Before exchanging places with the First Fleet, Huang Xiaotian suspected that Spruance had gone somewhere else and was not active in the northeast direction, but at that time, Tan Renhao still believed that Spruance would enter from the direction of the far sea, so Huang Xiaotian did not directly say his thoughts. Immediately, the two fleets exchanged positions, with the Third Fleet providing cover for the First Fleet.

During the day on the 15th, the Third Fleet had been operating to the east of the First Fleet, and in the afternoon it began to maneuver northward. By evening, Huang Xiaotian had already dispatched four groups of reconnaissance planes to conduct a large-scale search in the northeast and east of the fleet, and the search radius of the fourth group of reconnaissance planes was even expanded to 500 li, while the maximum communication distance between the fleet and the reconnaissance planes at that time was only 450 li, and if the weather was not good, it could only reach 400 li. In other words, Huang Xiaotian let the reconnaissance plane fly out of the communication distance. However, by the time the fourth group of reconnaissance planes returned one after another in the evening, nothing had been discovered. Huang Xiaotian was even more suspicious that Spruance had shifted his position.

Since the Atlantic Fleet left Norfolk, several days had been enough for Spruance to reach any direction of attack. No matter how Spruance ends up sneaking up on him, he'll have to get close to the First Fleet or the Third Fleet. In the past few days, the situation on the battlefield has been constantly changing, and if Spruance accurately grasps the changes in the battle situation, then he will definitely revise the battle plan. Perhaps, at the beginning, Spruance really wanted to approach the Third Fleet from the open sea direction. Or the First Fleet, but as the tide of war turns, will Spruance give up on this idea? If he had some ground information about the First Fleet, or the Third Fleet, would he have changed the battle plan?

It was with these possibilities in mind that Huang Xiaotian began to suspect that Spruance had shifted his position. At that time, the Third Fleet had already made contact with the US reconnaissance aircraft, although it was not directly detected. But Spruance quite possibly used the point of contact of the reconnaissance aircraft with the air defense fighter to deduce the approximate location of the Third Fleet. In addition, the First Fleet had already had close contact with the U.S. submarines, so that Spruance was able to calculate the location of the First Fleet at that time. Combining these two points, it should not be difficult for Spruance to deduce the relationship between the First Fleet and the Third Fleet, and thus find that the Third Fleet, which is bombing the Bahamas, is just a decoy. In order to avoid a sudden attack by the First Fleet, Spruance would not rashly approach the Third Fleet from the open sea, or even actively join the battle circle, but would observe the periphery for a while longer, and at the same time use this opportunity to move the Atlantic Fleet to a more suitable position.

On the night of the 15th, when the First Fleet continued to sail in the southwest direction, Huang Xiaotian asked the Third Fleet to start sailing in the northwest direction. At that time, he thought that Spruance was likely to hide in the Bahamas, if he was not in the open sea, relying on densely distributed islands in the interior of the archipelago as a cover. Avoid reconnaissance planes, then stealthily approach the First Fleet. If Spruance did not know, the Imperial Navy fleet already had night reconnaissance capabilities. At the same time, if he had roughly grasped the position of the First Fleet, he was very likely to do so.

Then. Huang Xiaotian did not report the action to Tan Renhao. According to his agreement with Tan Renhao, when the fleet is operating in dangerous sea areas, it will try to maintain radio silence as much as possible, and only after the fleet is discovered or has taken offensive action will it take the initiative to send a telegram to contact the other fleet. At that time, the Third Fleet was entering dangerous seas and was not taking offensive actions. Therefore, Huang Xiaotian did not take the initiative to contact the First Fleet.

