"Zigaretten, Ja?"

MON 25 MAY 1942
Pacific
Light cruiser St. Louis (CL-49) arrives at Midway and disembarks Companies "C" and "D," 2d Marine Raider Battalion, and 37-millimeter gun battery of the 3d Defense Battalion.

Submarine Drum (SS-228) sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Kitakata Maru east of Nojimazaki, Honshu, Japan, 34°00'N, 139°00'E.

Submarine Permit (SS-178) damages Japanese transport Senko Maru, 00°20'N, 118°20'N.

Submarine Pompano (SS-181) sinks Japanese merchant tanker Tokyo Maru about 70 miles west of Naha, Okinawa, 27°03'N, 127°03'E.

Submarine Tautog (SS-199) sinks Japanese transport Shoka Maru about 385 miles southwest of Ulithi, Carolines, 04°07'N, 143°32'N.

Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I-9 reconnoiters Kiska and Amchitka, Aleutians.

Atlantic
Destroyer Blakely (DD-150) is torpedoed by German submarine U-156 off Martinique, French West Indies.

German planes attack convoy PQ 16 as it proceeds toward Murmansk, USSR, from Reykjavik, Iceland; U.S. freighter Carlton is damaged by near-misses. She leaves the convoy under tow of British trawler HMS Northern Spray. There are no casualties among Carlton's 35-man merchant crew or 11-man Armed Guard (see 26 May 1942).

Gulf of Mexico
Unarmed U.S. freighter Alcoa Carrier is torpedoed and shelled by German submarine U-103 at 18°45'N, 79°50'W, and abandoned. U-103 surfaces and her commanding officer asks the Americans for the name and speed of their ship, and if all of her men have been accounted for, before he provides them with cigarettes. Alcoa Carrier sinks early the following morning, after which time the U-boat departs (see 30 May).

Mexican freighter Oaxaca rescues three survivors from U.S. tanker Halo, sunk by German submarine U-506 on 20 May; two of the men recovered, however, will die of their wounds (see 27 May).

Caribbean
Destroyer Goff (DD-247) scuttles the hulk of U.S. tanker Samuel Q. Brown, torpedoed by German submarine U-103 on 24 May.