Ghormley In Charge!

FRI 19 JUN 1942
Pacific
Vice Admiral Robert L. Ghormley assumes command of South Pacific Area and South Pacific Force with headquarters at Auckland, New Zealand. [This lasted exactly four months. — M.B.]

Submarine S-27 (SS-132) runs aground off St. Makarius Point, Amchitka, Aleutians; all hands reach safety ashore. Crew, provisions, clothing, guns, medical supplies are ferried ashore by rubber boat (see 20 June).

Japanese water carrier Wayo Maru is damaged by aircraft (nationality unspecified), Rabaul.

Seaplane tender (destroyer) Ballard (AVD-10), directed to the scene by a PBY (VP 11), rescues 35 survivors (one of whom dies shortly after rescue) from Japanese carrier Hiryu that had been scuttled by destroyers Kazegumo and Yugumo on 5 June. They had been members of the engineering department, left below for dead in the abandonment of the ship.

Atlantic
District patrol craft YP-389 is sunk by German submarine U-701 five to six miles northeast of Buoy No.4, Cape Hatteras mine area, North Carolina.

Caribbean
U.S. schooner Cheerio is shelled by German submarine U-161 approximately eight miles southeast of Mona Island, Puerto Rico, 18°02'N, 67°40'W; patrol plane interrupts U-161's attack but not in time to prevent the U-boat from inflicting irreparable damage. All hands (nine men) survive the attack; Coast Guard cutter CG-459 rescues them with the help of a second patrol plane that arrives on the scene.

Tug Crusader Kingston rescues the last three survivors from a raft from U.S. freighter Norlantic, sunk by German submarine U-69 on 13 May.