Est'd. 1942

WED 15 JUL 1942
United States
Naval Air Transport Service Squadron (VR 3) is established at Kansas City, Kansas, for operations in the U.S.

Pacific
Submarine Base, Midway Island, is established.

Submarine Grunion (SS-216) sinks Japanese submarine chasers Ch 25 and Ch 27 west of Sredni Point, Kiska, Aleutians, 52°02'N, 177°42'E.

Salvage party, transported to Akutan Island in district patrol vessel YP-72, continues salvage of ZERO fighter discovered on 10 July.

Atlantic
German submarine U-576 attacks convoy KS 520, torpedoing U.S. bulk carrier Chilore about 20 miles east of Okracoke Inlet, North Carolina, 34°45'N, 75°29'W, as well as Panamanian freighter J.A. Mowinkel and Nicaraguan merchantman Bluefield. Chilore later blunders into a U.S. minefield, fouling two mines and receiving further damage. Two of her 42-man crew are lost when a lifeboat capsizes; there are no casualties among the 9-man Armed Guard. U-576's time to savor her triple triumph, however, is short, for an OS2U (VS 9) and U.S. merchant vessel Unicoi combine to sink that U-boat off the North Carolina coast, 34°51'N, 75°22'W. Chilore later capsizes and sinks at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.

Gulf of Mexico
U.S. tanker Pennsylvania Sun is torpedoed by German submarine U-571 about 125 miles west of Key West, Florida, 24°05'N, 83°42'W; the crew (42 merchant seamen and the 17-man Armed Guard) abandon the burning ship. Destroyer Dahlgren (DD-187) rescues the survivors and transports them to Key West (see 16 July).