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• Weather data for 5 May 1942

• USS Yorktown made rendezvous with USS Lexington south of Tulagi, Solomon Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• USS Lexington made rendezvous with USS Yorktown south of Tulagi, Solomon Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• German government ruled that deaths of concentration camp prisoners no longer had to be reported to the next of kin. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• British troops invaded French Madagascar in Operation Ironclad, landing in Courrier Bay at 0430 hours and Ambararata Bay shortly after. French and British troops clashed at Antsirane and Diego-Suárez. From the sea, carrier aircraft from HMS Indomitable and HMS Illustrious attacked the airfield and the port of Diego-Suárez, sinking French submarine Bévéziers, armed merchant cruiser Bougainville, and colonial sloop D'Entrecasteaux. British corvette HMS Auricula struck a mine in the entrance to Diego-Suárez Bay, suffering heavy damage. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• German submarine U-108 sank US freighter Afoundria between Cuba and Haiti. Off Bermuda, U-106 sank Canadian passenger ship Lady Drake (12 were killed, 256 survived) and U-103 sank British ship Stanbank. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• German submarine U-125 sank US ship Green Island and British ship Empire Buffalo off the Cayman Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• USS Permit departed Fremantle, Australia, starting her fifth war patrol. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Tenryu arrived at Deboyne Islands 200 kilometers east of the tip of Australian Papua. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]
• A B-25 Mitchell bomber spotted Shoho during the day. After dark, 3 B-17 Flying Fortress bombers were brought up from Australia to Port Moresby, Australian Papua and were loaded up with 600-pound bombs for an attack on Shoho. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Truk, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]

• British bombers attacked Stuttgart, Germany for the second consecutive night. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Tatsuta Maru arrived at Yokohama, Japan. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]

• After a final bombardment with 16,000 shells, 2,000 Japanese troops landed on the eastern coast of Corregidor, Philippine Islands at about 2345 hours, delivered by 15 barges. ww2dbase [Main Article | AC, CPC]

• The German 16th Army broke through to Kholm, Russia, relieving the survivors of Gruppe Scherer which had been surrounded since 23 Jan 1942. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Soviet patrol ship Rubin, Soviet patrol ship Brilliant, British minesweeper Harrier, British minesweeper Niger, and British minesweeper Gossamer set sail from Polyarny, Russia; they made rendezvous with Allied convoy PQ-15 in the Kola Inlet at 2300 hours. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Garland completed her refitting at Middlesbrough, England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Ira Eaker was made the commanding officer of US Eight Bomber Command in Britain. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Brigadier General Frank Hunter was made the commanding officer of US Eighth Fighter Command in Britain. ww2dbase [CPC]

• USAAF Fifth Air Force, under the command of Major General Carl Spaatz and based at Bolling Field, Washington DC, United States, was renumbered as Eighth Air Force. ww2dbase [Main Article | AC]

5 May 1942 Interactive Map