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• The US Congress established the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German submarine U-564 sank Mexican tanker Potrero del Llano off Florida, United States; 13 were killed, 22 survived. South of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, U-506 seriously damaged US tanker David McKelvy, killing 17 of 36 aboard; she would later be written off. 50 miles west of Grenada, U-155 sank Belgian ship Brabant. 14 miles southwest by of Grand Cayman island, U-125 sank Honduran ship Comayagua. ww2dbase [Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico Campaigns | CPC]
• HMS Vetch attacked and sank the German submarine U-252 in the Atlantic Ocean. 90 miles northeast of Barbados, U-162 sank British tanker British Colony with 6 torpedoes; 4 were killed, 43 survived. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | AC, CPC]
• USS Tuna sank Japanese transport Toyoharu Maru 65 miles off Sohuksando, Korea. ww2dbase [Tuna | CPC]
• British RAF aircraft sank German minesweepers M26 and M256 off Cherbourg, France at 1400 hours. ww2dbase [CPC]
• British submarine HMS Turbulent sank small Italian vessel San Giusto with her deck gun off Ras el Hilal, Libya at 2100 hours; San Giusto exploded as her cargo of 161 tons of gasoline was detonated. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Admiral Ernest King finally agreed to allow Vice Admiral Adolphus Andrews to organize cutters and other small armed vessels to protect shipping on the US Atlantic coast. ww2dbase [Ernest King | CPC]
• British cruiser HMS Trinidad was damaged by German aircraft, killing 63 in the Barents Sea north of Norway. ww2dbase [CPC]
• A German Fw 200 Condor aircraft discovered Trinidad off northern Russia at 0730 hours; at 1852 hours, two BV 138 aircraft relieved the Fw 200 aircraft in shadowing the cruiser; at 2200 hours, a wave of aircraft attacked and damaged the cruiser. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | CPC]
• Lieutenant Aleksey Khlobystov, commanding officer of Soviet 20th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, rammed his Kittyhawk fighter against a German Bf 109 fighter, bringing both aircraft down; this was his third time attacking German aircraft in this manner. He survived the parachute descent, albeit with serious wounds; he would return to combat in Dec 1943. ww2dbase [CPC]

• German minesweeping trawler M-1307 struck a friendly mine and sank in the North Sea. ww2dbase [North Sea | CPC]
• Seeadler was hit by a torpedo from a British motor torpedo boat, capsized, and then broke in half. 85 of her crew members were killed in the sinking. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | Seeadler | English Channel | CPC]

• USS S-44 departed her patrol area in the New Britain-New Ireland region. ww2dbase [S-44 | CPC]

• An Allied convoy ran into a minefield laid by German submarine U-561 5 miles off of Port Said, Egypt on 14 Apr 1942; Greek ship Mount Olympus sank while Greek ship Fred and Norwegian ship Hav were damaged by explosions; the fire aboard Hav would grow out of control and she would later be written off. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Joseph Rochefort presented his Midway Atoll theory to Chester Nimitz's war plans officer Lynde McCormick. McCormick spent hours at Rochefort's office at the basement of the main navy building in Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii and was convinced that Rochefort's theory was likely correct. McCormick would return to Nimitz and would convince Nimitz to agree to this theory. ww2dbase [Battle of Midway and the Aleutian Islands | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]
• USS Nashville departed US Territory of Hawaii for Dutch Harbor, Aleutian Islands. ww2dbase [Nashville | CPC]

• USS Tangier arrived at Nouméa, New Caledonia with flying boats, thus freeing fleet carriers from scouting duty. ww2dbase [Nouméa | CPC]

• Soviet destroyer Dzerzhinski struck a mine and sank near Sevastopol, Russia. ww2dbase [Sevastopol | CPC]

• Newly arrived German aircraft in the Kharkov region in Ukraine overcame Soviet aircraft and halted the northern pincer of the Soviet attack. On the ground, General Ewald von Kleist prepared his German 1st Panzergruppe for a counterattack ordered by Adolf Hitler. ww2dbase [Second Battle of Kharkov | Kharkov | CPC]

• Executive Order No. 9029 issued by Franklin Roosevelt established the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range near Alamogordo, New Mexico, United States. ww2dbase [Alamogordo Army Air Field | Alamogordo, New Mexico | CPC]

14 May 1942 Interactive Map