitz , Germany : Five prisoners of war escaped from the military hospital at Gnaschwitz, Germany. Four would be recaptured, but the fifth, Belgian Captain Louis Rémy would make it to Algeciras, Spain.

Rostock , Germany : 106 British bombers from RAF Bomber Command attacked Rostock, Germany for the fourth and final night in a row, causing damage in the town and the nearby Heinkel aircraft factory. 1 Stirling, 1 Wellington, and 1 Whitley bombers were lost during this attack. At the end of the four-day attack, Rostock suffered 1,765 buildings destroyed, 204 civilians killed, and 89 civilians injured.

Hitler, returning from Rastenburg to Berlin on April 26, was particularly angered by the raid on Rostock, where seventy per cent of the houses in the old city centre had been destroyed and the Heinkel aircraft works badly damaged. Discussing the bombing of Rostock and the reprisal raids with Goebbels, he told his Minister of Propaganda on April 27 that he would ‘repeat these raids night after night until the English were sick and tired of terror attacks’. Goebbels noted: ‘He shares my opinion absolutely that cultural centres, health resorts and civilian centres must be attacked now. There is no other way of bringing the English to their senses. They belong to a class of human beings with whom you can talk only after you have first knocked out their teeth.’

Burma : In Burma, the Indian 17th Division moved from Mahlaing to Meiktila, 20 miles to the south, to assist the Chinese 200th Division in forming a line of defense against the Japanese attack on Mandalay.

San Fransisco , USA : US Navy Admirals Nimitz and King met in San Francisco, California to discuss Nimitz’s plan in the South Pacific.

[merdiolu]

27 April 1942

Norwich , UK : Luftwaffe aircraft conducted a heavy night raid on Norwich, England, United Kingdom.

Rostock Germany : RAF conducted a 100-bomber raid on Rostock, Germany; it was the fourth consecutive nightly raid on Rostock. %70 pf the city has been destroyed and over 100.000 people left homeless. ‘Seven-tenths of the city have been wiped out,’ Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels noted in his diary. ‘More than 100,000 people had to be evacuated’. There had in fact, Goebbels added, been ‘panic’ in the city.

Over Köln (Cologne), 97 British bombers (76 Wellington, 19 Stirling, 2 Halifax) dropped bombs and damaged 1,520 homes and killed 11; 7 bombers were lost.

London , UK : The government departments concerned, Churchill told his War Cabinet on April 27, when the raids were at their height, ‘should do all they could to ensure that disproportionate publicity was not given to these raids. Our attacks on Germany were inflicting much greater damage; and it was important to avoid giving the impression that the Germans were making full reprisal.’ German Air Force losses on the raids were in fact too heavy for the Germans to continue them much longer; particularly harmful to Germany’s air power were the losses in instructional crews brought in from the Reserve Training Units to help lead the raids.

Trondheim , Norway : 31 British Halifax and 12 Lancaster bombers attacked German battleship Tirpitz and other ships at Trondheimsfjord near Trondheim in Norway to little effect. 5 bombers were lost during this attack.

Murmansk , Kola Peninsula , Russia : Allied convoy QP-11, consisted of 13 merchant ships, departed northern Russia.
At Murmansk, Russia, HMS Edinburgh embarked wounded merchant mariners, British Army personnel (who had trained Soviet counterparts), British Royal Air Force personnel (who also trained their Soviet counterparts), and Czechoslovakians and Polish nationals who had fled German occupation.

Theresienstadt , Czechslovakia : Over 1.000 Czech , German and Austrian Jews were transported ro Belzec and Sobibor extermination camps to be executed

Malta : Last Royal Navy submarines (HMS Urge , HMS Una , HMS P31 , HMS P35) in 10th Submarine Flotilla evacuated Malta

Darwin , Australia : Japanese aircraft attacked the airfield near Darwin, Australia; 3 Japanese bombers and 4 escorting fighters were shot down by the US fighters assigned to the airfield, while the Americans lost 4 P-40 fighters.

Port Moresby , Papua New Guinea : 9 Japanese Type 1 bombers and 11 Zero fighters attacked Seven Mile airfield near Port Moresby, Australian Papua, destroying 3 A-24 and 1 B-26 aircraft.