In the early morning of the 16th, that is, when the First Fleet detected the telegram sent by the battleship "Montana". The Third Fleet was actually only about 400 miles from Spruance's Atlantic Fleet, about 350 miles from Grand Abaco Island to the west, and about 500 miles from the mainland of the United States. At that time, several radio monitoring stations in the fleet also intercepted the telegram sent by the US ship, but because the signal was too weak, the radio analysts were unable to analyze the nature of the telegram and mistakenly judged it to be a telegram sent by a nearby US naval base radio, so they did not report the news to Huang Xiaotian. It was not until just before 1 a.m., that is, when the two task forces of the First Fleet were discovered by US reconnaissance planes one after another, and when Tan Renhao sent a telegram to the Third Fleet, that Huang Xiaotian knew that the Atlantic Fleet was not far from him, and that if he had seized the time, he could have rushed to intercept the Atlantic Fleet before dawn.

Soon, Huang Xiaotian received a second telegram from Tan Renhao, asking him to prepare for providing air defense cover for the First Fleet. This was also one of the main tasks of the Third Fleet at that time, and after the two fleets had switched places, the Third Fleet was supposed to cover the First Fleet. But the question is, at that time, the Third Fleet could also attack the Atlantic Fleet, should it attack itself, or should it cover the First Fleet first? Huang Xiaotian was faced with a difficult choice, and what he hesitated about was that news from other places kept coming from afar.

Within more than two hours, Huang Xiaotian had been closely following the confrontation between the First Fleet and the Atlantic Fleet, from the Third Task Force taking the initiative to attack, the US battleship fleet coming to meet the battle, to both sides taking the initiative to retreat. Huang Xiaotian kept track of the situation on the battlefield through the telegrams sent by the First Fleet. At about half past two in the morning, that is, when Tan Renhao and Spruance both decided to withdraw from the battle for fear of being hit hard by the other party, Huang Xiaotian had a judgment about the situation, a judgment that directly affected his next decision. That is, Tan Renhao has always been worried about being attacked by US shore-based bombers, so he did not dare to pursue the Atlantic Fleet. Similarly, Spruance was afraid of being hit by the Third Fleet, which had not been present, so he hastily withdrew from the battle.

There is no doubt that the significance of the Third Fleet at this time is very significant. As long as the Third Fleet has been hidden and does not appear, then Spruance will not dare to deal with the First Fleet easily, and this is much more significant than the Third Fleet sending fighter jets to cover the First Fleet. The problem is that the Third Fleet, which remains in a concealed state, will not be able to provide direct cover for the First Fleet, and it will not be able to prevent US shore-based bombers from dealing with the First Fleet after dawn.

To help the First Fleet, in addition to providing it with air defense fighters, the best way is to take the initiative!

It was at this time that Huang Xiaotian made a decision that not only surprised Spruance, but also surprised Tan Renhao, that is, to take the initiative to bomb the US airfield at night, and cover the safe retreat of the First Fleet by attacking.

There were many factors that made Huang Xiaotian make this decision, in addition to the complicated situation on the battlefield at that time, the position of the Third Fleet was relatively favorable, and the whereabouts of the Third Fleet had not yet been exposed. The most important thing is that four of the airfields that were able to deploy heavy bombers and threaten the First Fleet and the Third Fleet at that time were on the Florida Peninsula, and none of these four airfields were more than 550 miles away from the Third Fleet.

Prior to this decision, the Third Fleet had been sailing westward and had already sailed about 50 nautical miles westward, which means that it was within 500 nautical miles of U.S. airfields. As long as the Third Fleet continued westward for about an hour, and then had bombers and fighters carry as much fuel as possible, the airfields could be bombed. Within an hour, Huang Xiaotian not only deployed the tactical bombing operation, but also prepared the bombers and fighters of the Third Fleet for the take-off of the bombers and fighters on the mission. Arguably. At that time, the Third Fleet's aviation service efficiency had surpassed that of the First Fleet, and without the efforts of its aviation service personnel, it would have been difficult for the Third Fleet to bomb US airfields before dawn.

