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• US destroyer escort USS Francis M. Robinson of Task Group 22.2 sank Japanese submarine RO-501, formerly German submarine U-1224, off the Cape Verde islands, killing the entire crew of 52 including Lieutenant Commander Norita Sadatoshi. RO-501 had a cargo of mercury, lead, steel, aluminum drawings, optical glass, IXC-type submarine blueprints, and Me 163A Komet jet fighter blue prints on board. USS Francis M. Robinson would later receive the Presidential Unit Citation for this action. ww2dbase [Conclusion of the Battle of the Atlantic | CPC]
• Major Wolfgang Späte, in a Me 163 jet aircraft launched from Bad Zwischenahn in northern Germany, pursued two USAAF P-47 fighters. Mechanical problems with the aircraft cause Späte to eventually lose contact with the US fighters. ww2dbase [Me 163 Komet | CPC]

• One of the escort ships in USS Bogue’s task group, destroyer escort USS Francis M. Robinson, made sonar contact with a submerged submarine and attacked with Hedgehogs and depth charges with magnetic fuzes resulting in large underwater explosions. The Japanese submarine RO-501 was lost with all hands, although this was unclear to the US Navy for several weeks. [RO-501 was the former German U-1224 that had been transferred to the Japanese Navy 3 months earlier in Kiel, Germany. RO-501 was sailing to Japan with a cargo of mercury, lead, steel, uncut optical glass, aluminum, and blueprints for Type IXC submarines and Messerschmitt Me-163 "Komet" rocket interceptors.] ww2dbase [Conclusion of the Battle of the Atlantic | Bogue | DS]

• USS Honolulu, USS Birmingham, and USS St. Louis arrived at Hathorn Sound at the south end of Kula Gulf. ww2dbase [Walden Ainsworth | Honolulu | St. Louis | Birmingham | New Georgia, Solomon Islands | DS]

• Colonel Henry Kinnison ordered K Force of US 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) to fall back and then to move toward Myitkyina, Burma. ww2dbase [Battle of Myitkyina | Henry Kinnison | CPC]

• Japanese troops attacked Luoyang, China. ww2dbase [Operation Ichigo | Luoyang, Henan | CPC]

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Surabaya, Java. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | Surabaya, Java | CPC]

• The USAAF 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh launched a bombing raid against Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland). ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | RAF Thurleigh | Stettin | DS]

• By this date, Anglo-Indian troops had control of Jail Hill, GPT ridge, and FSD ridge near Kohima, India. ww2dbase [Battle of Imphal-Kohima | Kohima, Assam | CPC]

• Allied troops captured Ponte Sant'Angelo and Castelforte, Italy. ww2dbase [Battle of Anzio | Ponte Sant'Angelo | TH]

13 May 1944 Interactive Map