If there were to describe how Nimitz felt on May 18, 27, it would be the word "undecided."

By the time the first bombers arrived, Nimitz had not yet left the underground theater command. Spruance's Fifth Fleet had already bombed Midway, and the news came back from a submarine that had encountered the Fifth Fleet on its way back. The Fifth Fleet was in the process of returning, and Nimitz and many staff officers judged that the main fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy would go to intercept the Fifth Fleet, and in order to ensure the safe return of the Fifth Fleet, it was necessary to concentrate support forces and arrange the actions of various supporting forces. This was the most important thing at that time.

The Fifth Fleet successfully attacked Midway and blew up a large amount of military supplies hoarded by the Tang Empire's navy on Midway, which was definitely great news for Nimitz. Although this sneak attack could not fundamentally change the situation in which the US military was in strategic passivity, because it was not the Marine Corps that decided the situation on the battlefield, but the fleet that seized and controlled sea supremacy. However, this was enough to delay the Tang Navy's attack on Kauai and disrupt the Tang Navy's battle plan, buying more time for the Fifth Fleet, the U.S. Navy, and the United States as a whole, and creating more opportunities.

At this time, not only did Spruance not expect that the Tang Imperial naval fleet would attack Pearl Harbor, but even Nimitz did not realize this huge potential threat. It can be said that before the carrier-based bombers of the Tang Imperial Navy flew over Oahu, almost none of the senior generals of the US army took this into account. Because of this, before the catastrophe came, Nimitz was not thinking about how to strengthen the defense of Oahu, but how to cover the retreat of the Fifth Fleet. This huge mistake allowed the US military to miss the opportunity to avoid a devastating blow.

As a matter of fact, the US military has another chance, that is, when the reconnaissance planes sent by the Tang Imperial Fleet reach the airspace over the islands, if the officers of the US radar station can inquire in as much detail as possible about the situation of these planes, then the US military will have at least an hour to organize the night fighters to take off. Then. There are nearly 150 night fighters, or night interceptors, on Oahu. Although the performance of these fighters cannot be compared with carrier-based fighters, their interception capability at night should not be underestimated, and many heavy bombers of the Tang Empire have been shot down by US night interceptors before. In addition, one hour was enough time for the US military to evacuate some important equipment, so that the anti-aircraft artillery units could be fully prepared for battle, and even the fighters on Hawaii Island could take off in time to intercept the second batch of Tang Empire carrier-based bombers. However, the officer of the US radar station simply asked where the planes came from. After receiving a disappointing answer, the planes disappeared from the radar screen. The officers of the US radar station did not contact the airfield, and the planes did not land on the airfield, but circled at a low altitude around the airfield and did not climb again until 10 minutes before the bombers arrived, and sent out important news in a timely manner. By this time, even if the officers of the US radar station had already had doubts, it would be too late.

When the staff officer hurried in and told Nimitz the news of the bombing, the five-star admiral couldn't believe his ears. Until the dull sound of an explosion came. The ground began to shake, and Nimitz learned about it when the island's troops called one after another. Oahu was attacked by the Tang Imperial Naval Aviation, and only two days after the Fifth Fleet attacked Midway, the Tang Imperial Navy ravaged the entire Oahu with bombshells.

Soon after the end of the first round of bombardment, Nimitz received information about the losses of his troops, and after learning that four regular airfields and several major field airfields had been destroyed, Nimitz knew that Oahu had been disarmed and that the attack of the Don Imperial Navy had just begun. The main fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy ran for a long time. Definitely not towards a few airfields, and the combat planes on these airfields. The most valuable target on Oahu is Pearl Harbor, and the purpose of the Tang Empire's team must be to destroy Pearl Harbor, the base that the Fifth Fleet must rely on! At that time, Nimitz issued an evacuation order, requiring the warships and ships in the port to leave the port as soon as possible, and the materials and equipment that could be evacuated should be evacuated as soon as possible, but the problem was. He had only an hour and a half left, and the U.S. military was not in combat readiness at the time, and there were a large number of civilian personnel in the port who could not receive orders in time. Neither the warships nor the ships anchored in Pearl Harbor were activated. Evacuating Pearl Harbor in an hour and a half is simply impossible.

