9 May 1942
Atlantic Ocean : Beginning the first week of May 1942 , US Navy ASW (anti submarine) patrols got more stronger , quiped with more andf better aircraft from US Navy and Army and more and more ASW (anti submarine) craft and escorts joining to US Navy Atlanttic Fleet Eastern Seaboard Zone. As expected, German U-boats confronted greatly intensified ASW measures, including “heavy” air patrols all along the East Coast, mounted by 172 Navy and Coast Guard aircraft, plus the Army Air Forces planes. More than 50 British built Royal Navy patrol ships (anti submarine trawlers and corvettes) sent from UK in April 1942 (part of Reverse Lend Lease from Britain to US) plus ten new recently built US Coastal Guard Cutters and sixteen new US Navy destroyers also joined US Navy Eastern Zone reinforcing existing anti submarine vessels in the region. By the time these assets arrived in second week of May , Admiral Ernest King Commander of US Navy finally bowed down against pressure of merchant shipping losses and severe criticism from both his own goverment and from Royal Navy and let US Atlantic Fleet to initiate small scale coastal convoys from one port to another. These Bucket Brigade type coastal convoys were in full operation (by May 14th) and, on May 14, the first Key West–Norfolk–Key West coastal convoys (Bucket Brigades) sailed. Sixteen destroyers of the US Navy Atlantic Fleet spent an aggregate 238 days under control of the Eastern Sea Frontier: 184 days at sea on ASW missions, 54 days in replenishment or refit.
On top of that at the end of April and mid 1942 , US Navy finally overcame its own previous prejudice and interservice inter allied rivaly , finally let some US Naval officers to visit and copycat Royal Navy Eastern Approaches Submarine Tracking Room and Operatrions Rooms in Liverpool , UK to classify , organise and distribute intelligence and operations on US Eastern Seaboard and set up a similar Operations Center and Submarine Tracking Room. Royal Navy wireless and air/sea sighting intelligence sharing with US Navy became more organised and fast with combined and coodinated intelligence sharing about U-Boats with both sides of Atlantic. With Bletchley Park codebreaking operations also shared with US Navy , US codebreakers began building their own bombes to crack German naval wireless Enigma code in June 1942.
The historian of the US Navy Eastern Sea Frontier wrote of the month of May 1942, in part: “There was an extraordinary change this month in the fortunes of the war beneath the sea. April, when ships had gone down at the rate of almost one per day, was the worst month within the Frontier since the submarine first invaded this coast. As it drew to a close there was no indication and no hope that these severe losses could be appreciably reduced in the foreseeable future. In fact when two vessels went down on the 30th [of April], it was possible to predict that sinkings might well increase. Then, in the first 17 days of May not one ship was lost in the Eastern Sea Frontier. (only four merchants ships were lost off Cape Hatreras but these losses were tiny compared to earlier siniking rate since January 1942) In the fourteen days that remained [of May] only four vessels were sunk in our waters.”
These anti submarine precautions (which should have been implemented months ago in US Eastern Coast) and resources gathered in East Coat along with blackout on coastal cties of US Eastern cities and entire coast , proper encryption of US merchant and USN radio traffic , unscheduled and unannounced patrol times and zones by US anti submarine vessels and aircraft began to have quick results and sinkings by U-Boats at US waters began to fall down in May 1942. “Second Happy Time” is almost over and U-Boats in US waters began to suffer instead
German submarine U-352 attacked United States Coast Guard Cutter USS Icarus (commanded by Lt. Maurice Jester who drilled his crew for anti submarine warfare efficiently and fully on alert) with two torpedoes 50 kilometers east of Wilmington, North Carolina, United States; both torpedoes missed; USS Icarus located its attacker with a good sonar contact and her own counterattack with depth charges fatally damaged U-352, forcing her to surface for the crew to scuttle the submarine while USS Icarus opened fire with her deck gun and machine guns as German U-Boat sank ; 15 were killed, 33 survived and captured by USS Icarus.
German submarine U-564 torpedoed and sank Panamanian tanker Lubrafol 3 miles east of Hillsboro Inlet, Florida, United States, detonating the oil she was carrying, though she would burn for two days before sinking; 13 were killed, 31 survived.
German submarine U-162 torpedoed and sank Canadian cargo ship Mont Louis 50 miles north of Anna Regina, British Guiana; 13 were killed, 8 survived.
German submarine U-125 torpedoed and sank Canadian tanker Calgarolite 50 miles west of Grand Cayman island; all 45 aboard survived.
German submarine U-69 torpedoed , then shelled with her deck gun and sunk Norwegian tanker Lise in Caribbean Sea , 12 from her 33 crew lost.
English Channel : German minesweepers M-533 and R-45 collided and sank in the English Channel.
Liverpool , UK : Royal Navy battleship HMS King George V arrived at the Gladstone Dock in Liverpool, England, United Kingdom to repair the damage caused by the 1 May 1942 collision with destroyer HMS Punjabi.
