After suspecting that the opponent had night reconnaissance planes and night bombers, Spruhn made another order, first, to let the radar alert warships in the fleet quickly disperse and search the surrounding airspace to determine whether there were reconnaissance planes tracking and monitoring the fleet. The other is to immediately contact the nearest airfield and ask the Army to send night fighters to provide cover for the fleet.

These two orders were issued before two o'clock in the morning, and the radars on several cruisers responsible for the fleet's alert tasks were quickly activated, and the radars on the battleships were quickly turned on. However, none of the radars on these warships were able to detect suspicious targets, mainly because the two reconnaissance planes that were responsible for monitoring the 21st Task Force at that time were still relatively far away from the fleet and did not enter the detection range of the warships' radars, and when the US air defense alert warships dispersed, the two reconnaissance planes also appropriately moved to the periphery and maintained a suitable distance from the US warships. The pilots of these reconnaissance planes were well aware that if they flew too close, they would be detected by the radar on the battleship and thus their whereabouts would be exposed, while in previous training, night reconnaissance had to avoid being discovered by the enemy as much as possible.

The closest to Task Force 21 is a field airfield northeast of Camagüey, Cuba, with runways less than 1,000 metres long that could not be used to support night fighters. At that time, the airfield had exactly 12 P-38 night fighters of a squadron. After receiving the order, all 12 P-38s took off before two o'clock, and then flew to the Atlantic Fleet less than 300 miles away at a maximum cruising speed of 300 miles.

The "Reconnaissance Eagle," which was on a tracking mission, did not expect the US military to dispatch a night fighter. After all, the pilots of the reconnaissance planes at that time believed that their whereabouts were not revealed, so the US military did not know that they were wandering near the fleet. When the P-38 arrived, the two "Reconnaissance Eagles" operating south of Task Force 22. Fortunately, the "Reconnaissance Eagle" was inferior to the P-38 in terms of its ultimate speed and acceleration performance, and when intercepted, both reconnaissance planes got rid of the US night fighters at the fastest speed, and they no longer dared to rashly go back to continue monitoring and tracking the US fleet. Shortly thereafter. The two reconnaissance planes flying southwest of Task Force 21 were also intercepted, and they also relied on their acceleration performance to get rid of the US fighters at maximum sprint speed and leave the sky over the US fleet.

At that time, the Atlantic Fleet was not yet able to make direct contact with the night fighters of the Army Aviation, so the fighters who had intercepted the ground were the first to send the news back to the base. It was then forwarded from the base to the Atlantic Fleet. By around 3:15 a.m., Spruance had received information confirming that a reconnaissance plane had been monitoring his movements all along. This gave him a creepy feeling. It was clear that the enemy had been watching him all the time, and was definitely preparing an offensive attack, and if he did not give the order to retreat in time, even if the opponent did not have night bombers, he would have been fatally attacked by daybreak.

By half-past three, two more squadrons of P-38 fighters arrived. In this way, each task force of the Atlantic Fleet was directly covered by a squadron of P-38s. Although these 12 night fighters were unlikely to cope with bombing operations of any scale. But it was enough to drive away all the reconnaissance aircraft in the vicinity. The radar equipped with the "Reconnaissance Eagle" is not much stronger than the radar of the P-38, so it is impossible to detect the fighters coming to intercept it in advance. Thus circumventing it. Having received direct cover from the fighters, Spruance was finally able to retreat with confidence.

By this time. The most incomprehensible thing for Spruance is, how did his opponent find out about him? The Atlantic Fleet entered the waters of the Bahamas as early as 15 July, and if the opposing side's reconnaissance planes had discovered the Atlantic Fleet during the day, the battle would have broken out long ago. That is, the fleet of the Don Empire discovered the Atlantic fleet at night. But the problem is that before that, the focus of the search direction of the Tang Imperial fleet was east and northeast, and it was separated from it. Judging from the time of taking the initiative to engage the enemy, it should be around the early hours of the morning that the approximate location of the Atlantic Fleet was determined. Before that. Could it be that the fleet has already been discovered by reconnaissance aircraft? Or is there something else that caused the whereabouts of the fleet to be revealed?

It was not until about four o'clock that a communications officer who had not participated in the "rebellion" was checking the fleet's communication records that he discovered the telegram that the fleet had received in the early hours of the morning when it contacted the Admiralty. The communications officer immediately reported the situation to Spruance, who later received a promotion from Spruance. The staff officers who "plotted rebellion" were also quickly found out. Only then did Spruance know how the fleet was exposed. Judging from the timing of the telegram and the timing of the enemy's actions, it must have been this telegram that revealed the position of the fleet, so that the enemy fleet could roughly determine the position of the fleet and then take offensive action. Without exception, all of the senior staff officers were severely punished. At that time, Spruance temporarily relieved them of their duties and replaced them temporarily by his deputy. Later, these staff officers were court-martialed, and the mastermind of them, as well as the communications staff officer who sent the report, were guilty of treason, which is the most serious crime in any country, and the common punishment is the death penalty.

