May 6th, 1942...USS Washington anchors in 11 fathoms of water in Scapa Flow, and takes on 355,404 gallons of fuel from the oiler Kaweah. That ship is followed by store ship Mizar, which delivers beef, fresh vegetables, fresh milk, and ice cream for the battleship.

USS Yorktown and USS Lexington hook up in the Coral Sea, and continue to fuel while seaplanes of both sides hunt for each other. At 10:30 am, B-17s from Australia contact the Covering Group headed for Port Moresby, and attack, their bombs falling wide. By midnight, the Japanese are ready to take Misma and Deboyne Islands, two pinpricks in the Louisiade Achipelago between the Solomons and New Guinea.

At the US Pacific Fleet’s codebreaking office in Pearl Harbor, code-named “Hypo,” the continuing argument between Washington and Hawaii over the Japanese target code-named “AF,” finally comes to a boil.

Rochefort comes to two of his officers, Cdr. Jasper Holmes and Ensign Mac Showers, and tells Holmes, “Jasper, we’ve got to do something to prove to the world that ‘AF’ is Midway.”

Rochefort and Holmes discuss the subject in front of Showers, and Holmes comes up with an idea that helps turn the tide of the war. A former engineering professor at the University of Hawaii, Holmes was called upon in his pre-war days by the Navy to survey the fresh-water situation on Midway. From his work, he learned that atolls like Midway lack enough land mass to provide fresh water, so they require distillation plants as the sole means of providing fresh water. Holmes suggests sending a message by the undersea cable to Midway – which still works, obviating the need for radio traffic to the island, making the Japanese think nothing is going on at Midway at all – saying that Midway report by radio to Hawaii, that the distillation plant has suffered a breakdown and the island has fresh water for only two weeks.

If the Japanese are really interested in Midway, they will pass radio message traffic on the subject through their chains of command and act upon the news. Rochefort says, “Very good, Jasper. Very good.” Then he goes back to his secure telephone and briefs Cdr. Edwin Layton on Nimitz’s staff, who takes the idea to Nimitz. Within the hour, Nimitz approves the plan.

The message is duly sent to Midway by cable, the old Trans-Pacific line, which connects Midway with Guam. Oddly enough, the line to Japanese-occupied Guam still works, so the communications crew at Midway periodically relieves the boredom by sending an obscenity to Guam. A few minutes later, angry-sounding gibberish clatters back.

In the pre-dawn hours on Corregidor, Japanese troops push towards the Malinta Tunnel, against fierce but uncoordinated opposition. The Americans have more than 15,000 men on Corregidor, 5,000 of them paperchasers in the Malinta Tunnel, but very few fighters, so they cannot organize a major counterattack. The Japanese are frustrated, too, having lost two-thirds of their landing craft. The Japanese have 21 boats to move 14,000 men. General Homma is thrown into an "agony of mind" by American ferocity.
But by dawn, the battle reaches its climax at Water Tank Hill, as O and P companies of 4th Marines counterattack, backed by the few remaining guns, which are now manned by cooks, clerks, and radiomen. US Navy Lt. Charles Brook, who has wondered since boyhood what it would be like to charge an enemy, gets his dream, but also gets a leg mangled by a grenade. By 9 am, the Americans are bogged down, as Japanese artillery takes over. By 10, the Japanese finally unload tanks on their beach. The Japanese now can drive into the Malinta Tunnel and massacre the nurses and wounded.
The Americans have no antitank weapons. Corregidor is finished...there are no reserves, no guns left, and Wainwright has a message from President Roosevelt saying that Wainwright "and your devoted followers have become the living symbols of our war aims and the guarantee of victory."
Wainwright gives the codeword "Pontiac" ordering his men to destroy their weapons and raise white flags. Col. Howard will become the first officer to ever surrender a US Marine Regiment. All across the island, US troops destroy their weapons or raid the remaining food and liquor stocks.
The Japanese send word that they will only deal with Wainwright. With his aide, Maj. Tom Dooley, Wainwright drives to Water Tank Hill and climbs on foot to the Japanese positions, noting that there are three Japanese dead for every American. The Japanese take Wainwright by launch to Cabcaben in Bataan. Homma arrives in a shiny Cadillac and in perfect English demands Wainwright surrender all the Philippines. Wainwright refuses. Homma says he will send Wainwright back to Bataan to "do what you damn well please," and continue fighting. The exhausted Wainwright draws up a surrender of the entire archipelago, and signs it just before midnight. The Japanese take the exhausted Wainwright back to Corregidor, and he flings himself on his cot, exhausted, reviewing the bitterest and most humiliating day of his life.

