The powerful offensive of the Tang army has forced the American army into a corner, and the American army on Agrihan Island is making the last stubborn resistance, but the Tang army has occupied most of the island and forced the American army into the central mountainous area. The engineers of the Tang Army are also seizing the time to repair the field airfield on the island. Agrihan Island is basically finished, and the next target of the Don army is naturally the island of Pagan in the south. In order to hold this island, thousands of officers and soldiers have been transferred from Saipan, and several warships (mainly small PT boats) have been lost for this purpose, but who knows that the Tang army bypassed Pagan Island before the battle on Agrihan Island was over, and landed directly on Aragan Island in the south. At this moment, the US Pacific Theater Command and the Pacific Fleet Command were stunned. What is Tang Jun going to do?

What Tang Jun wants to do, anyone with a little brain can see it. At this time, the intention of the Tang Army to raid Aragan Island was extremely obvious: to bypass Pagan Island, which was heavily guarded by American troops, and advance directly to the southern tip of the archipelago to accelerate the progress of the campaign. The intention is as clear as it is on paper. It is clear that the intention of the Tang army is not equal to victory, and strength is the foundation for victory. The Tang Army's swift assault also made the US generals realize a new problem.

From Asunción to Agrihan, the Tang Army has always invested about two divisions of Marine Corps, but American intelligence proves that the Tang Empire has invested at least three Marine Divisions, perhaps five Marine Divisions, near the Mariana Islands. In other words, the Tang Imperial Marines have not been doing their best, and the killing moves are still behind. Well, what did the Don Army do with so many reserves? Obviously, the capture of Agrihan Island was not necessary, and the island could only be committed to two divisions of marines at most. Now that the Don Army has landed on Aragan Island, and the U.S. forces are temporarily unable to counterattack on a large scale, the Don Army has invested a maximum of two regiments of defensive forces on this island. The U.S. forces on Pagan Island actually did not play any defensive role, and the Don Army had abandoned the island. So, what's next for the Tang Army?

A glance at the map of the Mariana Islands makes it clear the intentions of the Don Army. After bypassing Pagan Island, the Tang Army could trap the American troops on Pagan Island at the same time. Wave your army south and attack Anatahan Island and even Saipan! And the Tang Army now has at least one division to three divisions of marines that have not yet been sent to the battlefield, if it is one division, the Tang Army is very likely to attack Anatahan Island, if it is three divisions, plus the Tang Army's aviation base on Aragan Island, a powerful naval fleet. It is entirely possible that the commander-in-chief of the Don Army will again bypass the heavily defended island of Anatahan and directly attack Saipan in the south!

Although Saipan is not as well-known as Guam, it is above Guam. Saipan is the largest island in the Mariana Islands (during World War II, Saipan was slightly larger than Guam, and Guam was reclaimed more than Saipan after the war) and there are two airports on the island (and a large one can be expanded), excellent natural harbors, and military camps. warehouses and other military facilities. This is the core of the defense of the Mariana Islands. It is the barrier of Guam and the location of the U.S. Army's Mariana Islands Ground Forces Command. If the Tang Army had landed on Saipan, then the U.S. Army would have lost the battle completely. It was only a matter of time before the entire Mariana Islands were lost.

Saipan must not be lost, then the Tang army must not be allowed to move south, and to prevent the Tang army from moving south, it is necessary to drag the Tang army on Agriphan Island, prevent the Tang army from sending additional troops to Aramagan Island, cut off the sea line of communication from Aramagan to the outside world, and trap the Tang army on this island. As a result, the focus fell on sea supremacy. Although the air forces of both sides are still vying for air supremacy in the central part of the archipelago, at night, neither of them can do anything. Both sides took advantage of the night to mobilize troops and send additional troops to the front line. When the air force lacks sufficient night combat capabilities, sea supremacy, especially at night, becomes the key. In order to regain sea supremacy, the only way to regain sea supremacy is to dispatch the fleet, and the air force cannot master the sea supremacy at night. The only hope fell to the fleet in Pearl Harbor.

