At this time, the reconnaissance planes of both sides had already been dispatched, and in the next few dozen minutes, both sides had to wait patiently for the reconnaissance report from which the reconnaissance planes returned.

Starting at 6:15 a.m., in a period of twenty-five minutes, Tan Renhao looked at the sailing clock fifteen times, especially in the last five minutes, he had to look at the sailing clock almost every half a minute.

"Is there any news from the reconnaissance plane?" Tan Renhao inquired about the communications staff for the third time.

The communications staff officer shook his head a little innocently. "Not yet, if there is news, I will report it immediately."

Tan Renhao sighed secretly and glanced at Hao Dongjue, who was also a little anxious. It's already 6:40 a.m., and the reconnaissance planes haven't heard from them yet, so he should send a telegram to the reconnaissance planes and let the reconnaissance planes continue to fly in a southeasterly direction, maybe the 31st Task Force is more than 1oo nautical miles away from them.

Hao Dongjue hesitated for a few seconds, and then walked towards the communications staff officer, and now that the reconnaissance plane had not yet left the distance of radio and voice communication, he could directly give a new order to the pilot of the reconnaissance plane. Just when Hao Dongjue was about to grab the microphone, the green indicator light on a radio station suddenly flashed, Hao Dongjue was stunned for a moment, and immediately asked the communications staff officer to connect the signal output port of the radio station to the speaker.

“…… Eagle's Nest, Eagle's Nest, here is Eagle No. 6, here is Eagle No. 6, hear please answer, hear please answer. Eagle's Nest, Eagle's Nest ......"

"Eagle No. 6, this is the Eagle's Nest, this is the Eagle's Nest!" Hao Dongjue immediately replied, and at the same time looked at Tan Renhao's side.

Tan Renhao nodded at his partner, and at the same time motioned to the communications officer to immediately record the contents of the reconnaissance plane's report. Tan Renhao was a little puzzled, could it be that the navigators on the reconnaissance planes were afraid that the communications personnel in the rear would not be able to hear clearly, and that every paragraph would have to be repeated?

"Eagle's Nest, we have an enemy fleet, two large fleet aircraft carriers, and the degree is ......"

The communications staff officer quickly recorded the distance and course of the enemy fleet reported by the reconnaissance plane. degree, as well as the type and number of warships in the formation, etc., of course, the most important of these are the two aircraft carriers.

"Eagle 6, get ready to return!" When the communications staff officer recorded the information, Hao Dongjue turned off the loudspeaker, and then took over the piece of paper that recorded important combat information.

"Let the bombers take off!" Tan Renhao touched his forehead. Then let the communications staff take note of his orders. "Immediately report the situation in the sea area where the enemy fleet is active to the Fourth Task Force and ask them to arrange for the bombers to take off as soon as possible. We will carry out the first round of bombing, and we will have the reconnaissance planes continue to search for the other three small aircraft carriers of the US military, whether we can completely kill the operations of the fourth task force. ”

The telegram arrived at 6:43 a.m. on the "Yangtze River," the flagship of the Fourth Task Force, and when Huang Xiaotian finished reading the contents of the telegram, he immediately walked to the chart table and gave the telegram to Jiang Zhongmin at the same time.

"We're about 26o nautical miles from the U.S. fleet." Huang Xiaotian quickly marked the location of the US fleet on the chart, "Let the bombers go out that way." When will the second batch of bombers be ready to take off? ”

"Half an hour later." Jiang Zhongmin put down the telegram, "But." I don't think it's necessary to arrange a second batch of bombers out for the time being. ”

Huang Xiaotian hesitated. He knew very well what Jiang Zhongmin meant. The telegram only mentions two fleet carriers, and if the bombers of Task Force 3 1st have already taken off, then there will be two groups of bombers to deal with those two fleet carriers. Even in terms of minimum bombing efficiency, both aircraft carriers are finished, and there is no need to send more bombers. Leave a group of bombers, so that there is still a chance to deal with the other three small aircraft carriers of the American army, and not that there will be no bombers to use at that time.

