Ps: I set off to Chongqing today to play for two days, the automatic update has been set, or two more, thank you for your support......

Shortly after the order was issued, at 9:35 a.m., new information reached Washington: B-25 spotted an enemy aircraft carrier formation in the waters north of Aruba in Venezuela, with 3 light aircraft carriers inside...... But before more could be reported, the brave plane was shot down. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

"3 light aircraft carriers?" Admiral Kim's brows were twisted into a Sichuan character, didn't he say that there were 7 aircraft carriers? Why are there only 3 ships reported? What about the other 4?

"Are there any of our planes nearby?"

"No, the return of the return, the downed are shot down, unless enough planes are transferred from other reconnaissance directions, it will take at least 1 hour, and the range may not be enough."

"No matter how long it takes, it will have to be adjusted again! We must fully grasp the movements of the enemy, now the fleet reconnaissance aircraft cannot manage so far, and Katerina is too slow, and the B-25 must act as the eyes and ears of the fleet. Speaking of the reconnaissance plane, Admiral Jin was again bitter, and the front line reported to him that the Japanese water scouts were running fast, expressing great envy and strongly demanding that similar products should be obtained. Admiral Kim searched and searched, and only Curtis's Seahawk maritime reconnaissance aircraft project met the requirements - a maximum speed of 500 km/h and a maximum range of 1,050 km, but the problem was that this thing had not yet been finalized on the drawing board, let alone a prototype. He could only urge Curtis to speed things up.

The order was given, but in light of the information that came back from the early days, it was now his turn to make a mistake, and he could not understand the enemy's arrangement at all: part of the enemy's aircraft carrier formation had run to the vicinity of Aruba in Venezuela, and the artillery formation was still in the direction of Barranquilla, more than 600 kilometers apart from each other - he had never heard that the distance between the battleship formation and the aircraft carrier formation could be so wide; The second is that the reconnaissance planes have only found three light aircraft carriers, and the four most important fleet aircraft carriers have disappeared -- where did they go?

After thinking about it for a long time, he still couldn't get the point, so he could only copy the telegram to Cohen and Fletcher, asking them to judge and report on the follow-up combat plan based on the current situation.

To Admiral King's surprise, Duncan explicitly opposed the Joint Chiefs of Staff's plan for the next operation, on the grounds that, according to available information, the Nicaraguan base was more than 900 kilometers away from the enemy's artillery formation and more than 1,500 kilometers away from the enemy's aircraft carrier formation, and if it were to attack the artillery formation now, the planes would have to fly for more than two hours, and if the aircraft were to attack the aircraft carrier formation, the planes would have to fly for nearly four hours, which was enough time for the two enemy fleets to run a long distance -- based on the current level and experience of the air fleets, not to mention the air attack on the aircraft carrier formation, even the air attack and artillery attack on the fleet he thinks will not be able to do it.

As for the reason why this could not be done, Admiral Kim knew very well that pilots and commanders who had experience in air raids were either killed or missing, and the newly arrived pilots were completely blind to the situation in the theater of operations, and it was indeed difficult for them to suddenly attack targets 1,000 kilometers away, and as for an attack on the sea 1,600 kilometers away, it was simply impossible to completely go beyond the limits of the air force -- that was not a battle, it was a death sentence!

Cohen's proposal was very simple: Since the enemy fleet is fleeing eastward with all its might, it is sufficient to maintain a part of Nicaragua's combat strength, and there is no need to continue to reinforce it, and the focus is on increasing troops to Puerto Rico, and the Atlantic Fleet should dispatch carrier-based aircraft to weaken the enemy forces this evening, and tomorrow the land-based and carrier-based aircraft should work together to completely destroy the enemy fleet. Marshall and Arnold gladly accepted the suggestion: there were too many people who had died in the Army Aviation, and in the past two days, wave after wave of pilots had stubbornly fought to their deaths, and it had reached the limit of what they could bear.

Admiral King thought about it again and again, and finally had to admit that Cohen's idea was reasonable: there were still 7 hours before the carrier-based aircraft could attack, and after 7 hours, the enemy fleet would leave Nicaragua at least more than 1,200 kilometers and really could not strike; If the army aviation is forcibly allowed to appear at present, it will be tantamount to throwing itself into battle alone and will not be able to form a joint force, and it will basically be the rhythm of the annihilation of the entire army -- before the fleet arrived two days ago, the army aviation could be allowed to continuously consume the enemy's strength, and today we cannot do this again, and we must comprehensively consider the relationship and balance between the army and the navy.

He readily agreed to the suggestion, and the rest of the Joint Chiefs of Staff immediately agreed to place their forces in the direction of Puerto Rico - which meant that they could only be attacked the next day.

Just as Admiral Kim sighed for a long time, Horiyoshi was also worried, he looked at the charts again and again, but he could not find a good way out of the predicament: the fleet was getting farther and farther away from the American forces in Nicaragua, and closer and closer to the American forces in Puerto Rico, and he had a vague premonition that the enemy Atlantic Fleet should have rushed down from the north, but he did not know where the current distance was.

"The Mobile Fleet reports that the 1st Guerrilla Detachment has been discovered by enemy troops......"

"What about the Mobile Fleet Headquarters?"

"The inference has not been discovered, but there is a certain possibility."

"This ......" In the face of such a briefing submitted by the staff officer, Caolu himself had no choice.

"Sir, what should I do? The distance we are from the mobile fleet continues to increase, and the possibility of fighter planes covering us is becoming less and less. ”

"If you were the U.S. military, which would you hit first in the face of a battleship formation or an aircraft carrier formation?"

"This ......" Kusaka couldn't say anything, but could only comfort Horikichi, "Sir, maybe the situation is not as bad as you think, we will soon be more than 1,000 kilometers away from Nicaragua, and more than 1,100 kilometers away from Puerto Rico, and as time goes by, by the time the sun goes down today, the distance between us and Puerto Rico will be reduced to 900 kilometers - that distance is basically beyond the range of enemy aircraft, so don't worry too much." ”

"Luck is very important to us, I didn't expect to be so superstitious about luck now." Horikichi sighed and asked, "Did the reconnaissance plane make a gain?" ”

"Nothing to gain for the time being."

"The fleet keeps the current speed unchanged and continues to move forward." Horikichi thought for a moment, "Remember to remind me when you enter the 900-kilometer circle of Puerto Rico. ”

The third uncomfortable was Fletcher, whose aircraft carrier group was more than 850 kilometers away from the Axis Bombardment Fleet and 900 kilometers away from the Axis Carrier Group, all of which were long distances that could not launch air strikes -- unless he did not want the attack aircraft group to return, and the Nicaraguan Army Air Force could not cooperate with the operation, Puerto Rico could only go into battle the next day, and if it wanted to attack today, it would have to be a carrier-based aircraft to go deep alone. The cautious Fletcher did not dare to make a big deal about this, and finally called Admiral King back: "This fleet will continue to advance until about 4 p.m. to decide whether it can launch an air attack." (To be continued.) )