Before they started dropping bombs, they had already sent the report back, and the American fleet had only one aircraft carrier and four battleships, which was determined to be the 16th task force! This report is extremely important, but it also makes Tan Renhao have a headache, where is the 16th task force?

The real threat is by no means those four battleships, with the degree of the first task force, it is very easy to escape the four battleships with the fastest degree of only 22 knots, but the problem is that no matter how fast the battleship is, it can't be faster than the plane! Task Force 16 has three aircraft carriers, where are these three aircraft carriers?

When Hao Dongjue was so busy that he was about to explode, Tan Renhao was lying on the chart table, looking at the theater chart, and couldn't figure it out, where was the 16th task force hiding?

Since the fleet was seen in the waters near Midway, it has never been seen again. Herein lies the problem, if Task Force 16 had taken a northern route after leaving Midway, then there was no doubt that they must have been somewhere northeast of the fleet, and perhaps they were already letting bombers take off.

Tan Renhao sighed, the fleet sent a telegram after twelve o'clock, and forty minutes have passed now. This telegram was actually used to lure the American fleet. The United States has set up a large number of radio listening stations on Saipan and other islands, and these listening stations must have intercepted the radio waves emitted by the fleet, but Saipan and several islands were basically in a straight line with the First Task Force at this time, so the accuracy of the US military in measuring the position of the fleet through the method of triangulation should not be very high (if the angle of the top angle in the triangulation method is too small, that is, the angle between the fleet and the two radio listening stations is too small, it will definitely affect the accuracy of the measurement) In any case, The exact location of the fleet has actually been revealed, and since Task Force 16 is the main fleet, there is no reason to turn around and slip back to Pearl Harbor halfway!

So. Where is Task Force 16?

Tan Renhao's gaze fell to the north of the chart, and he had always suspected that Task Force 16 should be on the north side of the engaged sea, that is, on the northeast corner of the fleet. For this reason, the fleet arranged for a number of reconnaissance planes to search in this direction. These reconnaissance planes had taken off after the storm had passed, had been out for nearly three hours, and should now be on their way home, but they did not reply to any news. In other words, the reconnaissance aircraft was not in the northeast direction. At least not within 3oo nautical miles northeast of the current American fleet.

Tan Renhao was slightly shocked in his heart, the ultimate combat radius of the American bomber is only 25o nautical miles, and now there is no US fleet within 3oo nautical miles in the northeast direction, so it can prove that the US fleet is not in this direction! Thinking of this, Tan Renhao hurriedly measured the position of the 17th Task Force with a scale, and at this time, he came to his senses.

If Task Force 1 were to the northeast, Task Force 1 would actually be sandwiched between two U.S. task forces, and Task Force 1 would be 15o nautical miles away from Task Force 17. And to the northeast of the 16th task force. Could it be that two U.S. fleets would operate together at a distance of more than 45o nautical miles? This is obviously impossible, in the "First Battle of the Marianas", the two task forces of the United States were too far apart. So it suffered a crushing defeat (in fact, this was also an Achilles' heel of the Tang Imperial Naval Fleet in that naval battle) has a lesson from the past, and the 17th Task Force only has one aircraft carrier, the "Enterprise", even if this aircraft carrier is all fighters, it is not enough to ensure the safety of the 17th Task Force. And at such a distance, it is impossible to coordinate the attack at all. In the case of Task Force 1, the distance from Task Force 1 must be maintained at a distance of 2oo nautical miles from Task Force 17.

When Tan Renhao used a scale to take the 1st Task Force as the center of the circle on the chart, he made a radius with the 17th Task Force as the center of the circle. He made a circle with a radius of 2oo nautical miles, and his gaze immediately fell within the overlapping range of the two circles. As long as that rear admiral named Spruance wasn't too stupid, then Task Force 16 would definitely be within the scope of this overlap!

"Renhao, good news, the 'Idaho' and 'Colorado' are finished, and now the aircraft group is concentrating on bombing the 'Enterprise', and maybe there is still ammunition left to attack the other two aircraft carriers!"

Hao Dongjue ran over in a hurry, "How about it, do you want to listen to the voices of the front-line pilots?" ”

Tan Renhao shook his head. He said with a serious expression: "How many reconnaissance planes did we send to the south?" ”

Hao Dongjue was stunned for a moment, immediately furrowed his eyebrows, and then shook his head.

"See for yourself!"

Tan Renhao pointed with his finger at the overlapping place on the chart, "I judge that the 16th Task Force must be in this sea area, but I don't know its exact location!" ”

"Didn't you judge them to be in the northeast direction before?"

"No, I've thought about two extremely important issues!"

Tan Renhao sighed secretly, and he was also reproaching himself, "It is unlikely that these two American fleets will act separately, after all, the 17th Task Force is not strong in terms of resistance to attack, and the 16th Task Force must provide cover." Moreover, if the two fleets are too separated, there will be many loopholes, they will not be able to cooperate in combat, and they will not even have the opportunity to seize us, so how can they deal with the second task force? It's a pity that I didn't think of this before, and we didn't send reconnaissance planes to the south at all! ”

"So what now?"

Hao Dongjue gritted his teeth, he didn't think of this, and what was even more troublesome was that there were no reconnaissance planes in the fleet to send out.

"Contact Task Force 2 and ask them to immediately send reconnaissance planes to search this area and prepare for a strike!"

Tan Renhao took out his cigarette, "Also, how many radars have been repaired?" ”

"There wasn't any, we had already contacted the technicians on Agrihan Island, and they tried to get over by seaplane as soon as possible. There was a lack of some necessary spare parts, and the degree of damage to the radar was significant. We ourselves are not able to repair the ground. ”

"!"