"Okay, then let the bomber group hit the road immediately." Huang Xiaotian quickly made a decision, "Contact Task Force 1, our bomber group will arrive in an hour and a half, hoping that their attack will be successful." ”

At the same time as the telegram was out, the first batch of bombers sent from the two aircraft carriers of Task Force 4 had already taken off halfway. And is flying to the southeast, while the other half of the bombers are leaving the flight deck of the aircraft carrier in 6 consecutive years. The entire take-off lasted until about 6:50. At this time, there was no one in the fleet, and in the clouds less than five nautical miles to the northeast, a plane appeared and disappeared from time to time, and this was a US sBd reconnaissance plane!

The reconnaissance plane arrived at 6:35 a.m. and then began to descend in altitude in preparation for a reconnaissance patrol under the clouds. Before the reconnaissance plane had completely broken out of the clouds, the pilots appeared with the huge fleet below. And immediately there were two large fleet aircraft carriers inside. The pilot immediately pulled the reconnaissance plane up, and at the same time sent a telegram from the navigator in the back seat to report the position of the enemy fleet. And this reconnaissance plane did not rush to leave, but kept hovering around the edge of the fleet, and from time to time burrowed into the clouds to hide. It is a pity that the radio monitoring stations on the two aircraft carriers in the Fourth Task Force at that time were damaged during the storm and were not repaired in time, so there was no radio signal from the ground of the current US reconnaissance plane.

The same is true for Halsey. Although the communication radio on the "Yongmeng" did not malfunction, the radio listening stations on the two aircraft carriers also had problems, so there was no "waterfowl" reconnaissance plane that was able to detect the telegram in the middle of the clouds.

At 6:40 a.m., Halsey received a telegram from a reconnaissance plane, which mentioned two fleet aircraft carriers, as well as a large number of escort warships, and the degree and course of the fleet, and also mentioned one point, that is, the bombers of this fleet were taking off in June!

At this time, Halsey could only believe that he had been revealed, otherwise the bombers in the Tang Imperial fleet would not have taken off so quickly. While Halsey ordered the bombers on the flight deck to take off quickly, he asked the 24 fighters that had risen to the air at six o'clock to search the airspace around the fleet and find the Tang Imperial reconnaissance plane that was now their home as soon as possible. But at that time, the clouds were too low and dense, and it was almost impossible to find a reconnaissance plane in the clouds! Halsey didn't have any choice, he had to send out the 12o bombers as soon as possible. Of course, there was no need for him to keep the fleet silent. When the bomber 6 continued to take off, he also sent a telegram. After those reconnaissance planes are summoned, these dozens of reconnaissance planes will be a considerable striking force after they are hung with bombs. In addition, Halsey also telegraphed the two small aircraft carriers behind him to arrange for fighter jets to come over as soon as possible to provide cover for the fleet's aircraft carrier formation.

Halsey's series of maneuvers was made within fifteen minutes, and the first batch of bombers all took off at 6:58 a.m., and then flew in the direction of the Tang Imperial fleet. At this time. Halsey still believes that the third aircraft carrier of the Tang Empire is also in that direction, but the previous reconnaissance plane has not appeared. And the Tang Empire's bomber group took at least more than an hour to arrive, and it could not arrive at about 7:50, so he asked the second wave of bombers to also take off immediately and go to bomb the Tang Empire's task force. However, this batch of bombers will need a few minutes of preparation time, at least let the aviation crew transport them to the flight deck.

Just before the second batch of bombers came out, a second reconnaissance telegram arrived at Halsey, a reconnaissance plane that had taken off from the small aircraft carrier "Blauwood".

The reconnaissance aircraft had a fleet of aircraft carriers about 11o nautical miles to the northwest. And it is certain that the aircraft carrier is the newest "Lake" class aircraft carrier of the Tang Empire!

The reconnaissance plane flew over Halsey's head at 6:20 a.m. and reached the skies over Task Force 1 near 7 a.m., and the reconnaissance plane flew beneath the clouds after dawn. Therefore, as soon as it approached the skies above Task Force 1, the fleet immediately appeared. Sadly, at this time, the escort fighters sent by Task Force 1 also happened to fly head-on, and as a result, the sBd was shot down by the fighters after only half of the message, and there was no chance to escape.

