Hao Dongjue received a telegram from Lei Shaoqing in the early morning of 17 July, saying that the US fleet had left Norfolk Military Port and appeared off the coast of Chesapeake Bay. During the day, Hao Dongjue received several more telegrams, all of which were related to the Atlantic Fleet, and what made him feel very incomprehensible was that the Atlantic Fleet did not immediately go south after leaving the Chesapeake Bay, but wandered in the open sea for a whole day.

"Perhaps, they are waiting for the right moment, or more accurate information."

Hao Dongjue slowly exhaled smoke. "There is this possibility, but other possibilities cannot be ruled out, such as Spruance has not yet received a clear order, or that the Atlantic Fleet is not here to fight us, but is responsible for operating in the open sea, preventing us from going north, in order to protect the capital."

"It's also possible that we're going to move to a port farther north, because after we conquer the Bahamas, Norfolk Naval Port is no longer a safe port in the rear." Another staff officer also put forward his idea.

"It's also possible." Hao Dongjue sat down, "Now, let's wait patiently, the fleet continues to go north, according to the plan, reduce the speed to 18 knots in the evening, and at the same time let the reconnaissance plane prepare to set off before dawn, if the Atlantic Fleet goes south at full speed tonight, then we can find it at dawn tomorrow." ”

In the evening of the same day, the Third Fleet received two more telegrams.

The first telegram was provided by the intelligence services and was related to Admiral King. At this point, Hao Dongjue learned that Admiral Jin had already gone to the Atlantic Fleet, that is, it was not Spruance who commanded the Atlantic Fleet to fight, or rather, not only Spruance.

Originally, Admiral King's information that he was going to Norfolk to command the Atlantic Fleet had already been intercepted on the 14th. However, one of the officers in charge of intelligence screening at the time classified the cable, which had not yet been fully deciphered, as "secondary intelligence" and did not decipher it immediately until after the Atlantic Fleet left port. The officer remembered that he had intercepted a telegram two days earlier, and only then did he organize personnel to decipher it, and thus knew that Admiral King had gone to Norfolk as early as the 14th. This important information was then forwarded to the Theater Command.

This work 1...... 6K exclusive text version debut, may not be reproduced without consent, excerpts, for more latest and fastest chapters, please visit.! The second telegram was related to the Atlantic Fleet, and was also caused by the submarine discovering the last warships that had joined the Atlantic Fleet that night, and then the Atlantic Fleet turned away from the Chesapeake Bay, because the submarine was much slower, so it was not able to continue tracking the Atlantic Fleet, only at the time of disengagement. The Atlantic Fleet was sailing in a southeasterly direction, not directly south.

"Looks like the Yankees are going to be determined to fight us to the death this time." Hao Dongjue was particularly excited at night, he had just deployed the reconnaissance mission. "Judging from the route of the US fleet when it disengages from the submarine, it is relatively easier for the Atlantic Fleet to maneuver and less likely to be discovered by submarines when it is preparing to go south, so that it can sail covertly and not be discovered by us in advance. The main question now is when the US fleet will turn to the south directly, and at what pace. ”

"I think. The US fleet will not easily leave the cover range of its own shore-based air forces. A staff officer spoke immediately. The combat radius of the US shore-based fighters is between 300 and 350 nautical miles, and if the fighters of the army aviation are dispatched, it will be a little farther. Our submarines are mainly concentrated within 200 to 250 nautical miles of the coastline of the United States. During the day, they usually retreat to the open sea to recharge their batteries. Therefore, the southward route of the US fleet will maintain a distance of 250 to 300 nautical miles from the mainland, perhaps a little farther, but it is unlikely to exceed 350 nautical miles. ”

"If you take into account the reaction time of shore-based aviation and the problem of cooperation with ground aviation, I am afraid that this distance is a little closer." Another staff officer made a different view.

"If the Atlantic Fleet doesn't consider being covered by shore-based aviation, do they need to sail closer to the mainland?"

Hao Dongjue furrowed his eyebrows slightly and looked at the staff officer who was the last to speak.

