Violence Resumes At Sea

WED 29 APR 1942
Pacific
Japanese naval force (3d Kure Special Landing Force) occupies former RAAF seaplane base at Tulagi, Solomons (see 3-4 May).

Japanese seize Parang and Cotabato, Mindanao.

Atlantic
First coastal convoy leaves New York for the Delaware River.

Off Frying Pan Shoals, British steamship Pacific Exporter rescues 27 survivors (including the remaining four Armed Guard sailors) from U.S. freighter Steel Maker, sunk by German submarine U-136 on 19 April (see 18 May).

U.S. tanker Mobiloil, proceeding alone, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-108 about 350 miles northwest of Turks Island, at 26°10'N, 66°15'W; all hands (43-man merchant crew and 9-man Armed Guard) survive the loss of the ship (see 2 May).

Caribbean
Unarmed U.S. tanker Federal, bound for Banes, Cuba, is shelled and sunk by German submarine U-507 at 21°13'N, 76°05'W; heavy close-range fire from the U-boat's guns kill four crewman and wound one of the 33-man merchant complement, as well as destroy one lifeboat and prevent the tanker's crew from launching a second. U.S. Army transport Yarmouth arrives on the scene soon thereafter but only circles the survivors; fishing boats from Gibara, Cuba, rescue Federal's survivors from rafts while the one boat that was launched follows the Cuban boats to shore. The one wounded man dies subsequently.