Dutch East Indies : Troops of the Australian Sparrow Force on Portuguese Timor, now waging a guerrilla war against the Japanese, received supplies by Australian aircraft.

Coral Sea : American aircraft carrier USS Yorktown escorted by three light cruisers , six destroyers accompanied by two oilers entered Coral Sea to join Task Force 11

Burma : General Stilwell had sought permission, now that his position inside China was untenable, to withdraw to India, taking with him the 100,000 Chinese troops under his command; Washington authorized his withdrawal on April 30.

Pearl Habour , Hawaii : Joseph Rochefort’s cryptanalytic team based in Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii reported that the Japanese Navy had changed call signs of some major warships, possibly indicating that a major operation was about to take place.
Joseph Rochefort’s cryptanalytic team at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii decrypted a radio message from Nobutake Kondo to Tokyo, Japan requesting navigation charts of the Aleutian Islands area and latest intelligence at AOE and KCN (which was determined to be Dutch Harbor and Kodiak in the Aleutian Islands).

[merdiolu]

28 April 1942

Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-136 torpedoed and sank Dutch tanker Arundo 30 miles southeast of New York, United States at 1535 hours; 6 were killed, 37 survived.

US Eastern Seaboard : A fifteen-mile strip of the Atlantic coast around New York began conducting nightly blackouts to counter German U-boat activity in the region

Murmansk , Russia : Allied convoy PQ-15, which had departed Iceland two days prior, was joined by Royal Navy battleship HMS King George V, American battleship USS Washington, Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, 5 cruisers, 12 destroyers, and 4 submarines for its journey toward Murmansk, Russia; the convoy was spotted by German recon aircraft 200 miles northwest of Tromsø, Norway.

On the same day, returning convoy QP-11 departed Kola Inlet in northern Russia; it was consisted of 13 merchant ships and was escorted by 6 destroyers, 4 corvettes, 1 trawler, and 4 minesweepers.

Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Edinburgh departed Murmansk, Russia.

Malta : Italian bombers attacked Malta, sinking British tug HMS West Dean.

Trondheim , Norway : 21 British Halifax and 12 Lancaster bombers from RAF Bomber Command attacked German battleship Tirpitz at Trondheim, Norway; two Halifax bombers were destroyed.

Kiel , Germany : 88 British bombers (62 Wellington, 15 Stirling, 10 Hampden, 1 Halifax) from RAF Bomber Command attacked Kiel, Germany, destroying all three main shipyard facilities and killing 15 people ; 6 bombers were destroyed in his mission by German anti aircraft guns or Luftwaffe night fighters

Berlin , Germany : The German Reichstag passed the legislation marking Adolf Hitler as the “Supreme Judge of the German People,” formalizing his status above the law.

Salzburg , Austria : Count Galeazzo Ciano promised Mufti of Jeusalem Amin al-Husseini and an exiled Iraq Prime Minister Rashid Ali al-Gaylani that Italy would give formal recognition to the independence of Arab states.

Netherlands : All Jews in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands were ordered to wear the yellow badge

York , United Kingdom : 150 Luftwaffe bombers made a severe night raid on the York , Britain. The historic Guildhall in York, England, United Kingdom was destroyed by fire started by German air raid on the city that caused considerable damage on the downtown. Over 400 civilians were killed. Seventeen German bombers were shot down by RAF night fighters or British anti aircraft guns (Luftwaffe crew losses were very severe in these Baedeker Raids since most of them were highly trained and professional instructor crews that used to be training new recruits)

Since Baedeker Blitz started one week ago , total 938 British civilians were killed by air raids

Port Moresby , Papua , New Guinea : At 1100 hours, Coast Watchers reported incoming Japanese aircraft flying south from the Lae, New Guinea area. Shortly after, 8 Japanese Type 1 bombers and 11 Zero fighters attacked Port Moresby, Australian Papua. In the ensuing combat, two of the Kittyhawk fighters attempted to engage in dogfights with Zero fighters at a high altitude, which caused their engines to stall, leading to the two fighters’ crash. After the attack, Port Moresby personnel discovered one of the Japanese bombers had delivered a bag containing 395 letters written by prisoners of war kept in Rabaul, New Britain; actually two khaki bags of mail were dropped, but one of them fell in the water.

