Submarine Bang (SS-385)!

THU 4 MAY 1944
Pacific
Naval Base and Naval Air Facility, Majuro, are established.

Submarines Bang (SS-385), Parche (SS-384) and Tinosa (SS-283) attack Japanese convoy of merchant cargo ships in Luzon Strait. Bang sinks Kinrei Maru, 20°58'N, 117°59'E; Parche sinks Shoryu Maru and Taiyoku Maru, 20°48'N, 118°03'E, and Tinosa sinks Taibu Maru and Toyohi Maru, 20°55'N, 118°12'E.

Submarine Pargo (SS-264) sinks Japanese auxiliary netlayer Eiryu Maru east of Mindanao, 07°14'N, 129°12'E.

Submarine Tuna (SS-203) sinks Japanese guardboat Tajima Maru north of Wake Island, 22°06'N, 166°47'E.

At Truk, Japanese guardboat Sapporo Maru is sunk by aircraft; gunboat No.2 Hino Maru sinks as the result of damage inflicted by TF 58 planes on 30 April.

Japanese merchant vessel Akira Maru is sunk by gunfire, 00°53'S, 134°55'E.

Japanese convoy No.3503 (ten Marus and six escort vessels) leaves Tateyama, bound for the Marshalls (see 10-20 May 1944).

Mediterranean
While convoy GUS 38 continues on its way, destroyer escorts Joseph E. Campbell (DE-70) and Pride (DE-323), French destroyer escort Senegalais, and British destroyer HMS Blankney continue the hunt for German submarine U-371 in the western Mediterranean. Senegalais attacks the U-boat, 37°49'N, 05°39'E, which is scuttled by her crew and abandoned, but not before U-371 has torpedoed and damaged Senegalais.