If Task Force 17 had sounded the air defense siren, lifted the radio silence, immediately let the fighters take off, and seized the time to refuel the 36 F4Fs that had rushed to reinforce and re-launch the fleet, then there would still be hope for Task Force 17.

There is simply no one to explain the decision made by Fletcher, and the difference between the Osprey and the F4F is actually quite large. First of all, the "Osprey" is much larger than the F4F, and secondly, the gull-shaped wing is used, while the United States uses the Gull-shaped wing F4U, and the F4U was not in service at that time. Why did the American pilots and the lookouts on the battleship confuse the two warplanes, which were very different in appearance? At that time, neither the Tang Empire nor the Japanese Navy would have made such a low-level mistake. Moreover, the most important thing is that there is a big difference between the badges on the wings of the Tang Imperial Navy fighters and the badges on the wings of American fighters (at that time, the American Navy fighters were still in the old livery, and they were very familiar with the Japanese), and the eyesight of the fighter pilots was all first-class, and such an important identification mark was not even seen.

There were also many problems, such as the fact that the fleet's radio officer (who monitored radio activity in the vicinity of the fleet) did not notice the radio waves emitted by the warplane. What is even more ridiculous is that Rear Admiral Fletcher made a decision to decide the life and death of the fleet based on an unverifiable piece of information. Of course, there are so many things that cannot be explained. For example, at that time, a slight increase in the air defense of the fleet would not have caused any losses, but Fletcher did not do so. …． 1

As soon as the fighter pilot who flew the F4F to shoot down the "unidentified plane" stepped onto the flight deck of the USS Lexington, he was taken to a confinement room by two Marines and then locked up to be sent for questioning after the battle. Fletcher ordered a destroyer to look for the surviving pilot at the site where the plane fell, and the destroyer circled the area for half an hour without finding anything.

Subsequently, the F4F began to land, since only 12 fighters remained on each carrier. So the hangar and flight deck on the aircraft carrier are vacated, and the aircraft carrier is very "empty" and there is enough space for these fighters. Fletcher did not give the order for the fighters to take off, but continued to let the fleet move along the predetermined course.

Fletcher's decisions are very unusual and incomprehensible. One of the bases for Fletcher's decision was that Task Force 17 was not exposed. And he firmly believed that the Second Task Force of the Tang Empire was in the waters north of the Mariana Islands, and there would be no Tang Empire fleet near it at all.

In fact, Fletcher did not make any major mistakes, or the responsibility for these mistakes was not on his shoulders (this actually became the most important reason why Fletcher did not go to court-martial) at the time of the departure of the 17th Task Force, the US Navy's Pacific Fleet Command judged that only the 2nd Task Force and the 3rd Task Force of the Tang Empire participated in the battle, and the 1st Task Force, which had suffered heavy losses in the Battle of the "Philippines", did not participate in the battle. At that time, an American submarine operating northwest of the Mariana Islands had come close to capturing a large fleet (it was the second task force) on three occasions, and on the last passing side, the submarine sent a telegram. The time was on the afternoon of the 3rd. The telegram was soon received by the command of the Pacific Fleet of the US Navy. It was then sent to Task Force 17. Based on this, Fletcher was not wrong to judge that the Second Task Force of the Tang Empire was not nearby, and at the same time, he could not have known that the First Task Force was lying in ambush less than 200 nautical miles from Guam. Combined with the first batch of F4Fs to come to the 17th Task Force, they were scattered halfway through. Factor-17 was unable to make direct contact with the Guam-based fighters at the time (radio silence had been maintained), and Fletcher believed that it was not an enemy aircraft, and that it was probably an F4F.

If Fletcher must be held responsible, then the greatest responsibility of this US rear admiral is the serious lack of vigilance expected of a fleet commander, and the excessive caution in combat operations that do not dare to make bold guesses and make decisive judgments and decisions. This should actually be summed up more in terms of competence than responsibility.

In fact, until this time, the 17th Task Force had not lost its last chance, and this opportunity was the "Katerina" maritime patrol plane that discovered the 1st Task Force. But in the end, this opportunity was lost to the commander of the US military in Guam.

By the time "Katarina" was shot down, a telegram had been sent to find Task Force 1. The telegram was not finished, but there was a crucial sentence in it, that is, there were aircraft carriers in the enemy fleet that were discovered. This message was enough for any commander to make the decision to attack. The U.S. Air Command in Guam received the telegram at 9:53 a.m., and the U.S. military commander also made a decision, but it was a very absurd decision: immediately arrange for another nearby reconnaissance plane to verify it, instead of immediately sending a bomber group to attack.

One of the loopholes of the 1st Task Force at that time was that it did not immediately expand the patrol range of anti-aircraft fighters (in fact, the main thing at that time was to organize an offensive). Instead of defense, in fact, the fleet was not capable of doing this at that time, and Tan Renhao was not blamed for this, but was commended) The reconnaissance plane that received the order from the base was patrolling about 75 nautical miles north of Task Force 1. At 10:15, the seaplane spotted the fleet in front of it at high speed, as well as bombers that were taking off one after another. The two aircraft carriers sailing against the wind, as well as the dense bombers over the fleet, are simply too easy to identify. This maritime patrol aircraft saw the fleet clearly from five nautical miles away. But there was a problem with the radio station on the plane and it could not send a signal. The seaplane immediately turned around and returned home (I don't know what the American pilots were thinking, if the same situation had changed, the pilots of the Don Empire would have followed the fleet all the time) The messenger on board the plane (the crew of the seaplane was five) repaired the radio at 10:35 and immediately sent a telegram. At this time, the seaplane was already 80 nautical miles away from the 1st Task Force, so the fleet's radio detection device did not detect this radio wave (even if it did, it would not be taken seriously), the US commander in Guam did not hesitate any longer, and immediately ordered the bomber to prepare for takeoff, and at the same time forwarded the telegram to the 17th Task Force. However, at that time, the first batch of carrier-based fighters from the 17th Task Force had already arrived over Guam and were landing at Andersen Airport (at that time, Guam's bombers were deployed at this airfield, and the other field airfield did not station bombers in peacetime because there was no supporting ammunition and fuel supply equipment) The runway was occupied, and it was impossible for the bombers to take off. Although the airfield control tower has tried its best to contact the fighters who are landing one after another, so that they can hover over the airfield first, the radio channels used by the carrier-based fighters are not the same as those used by the airfields on the island. As a result, it was not until after eleven o'clock, after the first two groups of carrier-based aircraft landed, that the bombers with bombs took off one after another. It is also quite important that these bombers did not have fighter cover. All the fighters deployed on Guam were dispatched, and the fighters taking off from Saipan could not fly over Task Force 1 at all.

