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http://usswashington.com/worldwar2plus55/dl03ma42.htm

May 4th, 1942...HMNZS Achilles and HMNZS Leander arrive in Vila, and stay there for two weeks, assisting to unload ammunition from storeships to barges, and providing AA protection while American Seabees build roads, barracks, supply dumps, and a workable airstrip.

At 6:30 a.m., 12 Devastator torpedo bombers and 28 Dauntless dive bombers from the carrier USS Yorktown attack the massed Japanese ships at Tulagi. The raid catches the Japanese and coastwatcher Martin Clemens by surprise. The American planes swoop down, and overestimate what they see, identifying a minelayer as a light cruiser, and minesweepers as transports. They hammer the targets and go home by 9:30, having sunk the destroyer Kikuzuki and three minesweepers. A second strike punches out two seaplanes and damages a patrol craft, while a third attack sinks four landing barges. The Americans lose only three planes. Despite the elated mood on Yorktown, Japanese losses are minor. The Battle of the Coral Sea has begun.

In Hashirajima Bay, Japanese senior officers wargame the attack on Midway, using a complex game developed by their officers. Battle results are determined by dice roll according to combat results tables, to introduce random events. In the paper battle, American carrier planes catch the Japanese carriers Akagi and Kaga and sink them. Vice Adm. Matome Ugaki overrules umpire Masatake Okumiya to refloat Akagi. In the follow-up game, Kaga is also re-floated...and in both battles, the Japanese win. Success thus assured, the mimeograph machines start to roll, and the Navy is directed to carry out “General Order No. 18,” which will attack targets “AO” and “AF.” The air is soon thick with radio transmissions, coded in JN-25, the top-level code.

These messages all land on the desk of Cdr. Joseph Rochefort, a Japanese-speaking intelligence officer at Pearl Harbor, who heads FRUPAC, the Pacific Fleet’s team of codebreakers, who, after a great deal of sweat and mathematics, can unreel JN-25. Many of the messages refer to a target named “AF.” Nobody can figure out what it is, until an officer looks down a Japanese map and observes that Midway stands at the cross of grids “A” and “F,” and that an enemy snooper plane reported being near “AF” when on a flight near Midway. CINCPAC, Adm. Chester Nimitz, believes this theory. Washington, however, does not. Adm. Ernest King fears a Japanese assault on Hawaii or a raid on the West Coast. The Army worries about an attack on the Panama Canal. Washington demands proof of Rochefort’s theory.

On Corregidor, the Americans, down to one week’s water, are ready for the worst. AA guns are out. Telephone lines are out. Rations are down to a little canned salmon and rice. Showers are out. The last Navy gunboat, Mindanao, has been sunk. The last two PBYs from Australia have flown in to evacuate 50 passengers, including radio intercept specialists and nurses. Wainwright expects the invasion next evening, during the full moon.

Japanese troops invade Mindanao at Cagayan and press south along the Sayre Highway, a dirt track.