I.J.N. On the Move

THU 28 MAY 1942
Pacific
Japanese First Fleet, Main Body (Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku in battleship Yamato) allocated to the Midway operation sorties from home waters. The Second Fleet, Escort Force (Rear Admiral Tanaka Raizo), whose composition includes 15 transports, sails from Saipan; Second Fleet, Occupation Support force (Rear Admiral Kurita Takeo) sorties from Guam.

U.S. troops (500 men drawn from the garrison at Efate) arrive at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides.

TF 16 (Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance), formed around carriers Enterprise (CV-6) and Hornet (CV-8),

departs Pearl Harbor to take up position northeast of Midway.

Submarine Salmon (SS-182) sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Ganges Maru in the South China Sea about 250 miles south-southeast of Cam Ranh Bay, French Indochina, 09°00'N, 111°00'E.

Submarine Seal (SS-183) damages Japanese army cargo ship Tatsufuku Maru at western entrance to Balabac Strait, 07°27'N, 116°17'E.

North Russia
In the aftermath of German air attacks on convoy PQ 16, U.S. freighter City of Joliet, damaged by near-misses the previous day, is abandoned in Barents Sea, 73°41'N, 21°58'E. All hands (including the 11-man Armed Guard detachment) reach safety on board British tug HMS St. Elstan and Free French corvette Roselys.

Caribbean
U.S. tanker New Jersey is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-103 about 90 miles southwest of Grand Cayman Island, 18°32'N, 82°28'W. There are no casualties among the 36 merchant seamen and five Armed Guard sailors, and all hands abandon ship in two lifeboats (see 29 May and 1 June).