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• » 24 Apr 1942

• Jews were prohibited from using public transportation in Germany; exception was made for Jewish forced laborers whose workplace is more than 7 kilometers from their homes, but seats were still off limits to them. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Luftwaffe aircraft conducted a raid on Exeter, England. ww2dbase [Battle of Britain | TH]
• Tatsuta Maru arrived at Davao, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Tatsuta Maru | CPC]
• At Delhi, India, Orde Wingate noted his preference of a proactive long range penetration strategy for his irregular troops. ww2dbase [Orde Wingate | CPC]
• Aleksandr Vasilevsky was named the acting Chief of Staff as his superior Boris Shaposhnikov had fallen ill. ww2dbase [Aleksandr Vasilevsky | CPC]
• German submarine U-136 sank British ship Empire Drum 280 miles southeast of New York, United States at 2348 hours; all 41 aboard survived. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | CPC]

• USS S-44 departed Brisbane, Australia for her first war patrol. ww2dbase [S-44 | Brisbane, Queensland | CPC]

• Zero fighters of the Japanese Navy Tainan Air Group (based in Rabaul, New Britain) attacked Seven Mile airfield near Port Moresby, Australian Papua, shooting down 3 Kittyhawk fighters in combat and destroying 1 PBY Catalina and 2 B-26 Marauder aircraft on the ground. Later in the day, four B-17E Flying Fortress bombers of US 30th Bomb Squadron arrived at Seven Mile in preparation for a raid on Rabaul, New Britain on the next day. ww2dbase [Port Moresby | CPC]

• Japanese 18th Infantry Division captured Yamethin, Burma. ww2dbase [Invasion of Burma | Yamethin | CPC]

• Alpino Bagnolini departed Le Verdon-sur-Mer, Aquitaine, France at 0850 hours for an overnight trial in the Le Pertuis d'Antioche strait west of La Rochelle, France. ww2dbase [Alpino Bagnolini | Le Verdon-sur-Mer, Aquitaine | CPC]

• 91 British bombers attacked Rostock, Germany for the second night in a row, causing damage in the town, but the aircraft attacking the nearby Heinkel aircraft factory again failed to do much damage. One Hampden bomber was lost during this attack. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Rostock, Mecklenburg | CPC]

• Joseph Rochefort's cryptanalytic team based in Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii had intercepted Japanese Navy radio messages mentioning the existence of task forces bearing names such as MO Covering Force, MO Attack Force, RZP Occupation Force, RXB Occupation Force, etc. Rochefort would quickly arrive at the hypothesis that these task forces were organized for an attack in the Port Moresby, Australian Papua region. ww2dbase [Battle of Coral Sea | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• USS S-35 approached Paramushiro, Hokkaido, Japan in the Kurile Islands. ww2dbase [S-35 | Paramushiro, Hokkaido | CPC]

• Hans-Joachim Marseille returned to his unit at Martuba, Libya after a period of home leave. ww2dbase [Hans-Joachim Marseille | Martuba | CPC]

• 12 British RAF DB-7 Boston bombers attacked Vlissingen, the Netherlands, damaging docks without any losses. ww2dbase [Bombing of Cities in France and Low Countries | Vlissingen, Zeeland | CPC]

• American troops landed in French New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Squadron Leader John Dering Nettleton of No. 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron RAF was gazetted for the Victoria Cross award for leading a bombing run on German factories in Augsburg, Germany on 17 Apr 1942. ww2dbase [AC]

24 Apr 1942 Interactive Map