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• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Palau and departed later on the same day. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]
• Submarine Macabi was laid down. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• US Navy completed a two-day raid on Truk, which destroyed 120 Japanese aircraft. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• The first Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference began and would last until 16 May. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Australian Prime Minister John Curtin, New Zealand Prime Minister Peter Fraser, Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King, and South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts were in attendance. They would agree to support the Moscow Declaration and reached agreement regarding their respective roles in the overall Allied war effort. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH]
• The Organizational Division of the German Prisoner of War Office reported that a total of 5,165,381 Soviet prisoners were in German captivity. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Joseph Stalin justified taking the war into German borders by noting "[o]ur tasks cannot be restricted by pushing the enemy out of our Motherland.... We must free our brothers from German Europe who have been conquered by Hitler's Germany." ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Chiaki Matsuda was made the commanding officer of Carrier Division 4 and 4th Aircraft Squadron. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Yamato arrived at Lingga, Dutch East Indies south of Singapore. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]
• Destroyer Yukikaze arrived at Lingga, Dutch East Indies. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• British Squadron Leader Maurice Southgate, whose task it was to coordinate the various Marquis groups between the Loire River and the Pyrenees mountains, was arrested by the Gestapo in Paris, France. ww2dbase [Main Article | AC]

• USS Finback arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, ending her eighth war patrol. ww2dbase [Main Article | Facility | CPC]

• Anglo-Indian troops attacked Crete West hill near Imphal, India. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Italian Navy formed Divisione Decima (10th Division) with theoretical strength of 11 battalions; in actuality only 4 were operational at this time. ww2dbase [CPC]
• The newly formed Italian parachute regiment formally became a part of the Italian Air Force. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Landing ship No. 103 was completed. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Masafumi Arima was promoted to the rank of rear admiral. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Boris Shaposhnikov received the Medal for the Defense of Moscow. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• The Yugoslavian partisan leader Tito's mission arrived in London, England, United Kingdom to discuss cooperation with the Allies and gained official recognition. ww2dbase [TH]
• While in Britain, Robert Johnson was promoted to the rank of major. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• USS Sterlet departed Key West, Florida, United States. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

1 May 1944 Interactive Map