Burma : Troops of the Chinese 28th Division arrived at Lashio in northern Burma to defend the city. If Lashio falls to Japanese , then the Burma Road would be severed. To the west, the Indian 17th Division crossed the Irrawaddy River at Sameikkon, Burma on its retreat toward India; Chinese 38th Division and British 7th Armoured Brigade formed a line between Sagaing and Ondaw to guard the retreat.

South China Sea : American submarine USS Seal torpedoed and sank Japanese cargo ship Tatsukufu Maru in South China Sea.

Solomon Islands : Coast Watchers reported that a Japanese flying boat base was being built in Tulagi , the upper Solomon Islands.

[merdiolu]

29 April 1942

Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-108 pursued US tanker Mobiloil from 0900 hours to 1645 hours, finally sinking her 400 kilometers north to Puerto Rico with the sixth torpedo expended in this effort; all 53 aboard survived.

German submarine U-66 torpedoed and sank Panamanian tanker Harry G. Seidel 50 miles west of Grenada; 2 were killed, 48 survived.

Mediterranean Sea : Royal Navy submarine HMS Urge , recently left from Malta en route to Alexandria , was bombed and sunk with all hands on the surface by an Italian Fiat CR.42 aircraft off Ra’s el Hilal , Libya.

Barents Sea : 4 minesweepers departed from the close escort force of Allied convoy QP-11 off northern Russia; later on the same day, the convoy was spotted by a German Ju 88 aircraft.

Arctic Sea : German cargo ship Curitbya was torpedoed and sunk by Soviet submarine M-171 off Vardo , Norway.

Black Sea : Soviet minesaweeper T-494 was bombed and sunk by Luftwaffe JU-87 Stuka dive bombers

Kursk , Russia : Soviet Bolhov Offensive near Kursk ended.

France : 88 British bombers (73 Wellington, 9 Hampden, 6 Stirling) from RAF Bomber Command attacked the Gnome et Rhône aircraft engine factory near Paris, France; one building was destroyed and three buildings damaged at the cost of 3 bombers destroyed.

Belgium : The Tenderloo chemical works in Belgium was sabotaged and destroyed with an amonium nitrade explosion by a resistance group, killing over 250 people.

The rate of German retaliatory executions of Belgians was reported to be 25 to 30 per month.

Norwich , UK : German bombers attacked Norwich, England, United Kingdom in night.

Glasgow , Scotland : American aircraft carrier USS Wasp returned back to Glasgow

Salzburg , Austria : Hitler and Mussolini and their respective foreign ministers Joachim Von Ribbentrop and Count Galezzeo Ciano gather up for a wartime conferance at Klessheim Palace once the seat of the prince-bishops and now redecorated with hangings, furniture and carpets from France, for which the Italian Foreign Minister Count Ciano suspected the Germans “did not pay too much.” Ciano found the Fuehrer looking tired. “The winter months in Russia have borne heavily upon him,” he noted in his diary. “I see for the first time that he has many gray hairs.” There followed the usual German recital sizing up the general situation, with Ribbentrop and Hitler assuring their Italian guests that all was well—in Russia, in North Africa, in the West and on the high seas. Mussolini agreed to send more Italian troops (six more divisions) to the Eastern Front if Germans provide motorised transport and artillery.
The issue of Malta and a possible invasion of Malta , a matter Hitler is not fond of , remained unresolved.

Burma : Japanese 18th Infantry Division captured Kyaukse, Burma just south of Mandalay. To the west, Japanese 33rd Infantry Division pursued the withdrawing Anglo-Indian forces across the Irrawaddy River toward India. To the north, 100 kilometers south of the border with China, Japanese 56th Infantry Division captured Lashio , main terminus of Burma Road midday. Burma Road , main Allied supply artery to Nationalist China has been severed.

British and Indian forces began to evacuate Akyab harbour in Southern Burma on the Bay of Bengal, less than a hundred miles from the border of India.

Mindanao , Philippines : Japanese troops from 14th Army landed at Cotabato, Mindanao, Philippine Islands. To the north at the island of Luzon, minesweeper USS Finch was damaged by Japanese air attacks.

