"Sir! Shot in the middle of the hull! "As soon as an officer ran out of the bridge and leaned on the railing of the iron ladder on the outside, he saw the smoke billowing and steaming in the middle of the hull.

He turned back to the bridge and shouted loudly, and his head was shattered by the bullets fired by the Japanese fighters.

It was an absolutely astonishing coincidence that the Japanese planes, while evading the anti-aircraft fire from the ships, were only habitually suppressive strafing.

It was rare for such strafing shots to hit the real target, but this time was clearly an exception......

Seeing his men's heads shattered outside the door, blood splattering even into the bridge, Spruance's eyes widened and he didn't know what to say.

A staff officer at the door was quick to close the heavily armored door and lock it to isolate the sound of bullets flying outside.

"Sir! Our speed doesn't seem to be affected! "Although I don't know how serious the damage to the hull is, the professional technical arms can estimate where the damage to the warship is from the performance of the weapon.

Hearing the report from there, Spruance recovered somewhat. As long as the boiler was not blown up and the speed of the battleship did not slow down, it meant that he could continue to hold on.

As long as the high speed was maintained, the hit rate of Japanese torpedoes decreased. Once the opponent's carrier-based aircraft run out of ammunition, he will be considered victorious.

But now the problem is: if their own battleships are damaged, even if they are only superficially damaged, the destructible anti-aircraft artillery positions will still leave gaps for the Japanese carrier-based aircraft.

In this way, it is possible that the next attack by Japanese aircraft will take advantage of the weakness from this direction.

"Hell!" Spruance frowned and grumbled in a low voice. Just as he was complaining, a new round of attacks by Japanese aircraft began.

Because of their rich experience, the pilots of Japanese planes knew very well that it was better to cut off one finger than to hurt ten fingers.

These Japanese planes, like flies that smelled fish, began to surround the wounded battleship USS North Carolina.

"What about the fighter unit? Why haven't they come yet? Seeing that his battleship was in danger of being torpedoed by a torpedo attack, General Spruance, who could no longer sit still, asked loudly.

The torpedo just now grazed the tail of the battleship North Carolina and almost killed the rudder of the battleship.

If the Japanese had been allowed to do so a few more times, the battleship would probably have sunk in this sea shortly after it was commissioned.

"Sir! Our fighter jets will be here in no time! "The officer in charge of liaison finally gave good news at this unfortunate time.

"Great! Turn the fleet due south! Give up the pursuit of the Japanese fleet! They've been fooled, now we're going to get as close to the Solomon Islands as possible! "Spruance went down to change the course of the fleet.

Originally, the route of the US fleet was southwest, and their purpose was to make a posture of wanting to approach the Japanese fleet and let the Japanese navy bite their "bait".

Once the Japanese Navy sends an attack force, the US Navy's carrier-based aircraft will have the opportunity to strike first.

Now that the goal had been accomplished, Spruance felt that he should find a way to save his fleet.

Therefore, he ordered the fleet to change from the southwest route to the route due south, so that his fleet moved from pursuing the Japanese combined fleet to moving closer to the Solomon Islands.

In this way, it is equivalent to saying that the US Army Air Force is moving in the same direction as the US Army Air Force that comes to help, shortening the time for the fighters to arrive at the battlefield.

After receiving the order, the US Second Fleet drew a neat rudder track on the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

Battleships sail the oceans, and tens of thousands of tons of bodies are much more agile than they seem. With the incessant roar of anti-aircraft artillery, all the American battleships began to adjust their bows.

Leaving a huge curved white trail on the sea, the American fleet completed its turn under the siege of Japanese aircraft.

"Boom!" With the completion of the turning of the entire fleet, the battleship USS North Carolina was once again hit by Japanese bombers!

And this time, it was not an aerial bomb that hit the battleship North Carolina, but a torpedo! Although the battleship kept turning, and despite the desperate efforts of the anti-aircraft artillery units to disperse the Japanese planes, a Type 97 carrier-based attack aircraft with a torpedo was missed.

The attack plane flew close to the surface of the sea and carried a torpedo near the North Carolina's side in a hail of bullets.

Then, at an extremely close distance, the Japanese attack aircraft dropped this torpedo. In the next second, the Japanese attack plane, which had successfully dropped its torpedo, was hit by strafing anti-aircraft artillery and instantly shattered on the sea.

Anyway, the torpedo was dropped, and it doesn't matter whether the plane was shot down or not.

Just as Spruance was confirming the position of his fighters, the torpedo also crashed into the North Carolina's broadside armor.

Unlike the last time he was hit by an aerial bomb, General Spruance felt the battleship under his feet be lifted out of the sea with great force, and then fell back hard.

He tried to keep himself on his feet, but he was still shaken to the floor by the violent vibrations. This fell so much that he even forgot where he was.

It was only with great difficulty that he got up from the floor of the bridge and found that the people around him were just as embarrassed as he was.

Then, the phone call from the damage management department went through, and the officers in the engine room reported the damage to the battleship.

"The hull is flooding! We're figuring out how to close the loophole! Speed will definitely be affected! On the other side of the phone, the voice of the officer who spoke could not even drown out the sound of the sea water pouring into the ship's hull.

Spruance gritted his teeth, knowing that the fleet he led might have to pay a heavy price.

Even if only one battleship was sunk, it would be a great loss for the US Navy, which already did not have much strength.

Although the follow-up warships are still being launched, the time in front of them can kill the US Navy.

"Let the other ships continue to accelerate! Leave us alone! Order Colonel Karl to take over my command for the time being! Let the USS Washington fly the command flag! Temporarily act as a flagship release order! Spruance, who had been shipwrecked, firmly gave a new order.

And right above his head, the hovering Japanese carrier attack aircraft group began a new round of dives......