Volume 23 Springboard for Advance Section 29 Defending instead of Attacking

The president is the commander-in-chief of the US military, and the president's orders cannot be disobeyed by any soldier, and this has long been written into the US Constitution. Even knowing that it was an almost impossible task, Spruance could not disobey the president's orders. In desperation, he had no choice but to plan the counter-attack that the president needed to be won.

As an experienced and fairly level-headed admiral, Spruance could not have been unaware that any counterattack that was not ripe for conditions would not be successful. But at that time, he had to complete this task, because there was no one to replace him at this time. In order to minimize the risk, from the very beginning, Spruance targeted the Third Fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy, and his campaign planning also began with collecting intelligence on the activities of the Third Fleet.

The president's promise soon began to be fulfilled, and the day after Spruance received the order, the U.S. military intelligence sent him the latest intelligence on several main fleets of the Don Imperial Navy. This includes not only the latest information on the activities of the Third Fleet, but also the First Fleet and the Second Fleet. Spruance breathed a sigh of relief knowing that the First Fleet had returned to the fortress of Gibraltar and was beginning to recuperate, while the Second Fleet had been weakened and the only task force had been deployed in the British port of Pottsmouth, and that at the very least, the Don Empire Navy would not be deploying more of its main fleet to the United States for the time being.

It was this information that gave Spruance a new idea. What if the First Fleet had rested at the fortified fortress of Gibraltar and the only task force of the Second Fleet had been based in the port of Puffsmouth. So is there a chance to sneak up on the Second Fleet? After much thought, Spruance abandoned the somewhat radical idea. The first is whether the Atlantic Fleet can secretly cross the Atlantic, and German submarines operating in the Atlantic are gradually moving to the waters near the United States to strengthen surveillance of major American ports and attack ships traveling between major American ports. If the fleet had collided with a German submarine, the whereabouts would have been revealed, and the First Fleet would have had enough time to prepare for the battle. The Second Fleet also had plenty of time to evade. The chances of a successful sneak attack are slim, and there is a possibility that it will be ambushed by the First Fleet. Obviously, this is an outweigh risk.

Immediately after confirming that the main purpose was to strike at the Third Fleet, Spruance ordered the fleet's staff to draw up a plan of operations in accordance with several possible scenarios, such as encounters, head-on decisive battles, and sneak attacks. Because there are several possible situations for each type of engagement, as well as some special situations that may arise, the fleet staff needs to draw up dozens of different battle plans. At this point, the purpose of the work that Spruance had done before became apparent. If it weren't for the fact that work had already begun on that a few months ago. At that time, the command of the Atlantic Fleet simply could not come up with such a battle plan in a short period of time.

In order to improve the operational efficiency of the Atlantic Fleet Command, Admiral King also transferred dozens of staff officers from the Admiralty to assist Spruance. But this was not the most important thing, Spruance had already thought about the general combat operations, and what he needed most at that time was the Third Fleet's ground activity information. Therefore, the day after receiving new information from the intelligence services, Spruance made a request to the president through Admiral King to deploy in the southeastern United States. All U.S. forces along the Gulf Coast and in the Caribbean provide coordination and support to the Atlantic Fleet.

The President of the United States quickly acceded to Spruance's request, and immediately issued an order to King and Marshall, as well as to the commanders of the theaters, to unconditionally cooperate with and support the combat operations of the Atlantic Fleet, and not to refuse any request for assistance from Spruance. After receiving strong support from the president. Spruance's first request was that all reconnaissance planes capable of flying over the Caribbean Sea should be fully dispatched to search for traces of the Third Fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy. In addition, submarines, ships, and ships operating in the Caribbean have all turned to the search for the Third Fleet. The army was also to send a group of scouts to the Panama Canal Zone, which was occupied by the Tang Empire, to monitor the Panama Canal, the Gulf of Limon, and the two ports at the southern end of the canal.

With this deployment, Spruance shifted his focus to campaign planning. The reconnaissance network has been spread. Although intelligence is the most important. However, before obtaining sufficient information, it is necessary to complete the preparations for other battles as much as possible. In this way, the fleet can be dispatched in time.