Luzon , Philippines : A large scale Japanese artillery and aerial bombardment was conducted at the island of Corregidor at the tip of Bataan Peninsula, Luzon.

Rabaul , New Britain : In the morning, Three US B-28 bombers attacked Rabaul, New Britain, destroying five Zero fighters on the ground and damaged four more.

3rd Japanese Special Naval Landing Force departed Rabaul, New Britain aboard transports supported by Japanese light escort carrier Shoho for the invasion of the RAAF seaplane base at Tulagi, Solomon Islands. On the same day, other transports at Rabaul embarked equipment necessary to build a new base at Port Moresby, Australian Papua New Guinea.

Hawaii : In Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, Joseph Rochefort’s cryptanalytic team intercepted a radio message from Isoroku Yamamoto to Shigeyoshi Inoue regarding Operation MO, in which Yamamoto made mention of northern Australia, thus giving Rochefort confidence regarding the hypothesis that Operation MO’s target was Port Moresby.

Washington , USA : Admiral Ernest King established the South Pacific Amphibious Force composed primarily of the 1st Marine Division.

[merdiolu]

30 April 1942

Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-162 torpedoed and sank British tanker Athelempress 180 miles east of Barbados at 0152 hours; 3 were killed, 19 survived. German submarine U-507 torpedoed and sank US tanker Federal 5 miles north of Gibara, Cuba at 1810 hours, killing 5 of 33 aboard.

At 0336 hours, 18 miles south of Cape Fear, North Carolina, United States, German submarine U-402 torpedoed and sank Soviet cargo ship Ashkhabad; all 47 survived.
German submarine U-576 torpedoed and sank Norwegian cargo ship Taborfjell about 95 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, United States at 0737 hours; 17 were killed, 3 survived.
German submartine U-752 torpedoed and sank Norwegian cargo ship Bidevind off New York.

Norwegian Sea : German submarine U-456 torpedoed and badly damaged HMS Edinburgh, escorting Allied convoy QP-11, with two torpedoes (one hitting amidships and another ripped off the stern) in the Norwegian Sea 200 miles north of Murmansk, Russia at 1618 hours. She was carrying £5,000,000 worth of Soviet gold meant as down payment for US weapons and other war supplies. HMS Edinburgh sailed for Murmansk at the slow speed of 3 knots, escorted by two British destroyer and two Soviet destroyers. U-456 ran out of torpedoes thus could not make further attacks, but German submarine remained near the convoy to report in the convoy’s position.
Three German destroyers Z-24 , Z-25 and Z-26 sail away from Tromso , Norway to intercept damaged HMS Edinburgh. Three German destroyers came upon a straggler from convoy QP-11 , Soviet cargo ship Tsiokolvsky and sank her with gunfire in Norwegian Sea.

A German Fw 200 Condor aircraft spotted Allied convoy PQ-15 en route to Russia , 250 miles southwest of Bear Island, Norway.

France and Netherlands : 24 British DB-7 Boston bombers from RAF Bomber Command attacked Flushing in the Netherlands and Abbeville, Morlaix, and Le Havre in France. All aircraft returned safely.

Norwich , UK : 120 Luftwaffe bombers attacked Norwich, England, United Kingdom for the second consecutive day. Nine German bombers were shot down by RAF night fighters and British anti aircraft guns

Ukraine : General Friedrich Paulus , commander of Sixth German Army began planning for Operation Fridericus, an offensive south of Kharkov, Ukraine. The launch date for this operation was set for 18 May 1942

Warshaw , Poland : Just on April 1942 , over 4.432 Polish Jews perished in Warshaw Ghetto , mostly due to starvation and disease.

Corregidor , Philippines : Two PBY Catalina flying boats from Mindanao evacuated 50 US military personnel (including 20 nurses) from Corregidor, Philippine Islands as the island was again subjected to a large scale Japanese artillery and aerial bombardment.

