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The Action of 13 May 1944 refers to the sinking of an Imperial Japanese submarine in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. An American destroyer escort attacked the former German U-boat , which had been given to the Japanese Navy and renamed ''RO-501''. The boat was the first of two Japanese vessels sunk in the European Theater of Operations. ==Action== Due to arrangements made by German Vice Admiral Paul H. Weneker in 1944, a group of Japanese sailors under Lieutenant Commander Norita Sadatoshi were sent to Germany to receive training in submarine warfare. After they were given the recently launched ''U-1224'' to sail back to Japan with a precious cargo of mercury, lead, steel, aluminum drawings, optical glass, blueprints for a IXC type U-boat and Messerschmitt Me 163A ''Komet'' jet aircraft. Allied intelligence discovered that the Japanese were sailing a submarine from Germany to Asia, so Task Group 22.2 (TG 22.2) of the United States Navy was ordered to intercept them. Lieutenant Commander Sadatoshi had no choice but to take his boat around the tip of Africa and this meant passing off the Cape Verde Islands where TG 22.2 operated. The group included the escort carrier and five destroyer escorts; , , , and . TG 22.2 was on its first day of operations around the Cape Verdes on 13 May.〔 Lieutenant John E. Johansen in ''Robinson'' was patrolling alone a few hundred miles northwest of the Cape Verdes when at sunset about 19:00, her crew made a sound contact with a submarine. Johansen ordered his men to battle stations, and at a range of the Americans opened fire with hedgehog bombs which detonated over the area where the submarine was heard. A few moments later, ''Robinson'' was over the area itself and dropped a series of Mark 8 depth charges.〔 Seven seconds later, two underwater explosions were heard, indicating that some of the hedgehogs hit and damaged ''RO-501''. A few seconds after, that three successive explosions from the depth charges sent up huge columns of water. Three minutes later, a loud roar was produced by another large underwater explosion, said to have killed fish up to a quarter of a league from the battle area. Thus, ''RO-501'' was sunk with a loss of all 52 hands at position , a few miles from where sank after a famous battle.〔〔 Aircraft from TG 22.2 later sank a second Japanese boat in the Atlantic, ''I-52'', and was one of the most successful U.S. Navy squadrons which operated against submarines during the war. ''Francis M. Robinson'' received the Presidential Unit Citation and one battle star for destroying ''RO-501''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Action of 13 May 1944」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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