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• Weather data for 9 May 1942

• Zuikaku was ordered to pursue any American ships remaining in the Coral Sea area. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]
• HMS King George V arrived at the Gladstone Dock in Liverpool, England, United Kingdom to repair the damage caused by the 1 May 1942 collision with HMS Punjabi. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• German submarine U-352 attacked United States Coast Guard Cutter Icarus 50 kilometers east of Wilmington, North Carolina, United States; both torpedoes missed; Icarus' counterattack damaged U-352, forcing her to surface for the crew to scuttle the submarine; 15 were killed, 33 survived. German submarine U-564 attacked Panamanian tanker Lubrafol 3 miles east of Hillsboro Inlet, Florida, United States, detonating the oil she was carrying, though she would burn for two days before sinking; 13 were killed, 31 survived. German submarine U-162 sank Canadian ship Mont Louis 50 miles north of Anna Regina, British Guiana; 13 were killed, 8 survived. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• US Marine Observation Squadron 151 arrived at American Samoa from Norfolk, Virginia, United States. ww2dbase [CPC]
• By this date, most troops of the Burma Corps had withdrew west of the Chindwin River. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• German submarine U-125 sank Canadian tanker Calgarolite 50 miles west of Grand Cayman island; all 45 aboard survived. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• German minesweepers M-533 and R-45 collided and sank in the English Channel. ww2dbase [CPC]

• USS S-44 spotted a Japanese destroyer in the New Britain-New Ireland region, but failed to close in for an attack. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Joseph Rochefort's cryptanalytic team in Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii intercepted a Japanese Navy radio message ordering carrier Akagi to make rendezvous with another fleet at Sasebo, Japan on 20 May 1942. ww2dbase [Main Article | Facility | CPC]

• USS Wasp and HMS Eagle launched 47 and 17 Spitfire fighters, respectively, for Malta; 61 of them would arrive safely to reinforce the island. Meanwhile, to the west, British minelayer HMS Welshman, carrying 240 tons of supplies for Malta and disguised as a French destroyer, encountered Axis aircraft but her disguise kept her safe. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Shokaku was reassigned to Carrier Division 5, 1st Air Fleet. She was detached to proceed immediately to Japan at top speed, starting a dramatic dash past a cordon of American submarines alerted to intercept the cripple. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]

• Troops of the Japanese Kawamura Detachment wiped out American and Filipino troops under Brigadier General William Sharp near Dalig on Mindanao, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Semyon Timoshenko's 28th Army (Lieutenant-General D. I. Ryabyshev), reinforced to 16 infantry and three cavalry divisions supported by six armouired brigades, launched an offensive in the Volchansk sector near Kharkov, Ukraine, but were checked after pushing out a salient of some 20 miles into the enemy lines. ww2dbase [Main Article | AC]

9 May 1942 Interactive Map