In fact, the fleet invested by the United States this time is not going south in the Marshall Islands, but in the north of Australia.

The fleet, commanded by General Halsey, the commander-in-chief of the U.S. front, commanded two cutting-edge battleships, three old battleships, and four converted aircraft carriers.

The U.S. Navy's refitted aircraft carriers are being built three points faster than Li Le, a traverser, estimated, and now five cruise ship reconstructed aircraft carriers have been launched into service.

This type of aircraft carrier is named the Sangamon class by the U.S. military, and it is a very well-designed escort aircraft carrier.

In the original plan, the United States was ready to use the Liberty wheel as a basis to convert a practical light aircraft carrier.

However, because the tonnage of the hull of the freeship was too small and the speed was too slow, the United States eventually changed its plan.

The designers converted oil tankers built under the 1936 Merchant Marine Construction Program, which were suitable for the conversion program because of their large hulls and speeds.

In the beginning, this type of ship was modified to deal with German submarines and the Atlantic guerrilla fleet, so construction began earlier.

As a result, these ships were not delivered to the United Kingdom, which was in urgent need of escort aircraft carriers, and the British government surrendered, so these ships were intercepted by the United States.

Immediately after the outbreak of the Pacific War, the U.S. Navy accelerated the construction of these four warships, and soon obtained its much-needed escort carriers.

Moreover, this is not all the assets of the US Navy today, because there are nearly 10 escort aircraft carriers of various performance that have been launched into service, but they are all trained near the US coastline.

As the world's largest industrial country, once the United States' industrial mobilization capability is activated, it will be absolutely more powerful than anyone can imagine.

The construction of about 20 escort aircraft carriers in one go, this terrifying production capacity is far from being comparable to Japan.

Therefore, even if Yamamoto Isoroku wanted to break his head, he could not guess that the American fleet was not only coming, but also coming with great momentum after accumulating great strength.

Halsey's tactic was very simple, and that was to defend his home in the Lomon Islands to the death. For this reason, the fleet under his command was divided into the First Fleet, the Second Fleet, and the Third Fleet, each of which carried out different combat missions.

Three old battleships, converted New Mexico-class battleships, were deployed in the Solomon Islands, protected by more than a dozen destroyers to provide anti-aircraft combat cover.

The mission of these old battleships was to prevent the Japanese battleships from approaching and attacking the airfield facilities on the island.

The U.S. Navy also continued to learn from the battle, and Halsey learned from the case of the destruction of the airport at Midway Island by Japanese ship-based artillery, this time focusing on providing fire cover for the airfield on the island.

With these battleships, the Japanese could not use the tactics of the Battle of Midway to risk breaking into the combat radius of shore-based fighters and destroying American land airfields.

The Third Fleet is in ambush north of the Solomon Islands and is desperately fighting its way into the circle. This fleet is all new warships, and its combat capabilities are quite strong.

The USS North Carolina and the USS Washington are both new warships that have just been launched and put into service, with a high level of air defense and strong combat effectiveness.

Moreover, this pair of sister ships was also equipped with 406 mm caliber guns, which the Japanese were very afraid of, and the threat to Japanese warships was quite huge.

The main purpose of this fleet was not to sneak up on the Japanese fleet, but to get the Japanese fleet to shift the direction of its main attack in this direction.

Halsey led the main force of the fleet, namely four Sangamon-class aircraft carriers, to the south of the Solomon Islands waiting for an opportunity. When the Japanese fleet attacks the Third Fleet, that is, the decoy fleet, he will send planes to attack the Japanese fleet itself!

On the other hand, the forces of the Japanese Combined Fleet included two battleships Nagato and Mutsu directly under the jurisdiction of the Combined Fleet, and four battle cruisers of the Second Fleet of the First Fleet, Kongo, Haruna, Kirishima, and Hiei.

The First Air Fleet commanded by Nagumo Tadaichi, but there were only three fleet aircraft carriers: Akagi, Shozuru, and Zuizuru.

After all, the Kaga and the Wyvern are still being repaired at home, and the Soryu aircraft carrier has been sunk. Nagumo Tadaichi now has only half the strength in his hands when he attacked Pearl Harbor.

What is even more tragic is that even the remaining half of the force is not half of the original combat effectiveness - in the four months of campaign, the Japanese naval aviation has lost more than one-third of the base number of elite pilots.

The inability to replenish equally elite naval pilots has already caused Nagumo Tadaichi, the commander of the air fleet, a headache.

Under the elimination of the other's strengths, the gap between the two sides' participation in the battle was significantly narrowed: Japan's six capital ships against the United States' five capital ships, and Japan's three fleet aircraft carriers against the United States' four escort carriers.

It seems that the basic strength of the two sides is about the same, and Japan has a slight advantage. What is even worse is that the US Navy warships are equipped with radar, a new weapon, and the pilots of carrier-based aircraft have also figured out the tactical characteristics of the Japanese Zero fighters.

But even so, the Japanese naval aviation still has as many as 230 aircraft, and the four escort aircraft carriers of the US Navy against it have only 160 carrier-based aircraft.

If you include land aviation, the United States has an advantage, with 200 fighter jets deployed in the Solomon Islands, as well as more than 200 attack aircraft and bombers.

This number brings the total number of aircraft in the theater of operations of the United States to 2.5 times that of the Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet! It also gave the US Navy the ability to compete for air supremacy for the first time.

The Battle of the Solomon Islands began with an attack on the airfield on the U.S. Island by Japanese naval carrier-based aircraft, and by noon of the same day, Japan had finally discovered the U.S. First Fleet coming from the south.

"There are at least 2 battleships! Reconnaissance aircraft discovered at least 10 American warships, and the main force of the US military is just south of the Solomons! "The intelligence officer reported to Isoroku Yamamoto the latest findings of the reconnaissance aircraft.

After a comparison on the chart, Yamamoto narrowed his eyes and weighed the specific purpose of the American fleet in his heart.

"It's just a detachment! Not the main force of the American fleet! Let the reconnaissance aircraft search in the direction of the Marshall Islands! I don't believe that the Americans only have battleships! Yamamoto pressed his hand on the chart and gave his men the order to continue searching.

"Let Nagumo's First Air Fleet move west! Move to the right flank of my own formation! The whole fleet is ready for air defense operations! After waiting for a few minutes, there was still no new progress, and Yamamoto finally couldn't sit still.

He could not take any chances, and he could not let the valuable air fleet and the US Army air force continue to be consumed. So he is ready to withdraw his forces and concentrate on finding the American fleet to strike first!