Air Operations, Mediterranean

For the next week Axis aircraft continue to attack Malta day after day, while Axis fighters are engaged in furious 'dogfights' with the British Spitfires. Both sides lose many planes.

Air Operations, Pacific

• 5th Air Force B-17s attack Japanese shipping at Kessa in the Solomon Islands.
• 5th Air Force B-25s attack the Japanese seaplane base at Deboyne Island.

Battle of the Atlantic

• The German U-boat U-553 penetrates the St Lawrence river in Canada and torpedoes a transport.
• U-558 sinks the British anti-submarine trawler Bedfordshire (443t), on loan to the US Navy, off Cape Lookout, North Carolina with the loss of the entire crew of 37.

Burma

Part of the retreating British forces fight a sharp action at Kalewa before continuing on to the Imphal area.

Canada, Politics

Following a referendum on April 27 the Canadian Parliament passes legislation to introduce full conscription.

China

The Japanese launch a local offensive in Chenkiang province.

Eastern Front

German troops go back on the attack in the Crimea, recapturing Feodosiya.

In the Crimea the Germans push rapidly east with mobile forces, while the bulk of the XXX Corps thrusts into the rear of the 51st Army. The XLII and VII Rumanian Cavalry Corps pin the 51st frontally while the XXX Corps penetrates into the rear. After just 4 days of intense fighting, the 44th Army has been virtually destroyed. Late in the day the 22nd Panzer Division reaches the northern coast of the Kerch peninsula, isolating the bulk of the 51st Army, some 8 Soviet divisions.

In the sun-drenched Ukraine, Timoshenko prepared to launch the second battle for Kharkov. Having massed more than three quarters of a million men and large quantities of equipment, the Soviet armies were sure of victory. But the Germans lay in wait, replenished and ready to attack. Hard fighting lay ahead before the real business of the summer could begin.

In March, 1942,Daimler-Benz made a prototype called VK3002(DB) which borrowed lots of factors of T-34. MAN made its sample VK3002 in February with turret equipped in the front. Hitler chose MAN`s proposal. On May 11, 1942, it got the famous name: Panther.

Germany's Panther Tank

Mediterranean

The British destroyers Jervis, Lively, Kipling and Jackal leave Alexandria to attack a German-Italian convoy en route to Benghazi. They are attacked west of Alexandria by German aircraft, Ju-88s, from a specially trained force based on Crete. Kipling and Lively are sunk. Jackal is damaged and sinks in tow the next day. 24 of the crew are lost on the Kipling, 59 on the Lively, and 8 on the Jackal. The destroyer Jervis rescues 630 survivors.

Pacific

US submarine S-42 (SS-153) torpedoes the Japanese minelayer Okinoshima (4359t) in the Solomon Islands. The Okinoshima is taken under tow by the escorting destroyer Mochizuki but capsizes the next day in St George's Channel in the Bismarck Sea.

A Soldier and His Mother in a Strawberry Field

A soldier and his mother in a strawberry field near Florin, California, on May 11, 1942. The soldier, age 23, had volunteered for the Army on July 10, 1941, and was stationed at Camp Leonard Wood, Missouri. He was furloughed to help his mother and family prepare for their evacuation. He is the youngest of six children, two of them volunteers in United States Army. The mother, age 53, came from Japan 37 years ago. Her husband died 21 years ago, leaving her to raise six children. She worked in a strawberry basket factory until last year when her children leased three acres of strawberries “so she wouldn’t have to work for somebody else”. (NARA)