May 1945
| 1 | May | General von Vietinghof signed the secret surrender of German Army Group C in Italy (Operation CROSSWORD/SUNRISE). |
| 2 | May | Berlin was captured by Soviet Forces. |
| 4 | May | British recapture of Burma was completed. |
| 5 | May | Holland was liberated by the Canadian Army. |
| 8 | May | Germany surrendered. |
On 2 May, C.B.20 of the Italian Socialist Republic tried to sail from Pola but was damaged by the explosion of German-laid mines at the entrance of the harbour. She turned back; her crew was believed to have fallen into the hands of Yugoslav partisans and executed[1].
With the collapse of the Salo Republic, the liberation of northern Italy found the northern ports devastated by the war. The entrance of La Spezia was blocked, but the harbour did not suffer extensive damage. The situation in Genoa was better than that at La Spezia. Several Italian submarines under construction were found to have been destroyed on their slips by the Germans.
During the evening of 3 May, the Italian submarine C.M.1 arrived at Ancona with seven German E-boats to surrender. The next day, it was the turn of the midget submarine C.B.19 (G.M. Colucci), which arrived at Venice from Pola. This concluded the operations of the short-lived Navy of the Italian Socialist Republic.
Italian submarines of the co-belligerency were still being used for anti-submarine exercises, as the war with Japan appeared to be far from over. On 15 May, the submarine Ammiraglio Cagni was informed that her services were no longer required as the U.S. Naval base facilities were closed (although Palermo was later used for administrative duties by the US Navy). The submarine carried out one last ASW exercise on the following day before leaving for Taranto a week later.
There was nothing to report in these theatres as the war ended in Europe.
[1] Cf. Caproni e il Mare by Achille Rastelli (Museo Aeronautico Gianni e Timina Caproni di Taliedo, 1999).