Malta : Operation Bowery : American aircraft carrier USS Wasp and Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Eagle launched total 64 RAF Spitfire fighters 200 miles west of Malta to reinforce air defence of Malta. All except one (that splashed sea) landed Malta safely within 90 minutes , brought to reinforced steel hangars immadiately after landing , refueled and launched thirty minutes later to repel an incoming Axis air raid which was met and dispersed sucessfully by recently arrived Spitfires. RAF fighters and British anti aircraft gunners shot down seven Italian and 21 German aircraft over Malta before end of the day.
While aerial dogfights and bombings going on Royal Navy fast minelater HMS Welshman ( carrying 340 tons of supplies for Malta and disguised as a Vichy French destroyer ) arrived to Valetta harbour and unloaded all of its cargo including anti airctaft ammunition and food safely.
German fast torpedoboat S-31 whilst laying FMC Contact mines off Malta suddenly exploded killing 13 of her crew; it was thought that a mine had cut loose from its mooring and rose into the boat.
Paris , France : British SOE (Special Operartions Executive) saboteurs blew up and destroyed Paris radio mast , silencing the propaganda broadcasts of German collaborationist Radio Paris and Vichy propaganda radio Rennes Bretagne
Ukraine , Eastern Front : Third Battle of Kharkov starts. Marshal Semyon Timoshenko’s 28th Army (Lieutenant-General D. I. Ryabyshev), reinforced to 16 infantry , three cavalry divisions , six armored brigades and supported by two more incoming armies of Soviet Southern and Southwest Fronts , launched an offensive in the Volchansk sector near Kharkov, Ukraine. Today under heavy torrential rain that turned the terrain into quagmire and slowed down their attack , they broke German lines south and west of Kharkov , pursuing the retreating German units which left vast quantities of equipment and unused munitions in their forward defensive zones. Marshal Timoshenko gave his daily order before battle : “We have entered a new period of war , the period of liberation of Soviet lands from Hitlerite rabble. I hereby order all troops to begin decisive offensive operations against our vilest enemy , German fascist army , to exterminate its manpower and war materials and to raise our glorious Soviet banner on liberated cities and villages”
But some of Marshal Timoshenko’s staff is vary that they are advancing too quickly and being lured into a trap. Advance of Soviet Southwestern Front was checked by German 6th Army (which reinforced its defenses with multiple defensive lines and belts with reserve reinforcements) three days later just ten miles out of Kharkov after pushing out a salient of some 20 miles into the enemy lines.
Kerch Peninsula , Crimea : Under command of General Erich Manstein , German 11th Army attack against Soviet bridgehead in Kerch , Crimea progressing slowly but steady with support of 400 German bombers and fighters from Luftflotte 12 (under commsand of General Erich Von Richtoffen) , aiming to destroy 44th and 51 Soviet armies complately holding the Kerch and retake the peninsula before final assault to capture Sevastapol in the south. After meeting initial resistance , General Manstein feinted with an initial light attack on north of Kerch (where Soviet defences were strongest with multiple entrenched defensive belts) while massing his two panzer and five infantry divisions to south to attack with heavy Luftwaffe air support and break through Soviet 51th Army lines and to pin down 44th Soviet Army its back behind sea by overmaneuvering to north
Burma : By this date, most troops of the Burma Corps with hundreds of thousands escaping Burmaise civilian refugees preceeding or following them , had withdrew west of the Chindwin River towards Indian border.
American Samoa , South West Pacific : US Marine Observation Squadron 151 arrived at American Samoa from Norfolk, Virginia, United States.
Coral Sea , South West Pacific : Right after Battle of Coral Sea , US Navy Task Force 17 (damaged US Navy aircraft carrier USS Yorktown and her escorts) altered course to the east and proceeded out of the Coral Sea via a route south of New Caledonia. Nimitz ordered Fletcher to return USS Yorktown to Pearl Harbor as soon as possible after refueling at Tongatabu.
In the meantime, having heard nothing from Fletcher, Admiral Crace commanding the joint Auatralian US cruiser task force guarding the sea approaches of Port Moresby , deduced that Task Force 17 had departed the area. At 01:00 on 10 May, hearing no further reports of Japanese ships advancing towards Port Moresby, Crace turned towards Australia and arrived at Cid Harbour, 130 nmi (150 mi; 240 km) south of Townsville, on 11 May.
Japanese destroyers Yugure and Ushio took on fuel from a tanker in the Coral Sea at 0015 hours. At 0515 hours, Yugure was ordered to escort the damaged Shokaku to Yokosuka, Japan; Shokaku was administratively reassigned to Carrier Division 5 of 1st Air Fleet for the upcoming dramatic dash past a cordon of American submarines alerted to intercept the Japanese carrier. Meanwhile, Ushio was ordered to escort Zuikaku, which was ordered to pursue any American ships remaining in the Coral Sea area.
US Army 5th Air Force from Port Moresby began air raids on Japanese seaplane base at Debone islands.
Mindanao , Philippines : Troops of the Japanese Kawamura Detachment wiped out American and Filipino troops under Brigadier General William Sharp near Dalig on Mindanao, Philippine Islands.
Hawaii : Joseph Rochefort’s cryptanalytic team in Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii intercepted a Japanese Navy radio message ordering carrier Akagi to make rendezvous with another fleet at Sasebo, Japan on 20 May 1942.