At this point, the only thing the Yankees could count on was those eight battleships. But there is still a problem that has not been solved, the fleet lacks a suitable commander. Halsey and Fletcher were both wounded, and they were still in their hospital beds. Nimitz took the position of commander of the Pacific Theater of Operations. It is impossible to let him go and command the fleet to fight. Kim has been transferred back home to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. The other generals were either sick, old, incompetent, or inexperienced in commanding large fleets. picked and chosen, but it turned out that a suitable commander was really not singled out.

From the time the Don army landed on the island of Alamagan and Nimitz decided to send a fleet to regain sea control from the hands of the Don army, Nimitz was unable to find a suitable commander for two days. He had repeatedly considered going out on the expedition in person, but in the end he was all rejected, and the President of the United States and Admiral King also sent a telegram, strictly ordering him to stay at Pearl Harbor, preside over the command of the entire theater of operations, and be a real admiral, not a rear admiral (the corresponding rank of the commander of the American fleet is Rear Admiral)!

In the end, it was a person who helped Nimitz solve this problem with him, and this person was Admiral Kimmel! Kimmel and Nimitz were actually rivals, and from the point of view of the Tang Empire, the two could even be said to be enemies. Shortly after Nimitz replaced Admiral King as commander of the Pacific Theater, the United States merged the Theater Commander and the Fleet Commander in order to unify the command of the theater and the fleet (that is, to concentrate forces and seize the initiative in the early stage of the war), and the commander of the Pacific Fleet at that time was Kimmmel. On the question of whether the theater commander will replace the fleet commander, or the fleet commander will replace the theater commander, that is, the choice between Nimitz and Kimmel, the final winner is Nimitz, because Nimitz is more in favor of aircraft carriers, and Kimmel is more in favor of battleships (this is only a very minor reason) In fact, Nimitz is indeed better than Kimmel, and the "Philippine Naval Battle" was successfully attacked, and the United States almost grasped the initiative on the battlefield (defeat was defeated on the strong industrial base of the Tang Empire, If Task Force 1 hadn't returned in time, the rest of the battle would have been completely different) This sneak attack with less and more was almost perfect. And in the ensuing naval battle, the responsibility was actually not on Nimitz, but on the two subordinates, especially the mistakes of Major General Fletcher, which almost led to the complete defeat of the American army. Although Halsey's gamble cost Task Force 16 (not a complete failure), it was this gamble that avoided a complete defeat for the Americans. Some of the situation was saved. The fundamental reason for the passivity of the US military is the rout of the 17th Task Force and the inadequate preparation work before the war, and after Nimitz took office, there was no time to carry out large-scale theater deployment adjustments, which led to the current bleak situation.

The battle has reached this point, and no one wants to see the ground. With only eight battleships at their disposal after the remaining four aircraft carriers (the USS Saratoga and USS Yorktown had returned to the West Coast of the United States for a complete overhaul after minor repairs at Pearl Harbor), the U.S. Navy was left with only one card in its hands. Originally, Nimitz wanted to wait until the reinforcements sent from the Atlantic arrived before launching a counterattack, but now he can't wait any longer, and he must immediately counterattack, immediately regain sea supremacy, and turn the tide on the battlefield!

The appearance of Kimmel actually solved the problem of the lack of suitable commanders in the fleet. Kimmel may not have done a great job in the position of commander of the Pacific Fleet, and he is not the kind of general who staunchly supports aircraft carriers, but he is a pure master of artillery warfare, and an excellent commander of the decisive battle of the fleet. In Nimitz, it is impossible to take charge in person. And when he couldn't find a more suitable general. Kimmel became the only option.