"First of all, the aviation deployed on the east coast of the United States is mainly the aviation of the Army, while the shore-based aviation of the United States Navy is quite limited in size. And the U.S. Navy and Army are already at odds. Will they work closely together? Secondly, it is very likely that it was not Spruance who commanded the fleet to fight this time, but Kim, so what kind of tactics would Kim choose? We don't know much about this chief of the Navy to immediately affirm his tactical arrangements. Finally, the Atlantic Fleet has already made contact with our submarines, so the enemy already knows that we have arranged for a large number of submarines to look for their tracks, and if the Atlantic Fleet goes down the coast, the chances of its exposure are much higher. And as long as the whereabouts of the fleet are exposed, how much cover can shore-based aviation play? The most important thing is to maintain concealment, and from this point of view, the possibility of the Atlantic Fleet approaching the sea route is very small. ”

"But if it is out of the cover of shore-based aviation, the Atlantic Fleet will be vulnerable!"

"If King thinks the Atlantic Fleet can approach covertly and launch a surprise attack, does he need to think about defense?"

"The question is, what are the chances of him getting closer?"

"It's not a question of opportunity per se, it's a matter of Kim's judgment."

……

Several staff officers argued, Hao Dongjue rolled his eyes, glanced at the chief of staff and walked out of the command cabin, he didn't want to join the debate of the staff officers, after all, he was no longer a staff officer, but the commander of the fleet.

"I think Bai Zongxi's words make sense." The chief of staff lit a cigarette after he came outside, and Bai Zongxi was the staff officer who argued against others.

"I think there's some truth to that, but the main question is, is it Kim or Spruance who is commanding the Atlantic Fleet?" Hao Dongjue also lit a cigarette, "If it's Spruance, he will definitely avoid taking risks, if it's Kim, maybe we will have a chance to take out the Atlantic Fleet." ”

"It depends on how much King trusts Spruance."

"There should be no doubt about this, if Kim didn't trust Spruance, then Spruance has been fired by now. Before that, Kim had always trusted Spruance, as evidenced by the fact that he sheltered Spruance many times and let Spruance command the fleet. ”

"Then the problem is obvious, even if King is back in the Atlantic Fleet now, it is still Spruance who actually commands the Atlantic Fleet." The chief of staff touched the corner of his forehead, "Or rather." King still gave Spruance a lot of command authority, and would mostly take Spruance's advice. ”

Hao Dongjue nodded slightly. "It seems that we still have to be prepared for many hands, at least we have enough reconnaissance aircraft, and there is no problem of insufficient search capabilities."

"With the support of other intelligence, it should not be very difficult to defeat the Atlantic Fleet."

The two looked at each other, then laughed. Any soldier wants to defeat the enemy on the battlefield and establish immortal feats. And now that they finally have such an opportunity, they naturally have to cherish it extraordinarily.

The next day, Hao Dongjue divided the reconnaissance planes in the fleet into three groups, and each time only one-third of the reconnaissance planes were dispatched, focusing on searching the sea area within 120 degrees to the north, and the reconnaissance radius was set at 400 nautical miles. In other words, a reconnaissance aircraft is responsible for a search range of about 4 degrees, and at 400 nautical miles, its search width is about 24 nautical miles, that is, the distance of searching for the left and right is 12 nautical miles. This guaranteed that the search range between the two reconnaissance aircraft was completely covered. It was avoided that the pilots of the reconnaissance planes were negligent enough to miss the enemy fleet.

In reality, however, even if the pilot of the reconnaissance plane looked at the radar screen once every two minutes, it would be impossible to miss the enemy fleet. An aircraft carrier battle group was deployed more than 10 nautical miles wide. The length is between 10 and 15 nautical miles. The reconnaissance plane can fly about 5 nautical miles in one minute, that is to say, it only flies 10 nautical miles in 2 minutes, and if the detection range of the radar is counted, it is enough for the pilot of the reconnaissance plane to look at the screen every 6 to 7 minutes.

After arranging the reconnaissance work, Hao Dongjue asked the task forces to mobilize all the bomber pilots, but he did not immediately issue a task, mainly because the US fleet was unlikely to move south at full speed, so it was very likely that the time of contact would be on the night of the 18th, not during the day. Throughout the day. Except for the reconnaissance planes that were dispatched one after another, only the fighters responsible for the air defense patrols of the fleet flew around the fleet, and all the bombers remained on the aircraft carriers.