In order to ensure the destruction of these four airfields as much as possible, and at the same time to be able to leave a sufficient covering force for the fleet, it is even necessary to consider providing adequate air defense cover for the First Fleet. Huang Xiaotian was quite cautious in arranging the striking force. Task Force 4 dispatched four squadrons of bombers and one squadron of escort fighters. Task Force 7 dispatched four squadrons of bombers and one squadron of escort fighters, while Task Force 8 dispatched four squadrons of ground bombers and two squadrons of escort fighters. In this way, it was possible to guarantee an attack on an airfield by three squadrons of bombers, and each group was escorted by fighters of at least one squadron. In this way, when the bomber group returns after dawn, it can try to cope with the interception of US fighters. In addition, Huang Xiaotian left five squadrons of fighters, so that in addition to leaving one squadron of air defense fighters for each task force, he could also arrange two squadrons of fighters to provide air defense cover for the First Fleet. More critically, the whereabouts of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet could not be determined at the time, if Spruance wanted to approach the Third Fleet. If he took the opportunity to sneak attack the Third Fleet, Huang Xiaotian still had six squadrons of ground bombers left in his hands, which was enough to form two batches of bomber groups and deal a devastating blow to the Atlantic Fleet.

The first bomber left the aircraft carrier at about four ten-point. Because the bombers had to fight almost at the maximum strike radius, and they also had to consider flying a longer distance when returning home, the bombers only flew at a cruising speed of 300 after departure. At about half past four, all nine aircraft carriers of the Third Fleet had released their fighters on mission, and then the fleet turned southeast to the sea area where it was scheduled to receive the returning fighters.

The bomber group was reduced to an altitude of about 500 shortly after departure. Escort fighters followed behind, mainly to avoid detection by U.S. forces passing through the islands. Then. The radar station deployed by the US military on the island of Grand Abaco has been blown up, but no one can guarantee that the US military has not deployed mobile radars on the island. Or the radar station has already been repaired. To be on the safe side, the bomber group was able to fly at low altitude and high speed without being able to bypass Grand Abaco Island to minimize the chance of exposure.

After about an hour and a half of flight, the bomber group, which had already divided into four formations on the road, arrived in the vicinity of four large US regular airfields within five minutes, and launched an attack at 5:40 a.m. at the same time. The commanders of these four groups of bombers were all the best bomber pilots of the Third Fleet, including Chai Zhizhong and Hao Lingheng. Zhang Zhiyun et al. And the commander of the fighter covering these bomber groups was also an experienced pilot, and it was Zhu Cheng who led the team. At the time of bomber dropping. The escort fighters also took part in the attack, using their 20-mm guns to strafe the US bombers and fighters parked on the ground.

The bombing campaign proceeded quite quickly, with only fifteen minutes between the first bomber dropping the bomb and the last strafing fighter withdrawing from the battle. The main reason was that there was not much fuel on the bombers at that time, and no pilot was willing to spend more time dropping bombs. With more than 100 bombers against an airfield, the bomb density is large enough to destroy the airfield.

Huang Xiaotian dropped the bomb shortly after the bombing began, that is, Colonel Chai Zhizhong, who was specially responsible for liaising with the fleet, and then flew about 50 nautical miles in the direction of the fleet, and after he could contact the fleet, he received the news that the bombing had been successful. And Huang Xiaotian sent a telegram to Tan Renhao shortly after receiving the telegram, how to say, the Third Fleet has now taken offensive actions, and it should also break the radio silence. The commander of the U.S. military base only reacted after the bombing and sent out the news that it had been bombed, so Spruance received the relevant telegram more than ten minutes later.

This was the first time that Tang Imperial Navy bombers bombed military targets on the east coast of the United States, and it was also the first time that the continental United States was bombed on a large scale. Although Huang Xiaotian attached great importance to the tactical significance of this bombing at that time, more people remembered its strategic significance, and some people even suggested that it was this bombing operation of the Third Fleet that opened the prelude to the large-scale strategic bombing of the US mainland by the Tang Imperial Navy. Of course, this statement is not recognized by many people.