"... But Never Better Late"

FRI 29 MAY 1942
Pacific
Seaplane tender (destroyer) Thornton (AVD-11) arrives at French Frigate Shoals, T.H., to relieve light minelayer Preble (DM-20) on patrol station there. Japanese submarine I-123 arrives the same day to find the Americans already there.

Seaplane tender (destroyer) Ballard (AVD-10) arrives at Midway along with the eleven motor torpedo boats from Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron One (Lieutenant Clinton McKellar Jr.); the latter are assigned to local defense forces of Midway (Captain Cyril T. Simard).

PBYs (VP 71) and RAAF Catalinas bomb Japanese base at Tulagi, Solomons.

Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I-21 reconnoiters Sydney, Australia (see 31 May).

Submarine Swordfish (SS-193) sinks Japanese army cargo ship Tatsufuku Maru at the southwestern entrance to Balabac Strait, 07°33'N, 116°18'E.

Caribbean
Destroyer Tattnall (DD-125) rescues 26 survivors (including three Armed Guard sailors) of U.S. tanker New Jersey, sunk on 28 May by German submarine U-103 (see 1 June 1942).