May 1942

May 1, 1942 (Friday)

May 2, 1942 (Saturday)

  • Mandalay fell to the Japanese.[3]
  • 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.[4]
  • Born: Jacques Rogge, 8th President of the International Olympic Committee, in Ghent, Belgium

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."[9]
  • 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)

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)

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 only wounded but died of his injuries 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.[22]
  • 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.[23]
  • 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.[25]
  • 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.[26]
  • German submarine U-445 was released.
  • Died:

May 31, 1942 (Sunday)

References

  1. Chronology and Index of the Second World War, 1938–1945. Research Publications. 1990. pp. 122–123. ISBN 978-0-88736-568-3.
  2. "Joseph Stalin's Order of the Day on 'May Day'". ibiblio. May 1, 1942. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  3. Mercer, Derrik, ed. (1989). Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. p. 566. ISBN 978-0-582-03919-3.
  4. Barry, Howard (May 3, 1942). "Shut Out Wins Derby by 2 Lengths; Alsab 2d". Chicago Daily Tribune. Chicago: Chicago Daily Tribune. p. Part 2, p. 1.
  5. Evans, A. A.; Gibbons, David (2012). The Illustrated Timeline of World War II. Rosen Publishing. p. 99. ISBN 978-1-4488-4795-2.
  6. Doody, Richard. "A Timeline of Diplomatic Ruptures, Unannounced Invasions, Declarations of War, Armistices and Surrenders". The World at War. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  7. Williams, Mary H. (1960). Special Studies, Chronology, 1941–1945. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 37–38.
  8. "Alsab Wins Preakness; Dead Heat for 2d". Chicago Daily Tribune. Chicago: Chicago Daily Tribune. May 10, 1942. p. Part 2, p. 1.
  9. "Prime Minister Winston Churchill's Broadcast Report on the War". ibiblio. May 10, 1942. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  10. Bauer, Craig P. Secret History: The Story of Cryptology. New York: CRC Press. p. 308. ISBN 978-1-4665-6187-8.
  11. Yust, Walter, ed. (1943). 1943 Britannica Book of the Year. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. p. 8.
  12. "Seventeen states put gasoline rationing into effect". History. A&E Networks. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  13. "Events occurring on Sunday, May 17, 1942". WW2 Timelines. 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  14. "War Diary for Monday, 18 May 1942". Stone & Stone Second World War Books. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  15. Cogan, Frances B. (2000). Captured: The Japanese Internment of American Civilians in the Philippines, 1941–1945. University of Georgia Press. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-8203-4352-5.
  16. Seidel, Michael (2003). Ted Williams: A Baseball Life. University of Nebraska Press. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-8032-9308-3.
  17. Forczyk, Robert. Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1941–1942: Schwerpunkt. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military. pp. 186–187. ISBN 978-1-78159-008-9.
  18. Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2015). KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 415.
  19. "Second Front". The West Australian. Perth: 3. May 26, 1942.
  20. Day By Day: The Forties. New York: Facts On File, Inc. 1977. pp. 214, 217. ISBN 0-87196-375-2.
  21. "Detroit Stages Blackout; War Plants Exempt". Chicago Daily Tribune. Chicago: Chicago Daily Tribune. May 25, 1942. p. 2.
  22. "1942: Key Dates". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  23. "Address by Hideki Tojo, Premier of Japan, at the Opening of the Imperial Diet". ibiblio. May 27, 1942. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  24. "Yankee Doodle Dandy". American Film Institute. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  25. "Brits bombard Cologne in Operation Millennium". History. A&E Networks. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  26. "Events occurring on Saturday, May 30, 1942". WW2 Timelines. 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
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