In fact, Kimmel is a bit like Jiang Bangguo, the former marshal of the Tang Imperial Navy. Although Kimmel did not have the opportunity to participate in the fierce naval battles of the last major war (which also led to a serious lack of combat experience in the US Navy), he sought after battleships. The familiarity with the artillery battle of the fleet, as well as the experience of decades of service, are very similar to Jiang Bangguo. The tempers of the two are actually very similar, they are both the kind of people who will never look back after seeing the purpose. If Jiang Bangguo didn't look for a short-term view, if the Tang Empire and the United States started a war first, I'm afraid that these two people would really have a chance to fight face-to-face to see who was the real warrior of the decisive battle of the fleet. Of course, they didn't have this opportunity, and Kimmel had to face a much younger Tang Empire naval artillery expert.

As soon as the commander was decided, Nimitz made a decision. The "Z Fleet", consisting of eight battleships, eight heavy cruisers, twelve destroyers (this was a temporary code name, at that time Nimitz had already decided to carry out a complete restructuring of the Pacific Fleet in order to increase the operational efficiency of the fleet, and it was ongoing, so this particular fleet was not given an official code name) immediately set off and rushed to the Mariana Islands. And at the time of the departure of the fleet, the specific battle plan had not yet been determined!

The fleet had just left the port. It was discovered by the submarine of the Tang Empire waiting outside. The officers and men of the submarine were a little too brave, and as soon as they had counted the battleships in the fleet (in fact, the four destroyers at the rear, they were missing) immediately surfaced and sent the telegram. And the destroyer that came out at the end immediately spotted the submarine floating on the surface of the sea to send a report, and then it was hit by a cannonball, and the submarine was killed before it even had a chance to struggle.

The fleet's whereabouts had been revealed, and as soon as Kimmel learned of this, he ordered the fleet to speed up and move towards Wake Island at its maximum cruising speed (only 12 knots), in an effort to reach the battlefield as soon as possible and turn the tide. Kimmel had already put his rivalry with Nimitz behind him, and the only thing he could think of was to do a good job before he went home with his pension to retire, and turn the hard work, sweat, and decades of waiting into an actual battle, a battle to win!

The operation of the "Z Fleet" did not go well, and Kimmel commanded not the newest "North Carolina" class, half of which were old ships built during the First World War. Although these warships have undergone a mid-term overhaul a few years ago, and their performance has improved a lot, the most critical parts of the battleship, especially the power system, have not changed. The power system is like a person's heart to a battleship, and the heart has aged, so will this person be strong?

The fleet had its first trouble south of Midway after a day's voyage, when the reciprocating steam engine on the USS Oklahoma had failed, and all the boilers had to work at the same time to maintain a speed of 12 knots. And the battleship was coal-burned, not oil-burned. If the operation was continued at maximum output, the coal on the ship would last at most as far as Wake Island, where it would be resupplied and a major purge would have to be carried out to ensure that similar problems would not arise during the battle.

Fortunately, this problem was quickly resolved. The next day, the ship's engineer repaired the boiler and promised that there would be no more similar problems. Kimmel was also a lot more relieved, although the "Oklahoma" was the oldest and worst of the eight battleships, but it was always a battleship, and a battleship with 10 356 mm guns!

By the 19th, the fleet had reached the waters northeast of the Hall Islands, and was expected to reach Guam that night, and then get fuel supplies in Guam (in order to provide coal for the "Oklahoma", Guam also had a special coal warehouse), and after a short rest, it immediately went to find the Tang Imperial fleet for a decisive battle and seize the sea supremacy in the central waters of the Mariana Islands.

It was here that Kimmel made a serious mistake and sent a telegram to prepare Guam for eight battleships. The telegram was soon picked up by the Don Empire's radio listening stations on the islands of Asunción and Agrihan. In the afternoon, a Don Empire submarine patrolling nearby spotted the fleet, which was heading for Guam, and sent a telegram.

Probably, Kimmel did not think how serious the consequences of this telegram were, and in his opinion, there was any enemy that eight battleships could not defeat. In fact, it was this telegram that finally kicked off the "Second Battle of the Marianas", and it was this telegram that finally "betrayed" the "Z fleet"