May 26th, 1942 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: Britain and the USSR
sign a 20-year mutual assistance treaty.
Lieutenant General Henry H "Hap" Arnold, Commanding General USAAF; Rear Admiral John H Towers, USN, Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics; and RAF Air Chief Marshall Sir Charles F Portal attend an Anglo-American air conference in London. Topics of discussion include allocation of aircraft and the establishment of US air forces in the UK. The meeting begins at 10 DowningStreet with Prime Minister Winston S Churchill.
Minesweeping trawler HMS Porcher launched.
SWEDEN: Stockholm: Two German churchmen, Hans Schoenfeld and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, today met Britain's bishop of Chichester, George Bell, in neutral Sweden, to discuss possible conditions for peace between their two countries if the Nazis were overthrown. The German pastors believe there is growing opposition to Hitler's regime within Germany, particularly among army officers.
NORTH AFRICA: Rommel begins a new offensive on the Gazela Line.PACIFIC OCEAN: The Japanese 1st Carrier Fleet, under Admiral Nagumo, leaves the Inland Sea to begin their part in the Midway operation, known as MO.
MIDWAY ISLAND: The aircraft ferry USS Kitty Hawk (AKV-1) arrives with Marine reinforcements including a detachment of a 3-inch (76.2 mm) antiaircraft group of the 3d defence Battalion, a light tank platoon and additional personnel for Marine Air Group Twenty Two (MAG-22).
CANADA:
Corvette HMCS Sackville departed St John's to escort Convoy HX-191 as part of EG C-3.
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: US Naval TF 16, carriers Enterprise and Hornet, return to Pearl Harbor from the South Pacific.
General George C. Marshall issues an order establishing the Hawaii Provisional Infantry Battalion, made up of Japanese Americans from the Hawaii National Guard. Training in Hawaii for Selective Service. (Gene Hanson)
U.S.A.: The feasibility of jet-assisted takeoff was demonstrated in a successful flight test of a Brewster F2A-3 Buffalo, piloted by Lieutenant (jg) C. Fink Fischer, at Naval Air Station Anacostia, District of Columbia, using five British antiaircraft solid propellant rocket motors. The reduction in takeoff distance was 49 percent.
German submarine U-106 attacks two U.S. merchant ships in the Gulf of Mexico. The first is an unarmed tanker which is sunk by a torpedo. Later in the day, the sub surfaces and begins shelling an armed freighter but the freighter's Armed Guard drives the sub off with gunfire before much damage is done.
Minesweepers USS Clamour, Climax and Compel laid down.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0416, the unescorted and unarmed Alcoa Carrier was hit by a torpedo from U-103 while the steamer had discontinued her zigzagging course due to cloudy weather. The torpedo struck the #2 hatch on the starboard side at a depth of about twenty feet below the waterline. The compartment was flooded, the engines were stopped and the radio was destroyed. After 25 minutes the U-boat surfaced and fired about 23 rounds at the vessel from a distance of 400 yards. 17 shells hit the area of the bridge and started a fire. The crew of eight officers and 27 men abandoned ship in two lifeboats. The master was asked the name and the speed of the vessel and if all the crew were accounted for. He then gave a package of cigarettes to the crew. At 0515, U-103 fired a second torpedo which hit amidships and left after one hour when the Alcoa Carrier sank bow first about 125 miles WNW of Montego Bay, Jamaica. On 30 May, a Cuban gunboat picked up 33 men and took them to Havana, Cuba. A USN plane rescued the remaining two men and took them to Key West.
About 1100, the unescorted and unarmed Carrabulle was stopped by U-106 in the Gulf of Mexico by a signal from a siren and a shot across her bow. The U-boat began firing shells at the bridge and the superstructure on the starboard side, while the radio operator was still sending distress signals. The crew of eight officers and 32 men, with the exception of the radio operator left the ship in two lifeboats. One boat held 24 men, including the master and the first mate. At the moment this boat reached the water a torpedo struck just below the waterline on port side and blew the boat to pieces. Only two men survived who were later picked up by the other lifeboat together with the radio operator. Some survivors later claimed that Rasch asked if all the men had gotten clear of the ship, receiving a negative answer, he reportedly laughed and fired the torpedo at 11.34 hours. The tanker sank stern first at 1230. Three officers and 15 men were picked up by the American SS Thompson Lykes 15 hours after the attack and were taken to New Orleans.
SS Syros sunk by U-703 at 73.57N, 17.30E.