Incredibly, crewmen from the minesweeper USS Quail, under their skipper, Lt. Cdr. John H. Morrill, escape Fort Hughes in a 36-foot long diesel motor launch, and sail all the way to Port Darwin, Australia.

In Madagascar, the 29th British Brigade attacks the Vichy French, who are using shipwrecked Sailors to add to their land defenses. The British have advanced 18 miles in 24 hours, and both sides exchange gunfire in the tropical heat. One French battalion marches north and surrenders. That evening, the British attack the French trenches, while the destroyer HMS Anthony, loaded with 60 Marines, heads into Antsirane harbor in a daring coup de main. The destroyer sails into harbor at 10 pm and, brilliantly handled, avoids French guns. The Royal Marines seize artillery headquarters and the main barracks.

Time to retreat in Burma for Gen. Joseph Stilwell and his Chinese troops, who have to abandon their vehicles. "Abandoned the trucks, harangued the troops, and went to Magyigan while the chow was shifted. Of course, no rafts, coolies all gone down stream already. Ten days to get rafts. Down to next village and saw headman. Hired 60 carriers for tomorrow. Good eggs here. Papayas. We go two days on foot, then on boats to Homalin. If we push hard we can make it. By chance a herd of pack horses came by and we took off after them and captures them. Oh boy, what a break." Stilwell is past the age of 60.

May 7th, 1942...The Battle of the Coral Sea heats up at 7:36 am when the Japanese spot a carrier and a cruiser. The Japanese hurl everything they've got at this force, which turns out to be the destroyer Sims and the tanker Neosho. 36 dive bombers break Sims in two in a few minutes, killing 279 bluejackets. Neosho takes seven hits and drifts southward, blazing, until May 11, when its crew is taken off by the destroyer Henley and the tanker is scuttled. At 8:10, the Japanese spot the Australian cruiser HMAS Australia, and attack with little impact. Just to add to Australia's woes, American B-26s attack her by mistake. But at 8:15, American planes spot two light cruisers and report their group erroneously as two carriers. The mistake is made by the improper arrangement of the pilot's coding pad. Fletcher hurls a major strike at this minor target, and lets it continue when he learns of the mistake, theorizing that there might be profitable targets anyway.
There are. Lexington's planes spot the carrier Shoho and swarm all over her at 11:25 a.m. 10 minutes later, smothered by 13 bomb and seven torpedo hits, she sinks, to the loss of only six American planes. Lt. Cdr. William Dixon, leading the attack, radios Lexington, "Scratch one flattop!"
The Japanese cancel the invasion of Port Moresby and send in an attack on the Americans at 4:30 pm. They run into heavy cloud cover and never find the Americans, but lose nine aircraft. Some of the returning Japanese plot a course that accidentally takes them over Yorktown and Lexington, and mistake them for Shokaku and Zuikaku, the Japanese carriers. Three Japanese get in line behind returning American planes to land on the carrier, and one is shot down before it learns its mistake. The other two return. 11 Japanese planes splash into the sea while attempting night landings on their own carriers. Only six of the 27 planes launched return to base safely.

Dawn breaks on the island of Corregidor with the roar of gunfire being replaced by total silence. Japanese troops storm ashore on Forts Hughes, Drum, and Frank to find white flags waving. Japanese troops take over Malinta Tunnel and take propaganda films of US forces surrendering and Japanese soldiers lowering Old Glory. The Japanese hoist a banner in Manila that can be seen by Bataan PoWs in Bilibid Prison. It reads, "War is over -- Corregidor falls."
Gen. Jonathan Wainwright broadcasts on Manila radio to Gen. William Sharp in Mindanao, ordering him to surrender. Sharp refuses, and goes on fighting.
Corregidor's losses are about 350, Japanese thrice that. The Japanese have also lost 500 men to malaria. The Japanese 4th Division is out of the war. The Philippine defense has tied up Japanese troops and shipping, slowing down their advance in New Guinea and the Solomons.

