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• USS Gar attacked a Japanese convoy in the Philippine Islands, sinking cargo ships Moikai Maru and Indus Maru, hitting them with four of the twelve torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Gar | CPC]
• British Admiral Andrew Cunningham announced that "the passage through the Mediterranean was clear", and convoys from Gibraltar to Alexandria, Egypt resumed. ww2dbase [Conclusion of the Desert War | CPC]
• An American reconnaissance aircraft detected German submarine U-176 off Havana, Cuba. Nearby Cuban submarine chaser CS-13, escorting two freighters, was notified and closed in, attacking with depth charges and sinking U-176, killing the entire crew. ww2dbase [Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico Campaigns | CPC]
• Famed Polish Jewish violinist Henri Czaplinski (aka. Genrikh Maksimovich Chaplinsky in Soviet documents) who had fought with Byelorussian partisans but now in Soviet captivity, was reported by Panteleimon Ponomarenko and Lavrentiy Tsanava to be a possible German spy. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Stalin dissolved the Comintern. ww2dbase [Joseph Stalin | TH]

• USS S-41 departed Dutch Harbor, US Territory of Alaska, starting her sixth war patrol. ww2dbase [S-41 | Unalaska | CPC]

• 432nd Fighter Squadron (flying P-38 aicraft) of USAAF 475th Fighter Group was transferred to Dobodura No. 15 airstrip of Dobodura Airfield, Australian Papua. ww2dbase [Dobodura Airfield | Dobodura | CPC]

• Naka departed Truk, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Naka | Truk | CPC]

• Japanese troops surrounded Chinese troops near Baiyang, Hunan Province, China, inflicting heavy casualties. ww2dbase [Battle of Exi | Baiyang, Hunan | CPC]
• Satoru Anabuki, flying Ki-43 fighter "Fubuki", shot down four P-40 fighters over Kunming, Yunnan Province, China, increasing his score to 40. ww2dbase [Satoru Anabuki | Kunming, Yunnan | CPC]

• Z36 was launched at the DeSchiMAG shipyard in Bremen, Germany. ww2dbase [Z36 | Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG | Bremen, Weser-Ems | CPC]

• USS Hoe arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Hoe | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• Nachi arrived at Paramushiro (Paramushir), Kurile Islands. ww2dbase [Nachi | Paramushiro, Hokkaido | CPC]
• The C6N Saiun carrier reconnaissance aircraft took its first flight. ww2dbase [C6N Saiun | CPC]

• Pilots of US Marine Corps squadron VMF-214 were transferred to Efate, New Hebrides for rest after serving 8 weeks in combat capacity. ww2dbase [Efate | CPC]

• USS Whale arrived off Wake Atoll. ww2dbase [Whale | CPC]

• German Luftwaffe I./KG 55, flying He 111 bombers, departed from Sarabuz Russkiy Airfield in Krym, Russia for Stalino (now Donetsk), Ukraine. The transfer was in response to the Soviet counter-offensive toward Kharkov, Ukraine. ww2dbase [Sarabuz Russkiy, Krym | CPC]

• Auxiliary Aircraft Carrier USS Bogue returned to Belfast, Northern Ireland from the Firth of Clyde, Scotland for 16 hours before departing again bound for Iceland. ww2dbase [Bogue | Belfast, Northern Ireland | DS]

15 May 1943 Interactive Map