May 24th, 1942 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: de Gaulle promises the Soviet foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, that he will press Churchill to open a second front in Europe.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Near Cape Spartivento, submarine ORP Dzik fires a 4 torpedo salvo and damages Italian oil tanker Carnaro (8357 BRT). After the attack, two Italian corvettes dropped over 60 depth charges.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Rear Admiral Kakuhi Kakuta, commanding the 2nd Carrier Division, the heavy carrier Junyo and the light carrier Ryujo, departs Japanese waters for the Aleutian Islands with his force. (56)NEW CALEDONIA: The Americal Division of the US Army is constituted. It is organised as a square division, from units assigned to Task Force 6814. Command Post is at Paita since yesterday. (Yves J. Bellanger)
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: A USAAF Catalina arrives on Timor at 5.15pm from Darwin bringing stores, equipment and mail to the Australian troops fighting in the hills. The plane takes off with seven wounded men, one of whom Private Hallow has had his jaw shot off over a month earlier. Also on board is a list of promotions. (William L. Howard)(188, 189, 190, 191)
NEW ZEALAND: The Japanese submarine HIJMS I-21 launches a Yokosuka E14Y1, Navy Type 0 Small Reconnaissance Seaplane, Allied Code Name "Glen," to fly a reconnaissance mission over Auckland.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Quebec renamed HMCS Ville de Quebec and placed in commission.
U.S.A.: The German submarine U-558 fires a torpedo at an unarmed U.S. freighter in the Caribbean but it fails to explode and the sub surfaces to sink the ship by gunfire. The crew abandons the freighter but a U.S. Navy PBY Catalina arrives and the sub submerges. The freighter sinks the following morning.
Nimitz replies to King that he would keep the old battleships on the West Coast "until objectives for their striking power are more definite." (John B. Lundstrom)(225)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1640, the unescorted Hector was hit by a stern torpedo from U-103 and sank quickly 60 miles NW of Grand Cayman Island. The ship had been spotted by the U-boat at 1200 and chased for almost five hours. The cook and the radio officer died. The survivors were soon picked up by American tanker FQ Barstow and landed at Kingston on 26 May.
At 1315, U-502 torpedoed an armed ship devoid of neutrality markings. The Gonçalves Diaz was armed with one 120-mm gun and was identified as Brazilian only after the attack.