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• Roosevelt extended the Lend-Lease Act to include Iraq and Iran. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Goebbels noted in his diary that the term "Baedecker attacks", named after a popular travel guide and used here to suggest that the German bombers targeted British cultural centers, should be banned by his propaganda ministry. ww2dbase [Joseph Goebbels | CPC]
• Already-damaged HMS Edinburgh, carrying £5,000,000 worth of Soviet gold meant as down payment for US weapons and other war supplies, was spotted by German destroyers Z7 Hermann Schoemann, Z24, and Z25 at 0630 hours. In the ensuing engagement, Edinburgh hit Z7 while destroyer HMS Forester was hit by Z7's torpedo and destroyer HMS Foresight was hit by shellfire. Z7 would be scuttled at 0830 hours. HMS Edinburgh suffered a torpedo hit which killed 57. Now structurally unsound, she was scuttled by HMS Harrier and HMS Foresight at 0900 hours. The gold also went to the bottom of the Barents Sea. ww2dbase [Edinburgh | CPC]
• German submarine U-573, seriously damaged by aerial depth charges from a British Hudson aircraft on the previous day, arrived at Cartagena, Spain. The submarine and her crew were interned by the Spanish authorities. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German submarine U-74, dispatched to rescue the damaged submarine U-573, was attacked and sunk by British destroyers HMS Wishart and HMS Wrestler 60 miles southeast of Cartagena, Spain; all 47 aboard were killed. ww2dbase [CPC]
• USS Drum sank Japanese seaplane carrier Mizuho 90 miles southeast of Tokyo, Japan at 0416 hours; 101 were killed, 472 survived. ww2dbase [Drum | CPC]
• USS Trout sank Japanese freighter Uzan Maru 134 miles southwest of Tokyo, Japan. ww2dbase [Trout | CPC]
• The first group of 372 Japanese-American internees, mostly from Portland, Oregon, arrived at the Portland Assembly Center in Oregon, United States. ww2dbase [Portland Assembly Center | CPC]
• The United States Navy placed an order for 2,000 Mark 18 torpedoes before the design had been finalized or tested. ww2dbase [Mark XVIII | DS]

• German submarine U-402 sank US armed yacht Cythera 115 miles east of Cape Fear, North Carolina, United States, killing 69 of 71 aboard; the two survivors were captured by U-402 and taken to Germany as prisoners of war. During the day, the 36 survivors of Norwegian ship Bidevind, sunk by German submarine U-752 on the previous day off New York, United States, reached the US Coast Guard station near Toms River, New Jersey, United States by lifeboat. After sundown, at 2253 hours, U-66 sank Norwegian tanker Sandar 40 miles north of Trinidad; 3 were killed, 34 survived. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | CPC]
• British destroyer HMS St Albans and minesweeper HMS Seagull, while escorting Allied convoy PQ-15, attacked an ASDIC contact 200 miles northwest of Tromsø, Norway at 1950 hours. As the target surfaced, she turned out to be Polish submarine Jastrzab, which suffered serious damage and 5 killed. The submarine was written off and scuttled shortly after the 35 survivors were taken off. Also on this day, German torpedo bombers attacked PQ-15, sinking freighters Cape Corso, Jutland, and Botavon. ww2dbase [S-25/Jastrzab | Arctic Convoys | Norwegian Sea | CPC]
• Alpino Bagnolini made contact with fellow Italian submarine Comandante Cappellini in the Atlantic Ocean at 2025 hours. ww2dbase [Comandante Cappellini | Alpino Bagnolini | CPC]

• 7 B-26 Marauder bombers from Port Moresby, Australian Papua attacked Rabaul, New Britain, causing little damage. ww2dbase [Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]
• USS S-44 reached her patrol area in the New Britain-New Ireland region. ww2dbase [S-44 | CPC]

• Japanese bombers attacked Seven Mile airfield near Port Moresby, Australian Papua. ww2dbase [Port Moresby | CPC]
• Japanese aircraft attacked Port Moresby, Australian Papua. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 2 | Port Moresby | CPC]

• The Japanese launched another aerial bombardment against the Australian seaplane base at Tulagi, Solomon Islands. Deducing that an invasion of coming soon, the Australian personnel evacuated the base after sundown. ww2dbase [Battle of Coral Sea | Tulagi | CPC]

• 1st Burma Division unsuccessfully attacked Japanese 33rd Infantry Division at Monywa, Burma on the Chindwin River. ww2dbase [Invasion of Burma | Monywa | CPC]

• Alexandros Sakellariou resigned his government posts while in exile in Egypt, retaining only the command of the Greek fleet. ww2dbase [Alexandros Sakellariou | CPC]

• USS Pollack departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her third war patrol. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Pollack | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]
• USS Flying Fish arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Flying Fish | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Pearl Harbor, Oahu | CPC]
• Joseph Rochefort's cryptanalytic team in Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii intercepted a radio message from Nobutake Kondo's chief of staff regarding the formation of task forces for an offensive operation. ww2dbase [Battle of Midway and the Aleutian Islands | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• Destroyer Yukikaze arrived at Kure, Japan. ww2dbase [Yukikaze | Kure, Hiroshima | CPC]

• US Navy direction-finding detected Japanese radio signals, presumably from a submarine, originating 80 miles west of San Francisco and alerted all Navy ships. ww2dbase [Japanese Attacks on the Continental United States | DS]

• The powder magazine of gun battery Geary on Corregidor in the Philippine Islands was hit by Japanese artillery at 1627 hours, detonating 1,600 62-pound powder bags; 56 were killed and hundreds were wounded. To the east, in Manila Bay, river gunboat USS Mindanao was scuttled to prevent capture. ww2dbase [Invasion of the Philippine Islands | AC, CPC]

• Italian Navy units began arriving at Constanta, Romania where they prepared to cross the Black Sea to Yalta, Ukraine. ww2dbase [Constanta | CPC]

• The BI-1 rocket-powered prototype aircraft successfully underwent a low-power test at Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, lifting the aircraft about one meter off the ground. ww2dbase [BI | Sverdlovsk | CPC]

• Tatsuta Maru departed Kirun (now Keelung), Taiwan. ww2dbase [Tatsuta Maru | Kirun, Taihoku | CPC]

• Dr. H. V. Evatt, the Australian representative to the British War Cabinet and the Pacific War Council arrived in the United Kingdom. ww2dbase [H. V. Evatt | AC]

• Sunfish was launched at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, United States, sponsored by Mrs. J. W. Fowler. ww2dbase [Sunfish (Gato-class) | Mare Island Navy Yard | Vallejo, California | CPC]

• Chester Nimitz inspected defenses on Sand Island and Eastern Island of Midway Atoll. ww2dbase [Chester Nimitz | Midway Bases | Midway | CPC]

2 May 1942 Interactive Map