It is not difficult to determine the whereabouts of the Third Fleet, because the Caribbean Sea, in which the Third Fleet operates, is a semi-enclosed sea area, and the sea area is limited, and the US military's long-range reconnaissance planes can fly to the southernmost tip of the Caribbean Sea after taking off from Cuba or adjacent islands to comprehensively monitor the entire sea area. In addition, the U.S. military has also deployed dozens of submarines in the Caribbean Sea to attack passing ships, most of which are stationed outside the Limón Bay north of the Panama Canal, and will be discovered by submarines as soon as the Third Fleet leaves Limón Bay. The most important thing is that no one thought that the US Atlantic Fleet would take the initiative to attack at this time, and Huang Xiaotian did not receive any relevant alerts, so he did not raise his vigilance, so naturally he did not know the whereabouts of the concealed Third Fleet.

After Spruance made a request, US reconnaissance planes, submarines, and even PT boats operating in the Caribbean Sea made several contacts with the Third Fleet and sent back reports in a timely manner. At that time, Han Shaofeng's Marine Corps was preparing for an attack on the Greater Andrés Islands, while Huang Xiaotian's Third Fleet was responsible for preparing for preliminary firepower, and at the same time creating conditions for the landing of the Marine Corps by bombing the defensive preparations of the US military. Under these circumstances, the Third Fleet rarely returned to the Gulf of Limon and was largely out of the field. It was not until 8 May, three days after the Third Fleet had been tracked, that Huang Xiaocai led the fleet back to Limon Bay, thus breaking away from the tracking and surveillance of the US military.

Spruance was shocked at first when he received this report, and it also meant that the commander of the Third Fleet had realized that danger was imminent and returned to Limón Bay. There was no continued activity in the Caribbean. Spruance, however, quickly reversed this judgment. Relatively speaking, the number of US reconnaissance planes that encountered the Third Fleet was not very large, and submarines, as well as PT speedboats, generally came into contact with the Third Fleet at night. Before that, it was either a reconnaissance aircraft or a submarine. Or PT speedboats, all of which are in constant contact with the Third Fleet. And the commander of the Third Fleet could not have been alerted by these few days of contact. Well, there must be other reasons for the return of the Third Fleet to the Gulf of Limon at this time.

Spruance's analysis was not wrong, Huang Xiaotian did not realize the danger and returned to Limon Bay, when he received an order to return to Limon Bay, and the reason was the same as that of the First Fleet, to go back to receive Xindi reconnaissance planes and seaplanes. And regular maintenance was carried out for some warships. At that time, the Third Fleet was the last to be equipped with the "Reconnaissance Eagle", which was even sent after the Second Fleet. The main reason was that the production of the "Reconnaissance Eagle" could not keep up with the requirements, and the report after the use of the Second Task Force improved the reputation of the "Reconnaissance Eagle", and Jiang Zhongmin requested in advance that the Fifth Task Force be reequipped with the "Reconnaissance Eagle", and the first task force had already decided on the refitting plan, and finally after meeting the needs of the two task forces, it was not until the beginning of May. Ha Feicai delivered the third batch, three squadrons of "Scout Eagles" to the Navy. These reconnaissance planes were not transported to the Third Fleet by sea, but were directly piloted by pilots of the HNA after leaving the factory and transferred to the Third Fleet. After arriving on Oahu, the reconnaissance planes first landed on an escort aircraft carrier bound for a convoy bound for the port of Panama. It was filled and then took off, eventually reaching the naval airfield near Panama City. In this way, it was solved for nearly a month, allowing the Third Fleet to obtain more advanced reconnaissance aircraft in a timely manner. In addition, when landing through an escort aircraft carrier, it was proved that the "Reconnaissance Eagle" had the ability to take off and land on a small aircraft carrier with a flight deck of only more than 100 meters and no high-power catapult, which laid a technical foundation for the later conversion of the "Reconnaissance Eagle" into a special carrier-based antisubmarine patrol aircraft.

