Time passed minute by minute, and after the US land-based and sea-based aviation forces were unable to engage in strikes for various reasons, the Axis aircraft carrier formation, which had been in the most tense state of continuous combat and nerves, finally gained a precious respite, and not only did the fighters resupply for the last time and recovered to a strength of 118 aircraft -- Tsukahara could no longer take out more spare planes, but also won a few hours of rest for the pilots who needed rest the most, so that they could lie down calmly and rest. As for www.biquge.info the fleet itself, he had the same choice as Horikichi, and after resupplying the night before, the ships were relatively well stocked with fuel.

As for the Z-shaped anti-submarine route, now I don't care about this thing, everyone does not believe that there are American submarines in the Caribbean - this is the backyard of the United States, what is the use of arranging it here? If there are really 1-2 of them, it's better to let the frigates stiffen up, and there is no time to waste on this. The only thing that made Horiyoshi worry was that due to the different time and speed of retreat, the entire fleet was now divided into four parts, the first part was the mobile fleet of four aircraft carriers and the main escort warships, the second part was the three sailor carriers of the decoy fleet and some escort warships, the third part was the transport fleet and a group of destroyers transporting personnel, because the heavy equipment of the Marine Corps had been basically destroyed on the spot, the transport ships were now much smaller, and the fourth part was the shelling formation and some destroyers.

After Tsukahara's analysis, he believed that the enemy could only launch one more strike in the evening at most today, and he hoped that the opponent would eat his bait first, so that he could use the advantage of the fighter to weaken the opponent and lay a good foundation for the next day's fierce battle.

At 16:00 in the afternoon, a difficult multiple-choice question was placed in front of Fletcher: his fleet was about 720 kilometers away from the shelling fleet and about 930 kilometers away from the enemy aircraft carrier formation. The only good news is that after a long search, the location of the other four aircraft carriers has finally been determined - they are 115 kilometers south of the three light aircraft carriers, not far from the Venezuelan coastline. American aircraft carriers are located at a distance of more than 1000 kilometers from this fleet.

This distance left Fletcher completely speechless: it was too far away from the enemy aircraft carrier formation, almost beyond the combat radius of the aircraft; It was not a short distance from the artillery formation, and he hesitated, not knowing how to choose the target for the air attack......

After thinking about it for a long time, he finally decided to go to the air raid on the enemy battleship force, at least this could slow down the enemy's retreat, and he didn't think that Horiyoshi would throw away all the battleships that were injured and slowed down - then he would become a bare-bones commander when he returned.

But this idea was rejected by the chief of staff of the fleet, Colonel Cox: "Sir, with all due respect, I cannot launch such an air raid with no return. ”

"Why? Doesn't it mean that the enemy battleship forces did not cover many aircraft, only more than 20 aircraft? ”

"It's not much......," Cox sighed, "the problem is that it's 4 p.m., and the attack planes are flying past and back, plus the air raid time is almost 5 hours, how many of your lads do you think will be able to find the course of the mothership at night and successfully complete the deck landing?" ”

"Hey!" Fletcher was also speechless, the technical level of the carrier-based pilots had dropped rapidly, and it was completely inferior to that of the Battle of Midway, and the best pilots in the fleet were now only equivalent to the lower-average level at that time, and he was embarrassed by just one F6F refitting - the factory provided enough aircraft, and there were probably only more than 30 pilots who were proficient in F6F, and he had no choice but to let the Lexington and Yorktown each carry 16 F6Fs, and the rest of the pilots continued to use F4Fs. The pilots of carrier-based aircraft in the direction of the Pacific Fleet were more capable, but Nimitz said that he would not be transferred back, and Admiral Kim also held the same opinion.

Thinking of the terrible prospect that a night battle could lead to the loss of more than half of the attack group, the cautious Fletcher did not dare to take any chances, but sent a telegram to Admiral King and Ingersoll to explain to them the reasons why the attack could not be launched and asked to postpone the attack until the next morning.

Ingersoll quickly agreed, and even specifically told Fletcher to run slower and wait for the battleship forces behind - now the distance between the Atlantic Fleet's artillery forces and the aircraft carriers has also increased to more than 250 kilometers. Admiral Kim sighed at this and agreed to postpone it until the next day.

Almost at the same time, Kusaka reported to Horikishi, "Sir, I've entered the 900-kilometer air defense circle of Puerto Rico." ”

"How long is it until dark?"

"About 2 hours and 20 minutes."

"Cheer up the fleet, we are likely to be attacked by air attack immediately, and the radar crew must go all out and make all preparations for damage."

"Do you need to ask Tsukahara-kun to send more escort fighters?" Cao Lu pointed to the 24 fighters above his head and asked uneasily.

"No need, he's under a lot of pressure there, leave the rest to him."

At 16:30, the radar and lookout posts reported that there was no abnormality, and at 16:45, the escort fighter reported that it had shot down a plane of unknown nationality, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense - later I learned that it was a plane sent by the Venezuelan side, and the United States exerted strong pressure to ask Colombia and Venezuela to report the situation, and the two countries had to send a few planes to respond to the situation, but all of them were shot down by the Axis fighters, and now the Axis fighter pilots who killed the red eye will be shot down as long as they are not their own planes.

At 17:00, there was still no movement, at 18:00, all the airspace reported a calm, the sun set little by little towards the west, and there was no waiting for the US air raid planes, at 18:15, there were still 7 minutes before dark, and in the sunset, all the escort fighters that were close to running out of fuel returned. The entire fleet was empty, and there was not a single covering plane, and in the process, either of them felt as if their hearts were being held tightly by one hand, and their backs were soaked with sweat.

At 18:22, night finally fell, and the entire fleet miraculously did not get attacked.

"They're not going to attack the mobile fleet or the transport fleet, are they?"

As a result, the fleets reported no hostile situation.

"Onboard! Onboard! ”

"God forbid!"

In the past two days, the American pilots have died numbly, and the Axis fleet has also been numb by bombs, and suddenly one day they say that they do not need to be bombed, and their joy is overflowing.

Horikichi only smiled slightly, and then what he said was not very pleasant: "The enemy commander is very cautious, it seems that tomorrow the trouble will not be small......"

"Sir, don't scare me."

"Send a telegram to Tsukahara and ask him to fully coordinate the command of the air battle and the artillery formation to obey the arrangement!" (To be continued.) )