May 1942

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The following events occurred in May 1942:

May 1, 1942 (Friday)

May 2, 1942 (Saturday)

  • Mandalay fell to the Japanese.
  • German destroyers Hermann Schoemann, Z24 and Z25 attacked the damaged British cruiser Edinburgh off Bear Island. Edinburgh was struck by a torpedo and sunk but not before damaging Hermann Schoemann so severely that she was scuttled.
  • German submarine U-573 entered port at Cartagena, Spain for repairs after being severely damaged on April 29 by depth charges from RAF Lockheed Hudsons. Spanish authorities granted U-573 a three-month period for repairs despite protests from the British embassy.
  • Japanese seaplane carrier Mizuho sank off Omaezaki the day after being torpedoed by the submarine USS Drum.
  • The Polish submarine Jastrząb was sunk in the Barents Sea by friendly fire.
  • The American patrol yacht USS Cythera was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of North Carolina by the German submarine U-402.
  • Shut Out won the Kentucky Derby.
  • Born: Jacques Rogge, 8th President of the International Olympic Committee, in Ghent, Belgium (d. 2021)
  • Died: José Abad Santos, 56, 5th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines

May 3, 1942 (Sunday)

May 4, 1942 (Monday)

May 5, 1942 (Tuesday)

May 6, 1942 (Wednesday)

May 7, 1942 (Thursday)

May 8, 1942 (Friday)

May 9, 1942 (Saturday)

May 10, 1942 (Sunday)

  • The Allies executed Operation Bowery, a repeat of the earlier Operation Calendar delivering Supermarine Spitfire fighter planes to Malta. This time, the newly arrived fighters got back into the air quickly before an air raid could destroy them.
  • Winston Churchill gave a radio broadcast on the second anniversary of his being appointed British Prime Minister. Churchill warned the Germans that "we shall treat the unprovoked use of poison gas against our Russian ally exactly as if it were used against ourselves and if we are satisfied that this new outrage has been committed by Hitler we will use our great and growing air superiority in the West to carry gas warfare on the largest possible scale far and wide against military objectives in Germany. It is thus for Hitler to choose whether he wishes to add this additional horror to aerial warfare."
  • The British hospital ship Ramb IV was bombed and sunk off Alexandria by the Luftwaffe.
  • Died: Joe Weber, 74, American vaudevillian

May 11, 1942 (Monday)

May 12, 1942 (Tuesday)

May 13, 1942 (Wednesday)

May 14, 1942 (Thursday)

  • British forces withdrawing from Burma reached Tamu.
  • U.S. intelligence partially decoded a Japanese message indicating that a large force was preparing to invade "AF". Cryptanalyst Joseph Rochefort suspected that AF represented Midway Island, but officials in Washington believed it stood for the Aleutians. The matter was settled by planting an easily readable message from Midway saying that their desalination plant had broken down. When a Japanese message was then transmitted reporting that "AF" was short of water, Rochefort's belief was confirmed.
  • The Mexican tanker Potrero del Llano was torpedoed and sunk off Cape Florida by German submarine U-564.
  • Gas rationing along the U.S. eastern seaboard went into effect.
  • German submarines U-622 and U-663 were commissioned.
  • Aaron Copland's classical composition Lincoln Portrait was performed for the first time by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
  • Born: Tony Pérez, baseball player, in Ciego de Ávila, Cuba
  • Died:

May 15, 1942 (Friday)

May 16, 1942 (Saturday)

May 17, 1942 (Sunday)

May 18, 1942 (Monday)

May 19, 1942 (Tuesday)

May 20, 1942 (Wednesday)

May 21, 1942 (Thursday)

  • The Philippine city of Bacolod was occupied by the Japanese.
  • Allied convoy PQ 16 departed Iceland for the Soviet Union.
  • The Mexican oil tanker Faja de Oro was torpedoed and sunk in the Gulf of Mexico by German submarine U-106. This incident along with the Potrero del Llano sinking on the 14th provided a casus belli for Mexico to declare war on the Axis.
  • German submarines U-197 and U-623 were commissioned.
  • The comedy-drama film Tortilla Flat starring Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr and John Garfield was released.
  • Died:

May 22, 1942 (Friday)

May 23, 1942 (Saturday)

May 24, 1942 (Sunday)

May 25, 1942 (Monday)

May 26, 1942 (Tuesday)

May 27, 1942 (Wednesday)

  • Operation Anthropoid, the attempted assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, was carried out. Heydrich was injured and died eight days later.
  • Five cargo ships of Allied convoy PQ 16 were sunk in a single day by the Luftwaffe.
  • All Jews in Nazi-occupied Belgium were ordered to wear the yellow badge.
  • Hideki Tojo addressed the Japanese Diet, reviewing the state of the war and encouraging India to attain independence by rising up against British and American forces.
  • Died: Chen Duxiu, 62, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party

May 28, 1942 (Thursday)

May 29, 1942 (Friday)

May 30, 1942 (Saturday)

  • In Operation Millennium, the British conducted a thousand-plane bombing raid on Cologne targeting the city's chemical and machine tool industries. Almost 1,500 tons of bombs were dropped in 90 minutes, killing 469 people and leaving 45,000 homeless.
  • 28 of the original 35 merchant ships of Allied convoy PQ 16 arrived at Murmansk. Eight of them went on to Archangelsk and arrived there June 1.
  • Fred Korematsu was arrested on a street corner in San Leandro, California after being identified as being of Japanese ancestry, despite plastic surgery on his eyelids in an attempt to pass for Caucasian. The legality of his internment would be taken all the way to the Supreme Court in the landmark case Korematsu v. United States.
  • German submarine U-445 was released.
  • Died:

May 31, 1942 (Sunday)


This page was last updated at 2023-11-14 07:41 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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