World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 27 Apr 1942

• USS Yorktown departed for Coral Sea. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• USS Hammann departed Tongatapu, Tonga as a part of Task Force 17. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Luftwaffe aircraft conducted a raid on Norwich, England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH]

• While off Attu, US Territory of Alaska in the Aleutian Islands, USS S-35's cook was diagnosed with mumps, forcing the submarine to return to base. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Japanese aircraft attacked the airfield near Darwin, Australia; 3 Japanese bombers and 4 escorting fighters were shot down by the US fighters assigned to the airfield, while the Americans lost 4 P-40 fighters. ww2dbase [CPC]

• 9 Japanese Type 1 bombers and 11 Zero fighters attacked Seven Mile airfield near Port Moresby, Australian Papua, destroying 3 A-24 and 1 B-26 aircraft. ww2dbase [CPC]

• USS Astoria departed Tongatapu, Tonga to join Task Force 11. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• A major mining disaster in Manchukuo in Japanese-occupied northeastern China resulted in the death of 1,527 miners. ww2dbase [CPC]

• RAF conducted a 100-bomber raid on Rostock, Germany; it was the fourth consecutive nightly raid on Rostock. Over Köln (Cologne), 97 British bombers (76 Wellington, 19 Stirling, 2 Halifax) dropped bombs and damaged 1,520 homes and killed 11; 7 bombers were lost. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH, CPC]

• Joseph Rochefort's cryptanalytic team based in Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii reported that the Japanese Navy had changed call signs of some major warships, possibly indicating that a major operation was about to take place. ww2dbase [Main Article | Facility | CPC]
• Joseph Rochefort's cryptanalytic team at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii decrypted a radio message from Nobutake Kondo to Tokyo, Japan requesting navigation charts of the Aleutian Islands area and latest intelligence at AOE and KCN (which was determined to be Dutch Harbor and Kodiak in the Aleutian Islands). ww2dbase [Main Article | Facility | CPC]

• Japanese Naval General Staff reviewed the preliminary proposal a underwater aircraft carrier. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Kamoi departed Emidji, Marshall Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]

• 31 British Halifax and 12 Lancaster bombers attacked German battleship Tirpitz and other ships at Trondheimsfjord near Trondheim in Norway to little effect. 5 bombers were lost during this attack. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• USS S-44 suffered a failure with her port engine. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• The first of 127 Polish female political prisoners arrived at Auschwitz Concentration Camp. They were imprisoned in Block 8. ww2dbase [Main Article | Facility | CPC]

• Troops of the Australian Sparrow Force on Portuguese Timor, now waging a guerrilla war against the Japanese, received supplies by Australian aircraft. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• At Murmansk, Russia, HMS Edinburgh embarked wounded merchant mariners, British Army personnel (who had trained Soviet counterparts), British Royal Air Force personnel (who also trained their Soviet counterparts), and Czechoslovakians and Polish nationals who had fled German occupation. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Allied convoy QP-11, consisted of 13 merchant ships, departed northern Russia. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

27 Apr 1942 Interactive Map