Tan Renhao cursed softly, "Arrange for a squad of fighters to patrol the south." Our position has been exposed, and while the U.S. radio listening stations cannot accurately determine our exact location, the U.S. command can make a rough judgment from the direction of entry of our fleet bombing Task Force 17. If I were to command the 16th Task Force, we would not send reconnaissance planes anymore, but would directly send a group of bombers to carry out a search mission with escort fighters that went forward, and now we will bomb immediately! ”

"The question is. The combat radius of American bombers is at most 25o nautical miles, not 3oo nautical miles, do they have enough fuel? ”

"If they're only 2oo nautical miles away from us, or even closer, do they need to worry about fuel?"

Tan Renhao smiled bitterly, "Take a look, perhaps, they are more than 1oo nautical miles south of us, but we haven't seen them!" ”

Hao Dongjue looked carefully at the chart for a while. Then he nodded. said: "Otherwise, we will contact the second task force and ask them to organize bombers to ...... immediately."

"No way. The extent of this sea area is too large, tens of thousands of square nautical miles, it is impossible to determine the exact location of the enemy fleet, perhaps, their bayonets are on our belly! ”

Tan Renhao sighed, his raised hand suddenly froze in midair, and then laughed.

"What are you laughing at?"

"We have a way to make a rough judgment!"

Tan Ren Haoxun thought for a while, then leaned on the chart table and said, "Now our position has been exposed, isn't it?" Then the commander of the opposing ground will definitely attack immediately. Of course, they have to be in this area. And the American commander must know that we have a stronger fleet hiding behind, and he will send at most half of the bombers against us, right? Task Force 16 has three aircraft carriers, and each aircraft carrier sorties half of its bombers, how much time does it take? ”

Hao Dongjue hesitated for a moment and said, "We need about twenty to twenty-five minutes, and they may need at least half an hour." ”

"Then we'll estimate it to be half an hour. The cruising degree of American bombing in conditions with full load is 17o knots. ”

Tan Renhao straightened up, "The commander of the 16th Task Force after knowing our specific location. He would spend a few minutes thinking about how to organize the attack, mainly judging the nature of our attack and the number of bombers that needed to be put into it. Subsequently, it takes half an hour for the bombers to take off, so we can judge the time of the enemy's bombers from the time of their arrival, and we can also roughly calculate the distance of the enemy fleet from us. This, there may be an error of tens of nautical miles, but it will never be far off. The second task force only needs to send an extra batch of escort fighters to spread the surface a little wider, then the possibility of finding the 16th task force should be very great! ”

Hao Dongjue nodded immediately, and then laughed as well.

"Get the news out at once."

Tan Renhao let out a sigh, and then glanced at the navigation clock, it was already 1:15, and the bombing of the 17th Task Force by the bomber group was almost over. "In addition, extend the fighter patrol radius to the south to 4o nautical miles, and the fleet is ready for air defense operations!"

The telegram came out quickly, and the fighters parked on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier on standby also took off immediately. Fighters, who had previously performed anti-aircraft patrol missions, were being transferred to the south of the fleet. Because of the increased radius of air defense patrols, it took more than ten minutes for these fighters to reach 4o nautical miles south of the fleet.

Tan Renhao walked behind the porthole, and the sky over the sea after the storm passed was exceptionally clear, and not even a trace of clouds could be seen. This is the storm on the sea, during which the sky is full of dark clouds, and it is difficult to see even the midday sun. After the storm passed, it was as if all the water vapor had been taken away, and there was not a single puffy cloud in the sky! This was the perfect weather for enemy bombers, pilots with good eyesight could appear on the surface of the fleet more than ten nautical miles away, and likewise lookouts on battleships could see warplanes more than ten nautical miles away. In the case that there is no way to fix the radar, the eyes of the lookouts, as well as those fighters patrolling the perimeter of the fleet, are the "eyes" of the fleet.

"The fighters are being transferred, the telegram is already out."

Hao Dongjue quickly walked over, "I also sent a telegram to General Liao Hanxiang and asked him to forward it to the Second Task Force. Now now, Lao Lei, they haven't moved, will they ......?"

"Don't worry, they'll take their chance."

Tan Renhao was actually a little worried about whether the Second Task Force could be killed in time, "Before they enter the war, we must keep the radio silent, and General Liao Hanxiang helps us to take telegrams repeatedly, he will definitely receive the telegrams, and then he will rush to support us!" ”

Hao Dongjue sighed: "I also hope for this." By the way, the bomber group is returning to the sky over the fleet in about forty minutes, do you want to let Ellor return their speed? ”

Tan Renhao hesitated slightly, then nodded. "Task Force 17 has been killed?"

Hao Dongjue immediately conveyed the order to the communications staff officer next to him, and then said: "The five Class A targets have been bombed, and it is determined that the 'Enterprise' has caught fire. I've contacted HNA and HNA shore-based bombers are preparing to do supplementary bombing of Task Force 17. ”

"Let HNA do it, our task now is to withstand the enemy's attack."

Tan Renhao smiled bitterly, now the first task force is fish on the chopping board. "Well, let the fleet prepare for air defense as soon as possible, enemy aircraft may appear at any time, whether they can withstand it depends on the performance of our fighters and anti-aircraft guns!"

In fact, there are not many things that Ren Hao and Hao Dongjue can do now. If they can get away with it (the chances are too slim), then they can organize a bombing with the returning bombers. If they can't escape this catastrophe, then they must go back to the situation of the American fleet, let Lei Shaoqing and Chang Jianxin go to avenge them, and let the second task force complete the final mission!

The battle has reached this point, which also makes Tan Renhao feel helpless, if he only needs to deal with one American fleet, then he doesn't need to let Lei Shaoqing intervene at all, in time for the 16th US Task Force with three aircraft carriers!