Air Operations, CBI

7th Heavy Bomb Group B-17s attack Myitkyina.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• 5th Air Force bombers hit both Rabaul and Lae.
• 8th Pursuit Group P-39s shoot down 3 A6M Zeros over the Port Moresby/Seven-Mile Drome at 0730 hours.

Atlantic

• After heavy losses along the Eastern seaboard, the first major convoy operation along the east coast of the US begins from Hampton Roads, Va to Key West, Fl.
• The damaged cruiser Trinidad leaves Murmansk for Scapa Flow under heavy escort. Ju-88s attack and set the ship on fire. She is scuttled on May 15.

Australia, Home Front

The American 32nd Div arrives in Australia.

Battle of the Atlantic

An area off St John's, Newfoundland is mined by a German submarine. They are not actually discovered until late in 1943.

Burma

British troops withdrawing from Burma reach the Indian border at Tamu, in Assam.

Diplomatic Relations

The French high commissioner for Martinique and Guadeloupe agrees to immobilize 3 French warships, accommodating the US which does not want them to end up in German hands and conforming to Vichy's obligations under the armistice not to turn them over to the US.

Eastern Front

The Kharkov Offensive is already running out of steam, with the 28th and 38th Armies grinding to a halt. Indeed, counterattacks by the 3rd and 23rd Panzer Divs against the junction of the 2 armies push back the Soviet frontline. South of Kharkov the 6th Army and Group Bobkin are having more success, pushing on toward Krasnograd. In the Crimea the Soviet 44th and 51st Armies have been annihilated. The German 170th Infantry Div enters Kerch.[MORE]

Mk II "Matilda" of the 13th Tank Brigade/XXII Tank Corps attacking settlement. The South-Western Front, May 14, 1942

British-Made Tanks in the Attack

Mediterranean

Over the next 2 weeks the submarine Turbulent makes repeated attacks on heavily escorted convoys making for Benghazi. 3 merchant ships are sunk along with the destroy Emanuele Pessagon during this time.

Midway

The first indications of the coming Japanese attack reach the American code breakers.

Secret War

American experts, who have broken the Japanese naval code, learn that Adm Yamamoto has planned a complex operation to destroy the US Pacific Fleet in the Central Pacific. (see June 4, 1942.)

United States, Planning

The US Women's Army Auxiliary Corp, the WAAC, is established by legislation. 'Auxiliary' is dropped in 1943 and it becomes the WAC, an integral part of the army.