At dawn, the British 29th Brigade moves into Antsirane, and hooks up with the Royal Marines. Diego Suarez harbor is in British hands, and the British can now move south to capture the rest of the island. British casualties are 109 dead and 284 wounded, French losses 200 dead and 500 wounded. Having taken light casualties from battle, the British now take heavy casualties from malaria.

The Swedish liner Drottingholm sails from Jersey City, NJ, loaded with 948 Axis diplomats from Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Rumania, and Hungary, bound for Lisbon, to be exchanged for US officials, newspapermen, and other civilians in the same countries.

Lt. John "Buck" Bulkeley, the PT boat skipper who saved Gen. Douglas MacArthur, arrives in San Francisco to commence a war bond tour. The same day, the War Department appoints Alvin York, the World War I hero, a major in the Tennessee National Guard.

In Burma, Stilwell's troops move out. "Out at 6:30. A mess. Start ordered for 5:00. Easy pace down river. Til 11. Holcombe out. Merrill out. Heat exhaustion. Lee out. Sliney popped. Christ but we are a poor lot. Hard going in the river all the way. Cooler. All packs reduced to 10 pounds."

May 8th, 1942...In the Coral Sea, all hell continues to break loose as Japanese and American aircraft spot each other's carriers at 8:15 a.m. Both sides launch strikes to hit each other's ships. The American dive bombers don't find the target, but 11 torpedo bombers get the first punch, and catch the Shokaku at 10:57. The Yorktown's torpedo bombers don't do well, American fish are too slow or fail to explode, but finally score three hits, killing 108 men. Even so, the fires are soon brought under control. Shokaku is diverted to Truk, while her sister Zuikaku carries on the battle. The Japanese attack with 18 torpedo bombers, 33 bombers, and 18 fighters. American radar picks them up 70 miles out, but the Americans have too few fighters to defend themselves. All hell breaks loose at 11:18, when the Japanese torpedo bombers attack. Skillful shiphandling prevents hits. But Yorktown takes a single 800-lb. bomb hit at 11:27 am, which penetrates to the fourth deck, damaging the hangar deck. The less-maneuverable Lexington (the ex-battlecruiser hull has a 1,500-yard turning circle vice Yorktown's 1,000-yard circle) take an "anvil" torpedo attack at 11:18, which puts a hit on her port side at 11:20 and a second opposite the bridge. While this goes on, dive bombers swoop down and hit her with two more bombs, One explodes on a ready-ammunition box on the portside, the other hits the stack, setting off the ship's siren, adding to the din.
19 minutes later, the Japanese pull out, ending the fighting, but not the battle. Lexington continues to burn, but damage control teams correct the 7-degree list, and the engines are unharmed. Cdr. Pop Healy, the damage control officer, says to the skipper, Capt. Ted Sherman, "We've got the torpedo damage temporarily shored up, the fires out, and soon will have the ship back on an even keel. But I would suggest, sir, that if you have to take any more torpedoes, you keep 'em on the starboard side."
But at 12:47, an immense internal explosion racks Lexington. Someone has left a motor generator running, and the fumes have caused the blast. More fires begin and a major detonation occurs at 2:45. Lexington is finished. Her engines come to a stop at 4:30, and an orderly evacuation begins. Sailors clean their work spaces -- the Yeomen cart their pay records onto destroyers -- and pack their gear. While Sailors wait to leave, they eat ice cream from the ship's freezer. Even the carrier's dog is rescued, and Sherman is the last to leave. At 7:56 USS Phelps delivers the coup de grace with five torpedoes, and Lexington sinks at 8 p.m., a final explosion occurring as she goes down. Most of her Sailors go on to man escort carriers in the Atlantic.
The Battle of the Coral Sea is over, the first naval engagement in which the opposing fleets never sighted one another. Carrier warfare has begun. The Japanese have won a tactical victory, sinking Lexington, Neosho, and Sims, damaging Yorktown, for the loss of Shoho and damaging of Shokaku. Japanese losses: 43 aircraft, American 33. Tulagi is in Japanese hands. But the whole object of the battle, the Japanese invasion of Port Moresby, has been cancelled. The drive on Australia has been checked.