Fletcher received the telegram at 10:43, and this time, without any hesitation, he immediately ordered all the fighters to take off urgently, and the fleet moved into anti-aircraft formation, and began to accelerate. But it was too late now, and he only had the last forty minutes left to prepare, not even forty minutes.

180 nautical miles, for the bomber group of the Don Empire. That's a maximum of an hour's range (when the combat radius is within 200 nautical miles). Both the Osprey and the Kingfisher can fly at a maximum cruising speed of 180 knots with full fuel, without considering fuel conservation) The fleet left Task Force 1 at 10:23 a.m., and Fletcher was alerted at 10:43 a.m. It's twenty minutes late!

The first F4F left the flight deck of the "Lexington" at 10:58 a.m., and the F4F on the "Wasp" took off three minutes late. At the time of Fletcher's order to fight, none of the fighters were refueled, and some were still undergoing overhaul. It's pretty good that the crew can get these fighters off in fifteen minutes. Obviously, it was too late.

The two aircraft carriers each need to release 30 fighters, and if it is an aircraft carrier of the Tang Empire, it will only take 15 minutes at most, but the quality of the service personnel on the US aircraft carrier is not comparable to the service personnel of the Tang Empire, which has undergone too much "training". It took twenty-five minutes for the fighters to take off, and six more were left behind because of a malfunction. The first batch of fighters (squads) will fly to a minimum interception radius of 20 nautical miles and a minimum interception radius of 3,500 meters. It takes at least ten minutes to start the accelerated climb. In other words, the first batch of F4Fs to enter the interception airspace arrived at about 11:12, and at this time, the first wave of bombers of the Tang Imperial Navy was only about 30 nautical miles away from the 17th Task Force, and about 10 nautical miles away from the interception line of American fighters. Therefore, the escort fighters also have a task, that is, to go forward to search for the fleet for the bomber group, so that the bomber group following behind does not need to disperse its forces, and can quickly launch an attack) The escort fighter group is led by Major Ansle. When most of his comrades-in-arms and superiors went to the Second Air Wing, he was left behind and participated in combat operations in the South Seas with the fleet. It was not a battle he liked, and on the Nanyang battlefield, the Japanese had very few fighters and poor pilots. By the later stages, almost all ground fighters were performing ground attack missions rather than air combat missions. Tan Renhao must have been one of the happiest people when he returned to the First Task Force, because he knew that this commander, who had led them to a great deal of success and honor, would once again lead them to a brilliant victory.

At 10:15 a.m., Ann Rosler saw the front and bottom ("Falcon" is on a forward escort mission, if the weather is clear, then it will generally fly at an altitude of 4,500 meters. And by this time the clouds had drifted to the southeast of the fleet, and the west side of the fleet was a clear sky) of the American fighters who were trying to climb. At this time, the distance between the two sides is about seven nautical miles. Ellsler didn't hesitate, he called his wingman to follow, pushed down the throttle stick, began to accelerate, and pounced on the two F4Fs in front. The pilot of the wingman who was about 300 meters behind the Ellsler's plane accelerated as he quickly called out to the surrounding fighters and the group of bombers following behind.

Two "Falcons" that suddenly swooped down overhead took out two F4Fs in the first round of attacks. Ellsler and his wingman are aces (at that time, only the fighter squadron leader was qualified to use the ace pilot as a deputy, and the other ace pilots must bring novices, so that the "rookie" can grow into an "eagle" as soon as possible The two have been cooperating with each other for more than two years, and they are very familiar with each other, and can even be said to be heart-to-heart, and they can quickly understand each other's intentions without any nonsense. Those "rookie" level US fighter pilots, as well as the F4F, which has much worse performance, are the opponents of Ansle and the "Falcon".

The two "Falcons" were like no one, and the remaining ten F4Fs were shot down three more in five minutes, and Ansler alone added three more results. When the other seven US pilots saw the painted crash marks outside the cockpits of the two Tang Empire fighters (at this time, the American pilots' eyes were really good, those crash marks were much smaller than the badges on the fuselage and wings of the plane), they were immediately startled, these are two real ace pilots!

At this time, it was too late to escape, and within five minutes, ten other "Falcons" who had received the summons arrived one after another, and these fighter pilots were equally excellent, including two aces and four pilots who were about to become aces.

Other U.S. fighter pilots also knew about the battle going on in the west, and the F4F was speeding over to intercept the Tang Empire's fighters. Similarly, behind Ellsle, the other two squads immediately began to accelerate after receiving the call, and the dive bombers and torpedo bombers in the bomber group had already dispersed into two groups, and quickly killed in the direction of the 17th Task Force. The arrows from Task Force 1 have arrived!