After the replacement of new reconnaissance aircraft, the Third Fleet also began relevant adaptation training. In order to allow more officers and men to take advantage of this refitting to have a chance to rest and recuperate, the Third Fleet did not all leave the port for training. Instead, the three task forces will take turns to send one aircraft carrier to the open sea to cooperate with the reconnaissance planes for training. Such. The vast majority of the officers and soldiers were given a resting place in Limón, and the officers and soldiers who were on training missions were quickly replaced. You can also get a break. Of course, those pilots who need to get acquainted with the new reconnaissance aircraft as soon as possible, as well as navigators, do not have much time to rest. At that time, Huang Xiaotian also contacted Hao Dongjue and asked Hao Dongjue to send him more than a dozen experienced reconnaissance plane pilots and navigators, who would pass on their experience to their counterparts in the Third Fleet, thus shortening the training time.

As a result of these trainings, the Third Fleet has never left the Gulf of Limón, and even the warships that have left the port for training have rarely stayed far from the coast and have been operating near the Gulf of Limón. The U.S. submarine in charge of surveillance has not relaxed its vigilance, and has dutifully reported the relevant situation. When Spruance learned that the Third Fleet was conducting flight training, he was also a little puzzled. The Third Fleet has the most elite carrier-based aviation of the Tang Imperial Navy, even if the Seventh and Eighth Task Forces are newly formed, but these two task forces have participated in the combat operations of attacking the Hawaiian Islands, and are the main force in the campaign, and when intercepting Turner's fleet subsequently, the Third Fleet is also the main force of the attack, and its results are even greater than those of the First Fleet. If the Third Fleet needs to train its troops, it would be more useful to find a few US bases for bombing.

If Spruance had known that the Third Fleet had been equipped with a new type of reconnaissance plane, and that it was the adaptive training of the reconnaissance plane, he would not have been surprised, and he would have even increased his vigilance. However, the US submarines basically approached the Limon Bay at night, and the submarines that spotted the Third Fleet training were also observed through periscopes at dawn. The captain of the submarine was not able to distinguish the difference between the "Reconnaissance Eagle" and the "Falcon" in appearance. Therefore, there is no mention of the new fighter in the report.

The only thing that worried Spruance was that several of the Third Fleet's aviation training sessions were conducted at night, with pilots flying their planes off from carriers at night and returning to the carriers before dawn. Neither the Tang Empire nor the US Navy had the ability to conduct aviation operations at night. Actual combat has proved that it is almost impossible for bombers to threaten warships on the sea at night, and there is a great risk that the aircraft carrier will receive returning bombers at night, and even cause the fleet to be exposed and attacked by submarines ambushed nearby. It is precisely because of this that the navies of both sides have not emphasized the combat capability of carrier-based aviation at night, and still less have night combat training. At this time, the Third Fleet has strengthened the take-off and landing training of bombers at night.

With this question in mind, Spruance waited patiently for his chance. At the time, he was only suspicious, and did not pay much attention. The main thing is that Spruance has always believed that the strike capabilities of bombers at night are quite limited, and even if the Tang Imperial Navy has the ability to equip carrier-based bombers with bombing radars (this kind of radar has been equipped with heavy bombers three years ago), it is impossible for bombers to drop bombs at night on warships that are quickly maneuvering to evade, after all, using radar to guide bombing can only deal with ground targets at most, and it is also those fixed, large targets on the ground that will not move, before, There is no single successful example of a country's air force successfully bombing a fast-moving target at night.

At the end of mid-May, with the help of the top pilots of the Second Task Force, the intensive training of the independent reconnaissance squadrons of the three task forces and nine aviation groups of the Third Fleet was completed; although some navigators still had some problems in operating radars, this was no longer a big problem, and as long as these navigators were given more time to familiarize themselves with radar, they would be able to use airborne radars proficiently.

That is, on 21 May, the Third Fleet left the Bay of Limón, and Spruance's campaign deployment was basically in place. When Spruance saw an opportunity, he received an even more important piece of information that nearly extinguished his hopes, and the day before, the First Fleet had left the fortress of Gibraltar

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