Burma : In western Burma, Chinese 38th Division began to move westward to join the Anglo-Indian troops of Burma Corps commanded by General William Slim already en route for India , trying to complate a retreat maneuver with tens of thousands of refugess over 900 miles of rivers , swamps and jungles. After the tanks of the British 7th Armoured Division had successfully crossed the Ava Bridge over the Irrawaddy River, Chinese troops blew up the bridge to slow the Japanese pursuit. Mandalay is doomed to fall
Japanese troops captured Lashio Airfield, Burma.
British and Indian troops evacuate port of Aktab on Bay of Bengal

Port Moresby , Papua New Guinea : B-26 Marauder bombers of US 22nd Bomb Group moved from Reid River field near Townsville, Australia to Port Moresby, Australian Papua in preparation of a raid on Rabaul, New Britain.
A group of P-39D Airacobra fighters arrived to reinforce Port Moresby, Australian Papua.

Truk , Marshall Islands , Pacific Ocean : Japanese aircraft carriers Shoakaku and Zuikaku escorted with two heavy cruisers and six destroyers under command of Admiral Takeo Takagi left Japanese Naval base at Truk heading to Coral Sea to support Port Moresby operation

Pearl Habour , Hawaii : American aircraft carriers USS Enterprise and USS Hornet depart to Coral Sea but they are too late to participate to incoming battle.

At Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, Joseph Rochefort sent Admiral Chester Nimitz a report regarding Rochefort’s hypothesis that the Japanese might soon be striking at Port Moresby, Australian Papua. Since radio intercepts made mention of multiple targets, he concluded that Tulagi in the Solomon Islands was also a likely target.

[merdiolu]

1 May 1942

North Atlantic : At 2046 hours, German submarine U-162 torpedoed and sank Brazilian cargo ship Parnahyba near Trinidad; 7 were killed, 65 survived

Royal Navy battleship HMS King George V, in thick Atlantic fog, accidentally rammed and sank destroyer HMS Punjabi escorting her 165 miles northeast of Iceland at 1545 hours. HMS Punjabi was broken in half, with the stern sinking, depth charges exploding meanwhile, killing 49. The forward piece remained afloat for some time, allowing 169 people to be taken off. An additional 40 survivors were picked from the sea. HMS King George V suffered a 40-foot gash in the bow, forcing her to leave her convoy escort station to sail for Britain for repairs.

US Navy battleship USS Washington suffered slight damage northeast of Iceland during the accident which saw HMS King George V ramming HMS Punjabi, detonating HMS Punjabi’s depth charges.

Norwegian Sea : Four Luftwaffe Ju 88 aircraft attacked Allied convoy QP-11 at 0540 hours 150 miles southeast of Bear Island with air launched torpedoes , Norway; all their torpedoes missed though.

At 1345 hours, German destroyers Z7 Hermann Schoemann, Z24, and Z25 were sighted by convoy escorts aproaching from south ; the first round of the exchange of torpedoes by German destroyers and the Allied escorts happen at 1407 hours , all missed, but a shortly after Royal Navy destroyer HMS Amazon was hit by gunfire from German counterparts and damaged. Still she holds her position screening the convoy. Through 1742 hours, the German destroyers attempted to close in five more times, but they were not successful and each time they were intercepted and repulsed by Royal Navy escort destroyers ; German destroyers broke off after 1742 hours to pursue damaged HMS Edinburgh in the direction of Murmansk, Russia.

Elsewhere, six German Ju 88 bombers attacked Allied convoy PQ-15 west of Norway at 2200 hours without success, losing one aircraft to anti aircraft guns of convoy in the process.

Mediterranean Sea : A RAF Coastal Command Hudson bomber of British No. 233 Squadron based at Gibraltar sighted , attacked and severely damaged German submarine U-573 with depth charges 40 miles northwest of Ténès, Algeria at 1556 hours. Based upon sighting , Royal Navy immediately dispatches destroyers HMS Wishart and HMS Wrestler from Gibraltar to finish off German submarine, while the German Navy dispatched U-74 and U-375 and the Italians dispatched submarines Emo and Mocenigo to assist her.

Eventually too badly damaged to escape , U-573 had to seek refugee in neutral Spanish port Cartanega (Spain is sympatetic to Axis though) and interned at Cartagena, Spain on 2 May 1942. The damaged German submarine was sold to Spain by German Navy on 2 Aug, 1942. U-573 became the Spanish submarine G 7. (though due to battle damage she did not sail again till 1947) Her German crew was shipped back to German occupied France by Spanish authorities at the end of 1942.