When he learned that the second batch of bombers from the Tang Imperial Navy had arrived, and that these bombers had spared their targets along the way and were heading directly for Pearl Harbor, Nimitz no longer had any illusions. Perhaps, he felt that the most fortunate thing was that the Fifth Fleet was not inside Pearl Harbor, so the losses would not be so great as to disintegrate the entire US Navy. What Nimitz didn't expect was that the intensity of the second round of bombardment would come so violently.

When the bombing was underway, the guard unit responsible for Nimitz's security did not let the five-star general leave the underground command center, and then Nimitz received the news that Pearl Harbor was heavily bombed, and because of insufficient preparation, there was almost no way to block the attack of the Tang Empire's carrier-based bombers. When he learned that the idle theater command had also been bombed, Nimitz had a feeling of fear, he had only transferred from the theater command to this underground command center a few months ago, if it was not for Mitchell's strong recommendation to transfer the command center at that time, I am afraid that he would have been killed by the bombs dropped by the bombers of the Tang Empire at this time.

Bad news came one after another, and most of the bombed units sent damage reports one after another, which also allowed Nimitz to initially grasp the bombing rules of the Tang Empire's carrier-based bombers. Prior to this, Nimitz could only indirectly understand the combat effectiveness of the carrier-based aviation of the Tang Imperial Navy through the battle reports submitted by Spruance and others, and this time, he directly experienced the excellent quality of the carrier-based aviation of the Tang Imperial Navy. The whole bombing was carried out in an orderly manner, and each unit seemed to be carrying out its own mission, but each unit had no target of its own, each bomber had its own mission, and all the bombers participating in the bombing did not deviate from their mission objectives. In addition, the entire sequence of bombing was well organized, with different degrees of severity. The first to be hit were the most important and critical targets, especially the docks and slipways. This is to provide the Fifth Fleet with the infrastructure to be repaired, and once these infrastructures are destroyed, it will be impossible for the Fifth Fleet to operate from Pearl Harbor.

By the end of the second bombardment, Pearl Harbor was in virtual ruins, with all important targets destroyed, including dockyards, slipways, and heavy cranes. Gantry cranes, warehouses near the port, as well as docks and much more. Most of the secondary targets, the secondary port infrastructure, have also been devastated. The staff officer of the theater command quickly produced a rough damage assessment report, and even in the most optimistic way, Pearl Harbor would not be able to return to normal service within three months. The most pessimistic estimate is that Pearl Harbor will lose the ability to support all fleet and fleet activities within six months. The loss was devastating. Judging from the losses obtained by Nimitz, there was no need for the carrier-based bombers of the Tang Empire to bomb Pearl Harbor again, but the results were still beyond his expectations.

It was not before nine o'clock, when the carrier-based bombers of the Tang Imperial Navy again "visited" Pearl Harbor. Nimitz was preparing to leave his underground command center. He was immediately taken back again. The reports of the various units were also quickly compiled to the theater command center. Nimitz also had to sigh that the fleet commander of the Tang Imperial Navy was indeed ruthless enough, in order to achieve the maximum destruction effect. At the expense of losing another batch of fighters and wasting hundreds of bombs. It is no wonder that the previous battles between the two sides often ended with a successful sneak attack by the US army, but they were fought a beautiful counterattack by the Tang Imperial Navy, and the result was that both sides lost and ended.