Hao Dongjue was still sleeping during the day, and by the time he got up at about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the reconnaissance work had already been carried out three times, and the fourth batch of reconnaissance planes, that is, the 36 reconnaissance planes that would carry out the first round of reconnaissance at night, were already on standby in the hangar, and the third round of reconnaissance planes would return to their homes at about half past five, and the fourth round of reconnaissance planes would take off.

"Let the fleets organize bomber pilots at night." As soon as Hao Dongjue arrived at the command cabin, he began to give orders. "Let the pilots first master the identifying characteristics of enemy battleships, especially those of the main battleships. If we find the enemy fleet at night, we have to deploy the mission, and we attack at dawn. By the way, what about the Chief of Staff? ”

"As soon as I went down, there was a problem with two reconnaissance planes, and the chief of staff went over to inquire about the situation."

"These little things have to be asked directly, forget it, I'll go to dinner first, and come to the restaurant to call me if there's something."

There is no separate fleet headquarters restaurant on the aircraft carrier, and all members of the fleet command, including Hao Dongjue, can only eat in the officer's hall, which is also a common feature of the Imperial Navy's third-class aircraft carriers, and it can be regarded as a tradition that has been preserved. At that time, it was proposed that a more exclusive dining hall should be set up on the aircraft carrier, mainly for the officers of the fleet command and the senior officers on the aircraft carrier, but this proposal was not adopted. First, the space of the "Lake" class aircraft carrier is basically used, especially on the flagship, and more communication equipment needs to be deployed, so there is no place to give meals to senior officers. Secondly, since Tan Renhao became the commander of the fleet, the fleet commander's department has not opened a small stove, and no one has made a similar request later. It was not until the end of the war that a separate senior officers' dining room was set up on the first supercarrier built by the Empire, the first aircraft carrier with a displacement of more than 65,000 tons after the "Island" class.

By the time Hao Dongjue had dinner and returned to the command cabin, the fourth-round reconnaissance planes were taking off one after another, and the chief of staff had also returned to the command cabin.

"Those two planes were repaired?"

"It's all fixed, it's not a big problem, the main thing is that it's not operated properly, the radar has a bit of a malfunction, and now you can barely fly." The chief of staff was sweating profusely, and if you didn't look at the general's uniform he was wearing, you would think he was an ordinary mechanic. "Have you had dinner? Then I'll go eat first, and I'll report on the day's situation later. ”

"No problem, you go to rest early, just wait for me to ask someone else." Hao Dongjue sent his partner to the door, "It is very likely that we will encounter the US fleet in the second half of the night, you go to bed early and go to work three hours early." ”

The Chief of Staff of the Fleet nodded, and then left the command cabin.

The third round of reconnaissance planes was on their way back to the fleet and would probably be able to reach the skies over the fleet before dark, and the work of landing at night had already been arranged, and the three rounds of reconnaissance and search yielded no results. There are also three rounds of reconnaissance work at night, so that each pilot has to fly two sorties, and the intensity of sorties is not high, but it is not very low; according to the past situation, according to this reconnaissance intensity, the reconnaissance plane unit can continue to fight for five to seven days, and this is enough. And when necessary, it is also possible to increase the intensity of reconnaissance.

"Within the scope of the sea area we focused on searching, the reconnaissance plane found nothing." The nautical staff officer marked the reconnaissance area on the chart. "I consulted with the Chief of Staff that if we don't find anything tonight, we should expand the search area during the day tomorrow, at least to search all areas within 180 degrees to the north."

Hao Dongjue nodded slightly, he was about to say this. If it is possible for the US fleet to maneuver to the east and west of the Third Fleet during the daylight tomorrow, and it is only expanded to 180 degrees, it will not be enough to cover all dangerous directions, and it is better to expand to the range of 240 degrees, and only the south side is within 120 degrees of danger is not dangerous.

"The chief of staff has drawn up a new reconnaissance plan, I will give you a look first, if there is no problem......"

"It is also necessary to expand the search area, and tomorrow half of the reconnaissance planes will be dispatched at a time, and all directions must be taken care of except for the 120-degree range to the south." Hao Dongjue took out a cigarette, "I'm personally responsible for this matter, you can go and do something else first." ”

The navigation staff officer didn't say much, after all, he was only in charge of navigation, and among the tens of thousands of people in the fleet, there was really no one who knew more about aviation operations than Hao Dongjue.