Berlin , Germany : In Berlin, the German High Command recorded that units on the Eastern Front were currently 308,000 men understrength.

Soviet Union : On May 1, in German-occupied Russia, Soviet partisans in one region put up forty-five Red Flags, to which mines were attached to blow up anyone trying to pull them down. Elsewhere, May Day festivities were arranged with the local population, with village dancing and the singing of patriotic songs.

Moscow , Soviet Union : In a press statement due to May 1st , Workers Day , Stalin released a press announcment , declaring that neither he , nor Soviet Union have any territorial ambitions abroad , Soviet Union is fighting a “patriotic war of liberation” and had no aim of “seizing foreign countries” or “conquering foreign peoples.”

Poland : On May 1 the German Nazi Gaulitier of the Warthegau, Arthur Greiser, wrote to SS Chief Himmler from Poznan to propose that Poles with tuberculosis should be sent to Chelmno for ‘special treatment’. That same May, more than nineteen thousand Jews were gassed at Chelmno, as well as more than six thousand at Auschwitz, five thousand at Belzec and thirty-six thousand at Sobibor.

Dubno , German occupied Russia : That same month, in German-occupied Russia, five thousand Jews in Dubno, judged ‘non-productive’ for the German war effort, were taken outside the town and killed in a hail of rifle and machine-gun fire.

Burma : Japanese 18th Infantry Division captured Mandalay, Burma. 300 kilometers the northeast, Japanese and Chinese troops clashed at Hsenwi. 50 miles west of Mandalay, Japanese troops blocked the British retreat at Monywa on the Chindwin River and then attacked from the rear by surprise, capturing the headquarters of the 1st Burma Division.

General William Slim met with Field Marshal Harold Alexander at Monywa, Burma.

Pacific Ocean : American submarine USS Triton torpedoed and sank Japanese auxiliary transport ship Calcutta Maru in the western Pacific Ocean east of China at 1645 hours.

American submarine USS Drum torpedoed and sunk Japanese seaplane tender Mizuho 40 miles off Omae Zaki. 101 from her crew killed.

American submarine USS Grenadier, mistaking Soviet cargo ship Angarstroy for a Japanese ship, torpedoed and sank her in the Pacific Ocean; 60 survived and were rescued by Japanese ship Kayo Maru.

Philippines : In the Philippine Islands, Corregidor was subjected to heavy Japanese artillery and aerial bombardment,
Meanwhile Japanese troops recently reinforced by 14th Army , defeated the Filipino 61st Infantry Regiment on the southern island of Mindanao.

Rabaul , New Britain : Eleven Japanese troop transports arrived Rabaul, New Britain for the invasion of Port Moresby, Australian Papua; they were escorted by seven cruisers and one light carrier; on the same day, Type 1 and Type 6 land attack aircraft of Genzan Air Group arrived at Rabaul for future use with the Port Moresby invasion. On the same day, three B-26 Marauder bombers of US 22nd Bomb Group struck Rabaul, causing minor damage to an airfield.

Tulagi , Solomon Islands : Tulagi in the Solomon Islands, another target of the Japanese offensive operation, was bombed by Japanese aircraft, destroying one Australian PBY Catalina aircraft.

New Hebrides , South West Pacific : Near the New Hebrides islands, US Navy Task Force 11 (containing US Navy fleet carrier USS Lexington) and Task Force 17 (containing fleet carrier USS Yorktown) made rendezvous. US Task Force 17 was established under command of Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher to operate in the Coral Sea.

Pearl Habour , Hawaii : At Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, Joseph Rochefort furnished a report for Chester Nimitz and Ernest King that noted Port Moresby as the likely Japanese target, northern Australia was not being targeted for now, and Japanese reconnaissance operations seemed to be targeting Hawaiian Islands and Aleutian Islands.

Samoa Islands , South West Pacific : The US Marine Corps 8th Defense Battalion arrived at Wallis Island from Tutuila, American Samoa.

Tokyo , Japan : The Japanese Imperial Navy code book change, originally set to take place on this date, was delayed.