War is a cruel game in which human lives are the ultimate price. Whether it was Spruance's successful sneak attack on Midway, or Tan Renhao's attack on Oahu with a tooth for a tooth, it is a direct manifestation of the cruelty of the war. Relatively speaking, Tan Renhao should be considered relatively "benevolent". Spruance spent a day, sending six batches of ground bombers to "ravage" Midway. Tan Renhao actually spent only a few hours, and only three groups of bombers were dispatched to deal with Oahu. This was primarily due to the combat efficiency of the bombers of both sides. and the actual situation, especially the objectives of the campaign to be achieved. Of course, from the point of view of the effect of the blow, Tan Renhao's achievements are by no means below Spruance.

It was not until noon that day, after dozens of reconnaissance planes taking off from Hawaii Island and several other islands determined that the main fleet of the Tang Empire had run away, that Nimitz walked out of the underground shelter. The first thing he did was to give the order to rescue the wounded, and the damaged ships, and the second order he gave was to cancel the pursuit of the main fleet of the Tang Empire. Only medium and heavy bombers were able to deal with the main fleet of the Tang Empire, and the ability of these bombers to strike at sea was quite limited. The Don fleet did not suffer much damage. A counterattack will only lead to the loss of another batch of fighters, as well as a good batch of pilots. His third order was to send the news of the bombing of Oahu to the Fifth Fleet, so that Spruance could act on the opportunity.

In terms of arranging the aftermath, Nimitz's composure and calmness played a role in stabilizing the morale of the army, but in just a few hours, the carrier-based bombers of the Tang Imperial Navy shocked him very greatly. Previously, he had also reproached Spruance several times for avoiding a fight and not being brave enough to fight the enemy. Now, he finally understood why Spruance was so cautious, preferring to spend a lot of time training rather than fight the enemy too early. Just three bombs, just over 1,000 bombs and torpedoes, finally paralyzed the entire Pearl Harbor, as well as several airfields on Oahu, and dozens of important military installations. Not to mention that even the U.S. naval aviation at war time did not have such a superb assault and destruction capability.

What shocked Nimitz even more was the resoluteness and decisiveness of the commander of the Tang Imperial Navy's fleet in counterattacking. Especially in the third round of bombing, this was more or less redundant, but the other side did not give the US military the slightest chance. In addition, the adversary had the audacity to attack the heavily fortified island of Oahu, which in itself speaks volumes about the courage of its commanders. Nimitz knew very well the difference between Oahu and Midway, and even if Spruance was given a strong enough fleet, perhaps Spruance would not dare to attack a heavily fortified island like Oahu.

Shock to shock, after being bombed, Nimitz was not idle, there were too many things waiting for him to deal with. Nimitz did not give Spruance a death order, and he knew very well that the bombing of Pearl Harbor would certainly be a shot in the arm and have a huge impact on Spruance and even all the officers and men of the Fifth Fleet. Spruance is a very measured and cautious commander, he will not take risks blindly, nor will he make wrong decisions, as for how the Fifth Fleet should fight against the main fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy, this is Spruance's business.

Rescuing the wounded, repairing damaged ships, repairing port infrastructure, realigning Oahu's air force deployment, and arranging for the arriving fleet to reach Hilo Harbor were all needed to be handled by Nimitz. In fact, most of the orders were given by Nimitz, and the specific affairs were handled by the staff officers of the theater command. For Nimitz, his most important job at the time was how to explain the sudden blow to the Admiralty and to the White House.

Because there were so many cumbersome affairs, and important matters that Nimitz needed to deal with, he ignored an extremely important question, that is, why did the Tang Imperial Navy attack Oahu and why did it rush to destroy Pearl Harbor? Judging from the overall war situation, as long as the Tang Imperial Navy captures Kauai, Oahu is at your fingertips, and the tactical bombers deployed on Kauai can easily destroy Pearl Harbor at that time. And the focus of this bombing is not on the supplies that the US military has stockpiled on Oahu, but on the infrastructure at Pearl Harbor, which is obviously also inconsistent with the current battlefield situation.

It can be said that this is an extremely important issue, which Nimitz did not consider, but Spruance would never ignore such an important issue!