Halsey was surprised and hesitated when he got only half of the message, and at the same time he felt a great danger. The reconnaissance plane's telegram was interrupted halfway, and the most likely thing was that it was shot down before the telegram was finished. And this reconnaissance plane belonged to the "Blauwwood", so it could only make voice contact with the "Blauwwood". However, it is not possible to make voice contact with the "Valian" (the voice communication channels used by the fighters of different aircraft carriers are different, which is mainly due to the limitation of the capacity of the radio frequency band). That is, the communications personnel on board the "Valian" could not yet determine whether the reconnaissance plane was shot down or whether the telegram was terminated halfway because of a mistake in the telegram. In this half of the telegram, it is only mentioned that there is a fleet aircraft carrier in the enemy fleet, and it is a "Lake" class aircraft carrier, and the approximate distance and bearing of the enemy fleet from the fleet aircraft carrier formation commanded by Halsey, but the degree of the fleet is not mentioned. course, and how many escort battleships there were. Obviously, the navigator on the reconnaissance plane was a newcomer, and he actually got the important order of information wrong (the most important thing is the position of the enemy fleet, followed by the course, then whether there are aircraft carriers in the fleet, how many aircraft carriers, and finally the model of the aircraft carrier in the enemy fleet, and the reconnaissance report must send intelligence in this order, even if the telegram cannot be completed, it can ensure that the most important information has been sent out, so that the fleet commander can make an accurate judgment).

Halsey first asked the communications officer to question the "Blauwood", but the reply was that it was uncertain and that the "Blauwwood" had not received a voice report from the reconnaissance aircraft. Two minutes later, Halsey made a decision, and the second group of bombers immediately took off and first went to the sea area of the enemy fleet reported by the reconnaissance plane sent by the "Blaurowwood", and if the current enemy fleet was attacked, if the information was wrong, then immediately rushed to the sea area of the previous enemy fleet and attacked the two fleet carriers.

Halsey's decision in two minutes was the best he could have made at the time.

But the question is, how much time does he have to get the second batch of bombers to take off?

The bombers of Task Force 1 took off at 6:45 a.m., and instead of bombers, 32 fighters (4 fighters were damaged in the storm) came out first. At 6:58, the first "Shooting Waterfowl" dive bomber left the flight deck of the aircraft carrier. At 7:12, the first Sea Eagle torpedo bomber took off. By 7:23 a.m., all 32 "Falcons", 33 "Shooting Birds" (3 were damaged in the storm), and 32 "Sea Eagles" (4 were damaged in the storm) had left the carrier. These three groups of fighters were formed separately, so the first batch of 32 "Falcons" could reach the top of Halsey at about 7:25 a.m., and at this time, the last "Sea Eagle" had just left the skies over the First Task Force.

Halsey ordered a second group of bombers to come out at 7:08, and each fleet carrier could only catapult a maximum of three bombers in a minute. In other words, by 7:25, only 51 fighters could be allowed to rise into the air. Because of the modification of the bombing route, it is very likely that these bombers will fly 28o nautical miles, which is almost the limit strike radius of sBd and TBd, so the bombers can only take off first, and take off after hanging the F4u of the auxiliary fuel tank. Both aircraft carriers had to eject more than 3o bombers before it was the turn of the escort fighters. As a result, the escort fighters sent by Task Force F 1 have entered the radar alert range of the large fleet aircraft carrier formation of Task Force 32. And before that, Halsey had only arranged 24 air defense fighters over the fleet, and these 24 air defense fighters were divided into four batches to look for the reconnaissance aircraft of the Tang Empire in the four directions of the fleet!

Obviously, Halsey was not in a position to organize a well-developed air defense network for the fleet until the bomber group of Task Force 1 arrived. He left only the second batch of bombers, and arranged 27 escort fighters in the first group of bombers. Even if these 18 escort fighters are counted, the air defense fighters that could quickly reach the northwest direction of the fleet at that time would not have surpassed the 32 escort fighters sent by the first task force!