"May 8. Start ordered for 5 am," diaries Joseph Stilwell. "Off at 5:45 Delay in kitchen. Made Dorm mess officer. No guard on foot. No check. Did four marches to Saingkyu. Limeys' feet all shot. Our people tired. Damn poor show of physique. Chattering monkeys in jungle. Bombers over, reminder that we are not yet out."

Showtime in the Crimea as the German 11th Army heats up the siege of Sevastopol. 11th Army has 13 infantry, one panzer, and one cavalry divisions. Luftwaffe support is Fliegerkorps 8, and naval support comes from E-boats and Italian midget submarines, which attack Soviet supply ships reinforcing Sebastopol.
The Germans hit Gen. D.T. Kozlov's Crimean Front along Feodosiya Bay, and crash through the 44th Army's two divisions, relying on Ju 87 Stukas to do the damage. Once again, the Germans are on the offensive in Russia, and once again, the Russians crumble under the weight of German firepower.

Vice President Henry Wallace tells radio listeners that "I am convinced the Summer and Fall of 1942 will be a time of supreme crisis for us all." He warns that Japan may attack Alaska and the northwest US and Germany may create an uprising in South America. The same day, Manuel Quezon, the Philippine President- in-Exile, racked by tuberculosis, arrives in San Francisco with his family and staff. He will die in Saranac Lake, NY, in 1943.

May 9th, 1942...The US assumes the responsibility for defending Tonga. New Zealand troops in Tonga come under US command.

In the Mediterranean, USS Wasp tries again to deliver 64 Spitfires to Malta, and this time the attempt succeeds. As soon as each Spitfire touches down, an old pilot is there to direct the Spit to its pen. In the pen, RAF ground crew open gun panels with screwdrivers, throwing out the new pilot's personal gear, socks, shirts, and cigarettes to the ground. Others replace the aircraft's fuel tanks, rearm the guns, and the old pilot straps himself in, replacing the new pilot. In a few minutes, the Spitfires are back in the air, veteran pilots at the controls, while the new pilots knock back a whiskey at the officers' mess. An entire squadron of 12 Spitfires is thus able to get airborne in seven minutes. When the Luftwaffe arrives to hammer the island, they are greeted by the Spits.
The Luftwaffe also greets the "Grand Barrage" of AA guns, whose ration of 12 shells per raid for heavy guns, 15 for the light guns, 20 for the Bofors, is lifted. The Luftwaffe is defeated, but Malta is still incapable as a base for offensive action.

US troops arrive at the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, in the Pacific, to defend the giant tortoises from Japanese invasion.

In Mindanao, in the Philippines, Japanese troops crash through the remaining American defenses. Gen. William F. Sharp gets the point and surrenders. The Philippines have fallen.
Historians spend decades debating the impact of the Philippine defense, and why the islands fell. Chance aided the Japanese. Warning messages were never delivered. Teletype operators were out to lunch when radar warnings came in. Fighter planes took off and landed at the wrong moment, and were caught on the ground. AA shells were out of date.
But chance alone did not bring about the horrific defeat. There are plenty of causes for the catastrophe...poorly-trained and equipped Filipino troops. Decisive vacillation on Dec. 8th that kept American planes grounded. The failure of General Douglas MacArthur and his supply officers to properly prepare Bataan for the siege, leaving behind supplies in Manila. Superior Japanese tactics, equipment, morale, and training.
The gain from the stand for the Americans is to their morale, as the defense of Bataan resonates with the legend of the Alamo. Added to this is MacArthur's great escape, and his phrase, "I shall return," which becomes the drumbeat and slogan of the Pacific War

The Office of Price Administration announces that the temporary maximum weekly gasoline ration for non-essential automobiles for the east coast area will be three gallons per week.