It was only when he found out about the matter that Spruance realized that there was something wrong with his conducting style. First of all, he himself is not the commander of the fleet, but only the chief of the general staff of the fleet, and he is acting as the commander of the fleet, and it is normal for the staff officers of the fleet command to have doubts. The second is that most of the staff officers of the Atlantic Fleet Command are actually not very familiar with Spruance and do not understand Spruance's command style. It was these two reasons that led to the collective rebellion of the staff officers, which almost led to a crushing defeat for the Atlantic Fleet. Later, Spruance managed to transfer a group of staff officers who originally belonged to the Fifth Fleet, or the Pacific Fleet, in order to strengthen control over the Atlantic Fleet. However, he never became the commander of the Atlantic Fleet, so in later command, Spruance had to pay more attention to letting the staff officers know his operational intentions, and no longer to command the fleet alone.

After dealing with those staff officers, Spruance's anger was also vented. It can be said that it was not the staff officers who rebelled, but the Navy of the Tang Empire

Inspect the machine. There is no doubt that those reconnaissance I radars that monitor and track the Atlantic fleet, otherwise it would not have been possible to track the fleet twenty nautical miles away at night. Moreover, judging from the information reported by the fighter pilots who carried out the interception operation, these reconnaissance planes were single-engine tactical aircraft, not twin-engine aircraft. That is, the Navy of the Tang Empire already had the ability to equip single-engine aircraft with radars that could be used to search for sea surfaces, and even air targets. And the United States can only equip twin-engine heavy fighters with radars.

The gap was quite obvious, and Spruance soon realized that the tactical changes brought about by this new reconnaissance aircraft would also be enormous. It can be said that the Tang Imperial Navy fleet dared to bomb the Bahamas on a large scale during the day, without considering the danger of the US fleet approaching under the cover of night, precisely because they thought that they had the ability to monitor the nearby waters at night and prevent the US fleet from approaching at night. Similarly, this time the Tang Imperial fleet chose to approach at night, and it was their ability to track and monitor the Atlantic Fleet at night. Even if the Tang Imperial Navy did not have the ability to bomb at night for the time being, as long as it could search and track targets at night, it would be enough for the opponent to seize the tactical initiative.

Spruance didn't have time to think carefully about how much the night reconnaissance opportunity would bring to naval aviation tactics, and all he could think about at this time was to get out of the enemy's strike area as soon as possible. In Spruance's opinion, at least those reconnaissance planes of the Don Empire have been driven away, and the opponent will not be able to continue to monitor his movements. Likewise. The long-range night reconnaissance planes sent by the shore-based aviation were also driven away by the opposing fighters, so the two sides have already disengaged and do not know the specific whereabouts of the other side. So, at about four o'clock, Spruance ordered the fleet to turn around and prepare to leave the Exuma Strait and head to the waters between Andros Island and Cuba, which were relatively safe. At least it was possible to avoid being hit by the carrier-based bombers of the Don Empire.

What the fleet should do next, Spruance has not yet thought about it. In his opinion, although this operation was not able to defeat the main fleet of the Tang Empire, and it was even very likely that it would not be able to hurt the other party, at least the Atlantic Fleet was temporarily out of danger and had no losses. As long as the Atlantic Fleet continues to operate at sea. He has the next chance, maybe the next encounter, he can beat the opponent. But the question is, how can you get the next chance?

Returning to Norfolk Military Port is certainly very risky. After disengagement, the other side's first judgment was that the Atlantic Fleet would return to Norfolk, and the Third Fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy had not appeared, and if the Third Fleet had received the news in the early hours of the morning and had taken action, it would have very likely appeared in the northern waters of the Bahamas to intercept the Atlantic Fleet returning to Norfolk. When the time comes, Spruance won't even have a chance to escape. Other than that. The First Fleet will not sit idly by as long as the Atlantic Fleet is ready to return to Norfolk. Re-entering the Florida Strait, the First Fleet can return to the battlefield, block the exit to the southern part of the Strait, and flank the Atlantic Fleet with the Third Fleet!

After considering these possibilities, Spruance first abandoned the idea of returning to Norfolk. At that time, if the Atlantic Fleet did not return to Norfolk, there were only two options, one was to go to a nearby port. Rather, it is on standby at sea. And the risk of continuing to be on standby at sea is not small, in addition to the fact that there are many times to speed up the voyage. Some of the destroyers with the worst endurance in the fleet are running out of fuel and must be refueled as soon as possible. Therefore, the best thing to do is to go to a nearby port.

There are only three ports that can accommodate the Atlantic Fleet, one is New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico, where there is enough infrastructure and its harbor is large enough to accommodate the entire fleet. The second is Santiago de Cuba, which was originally the home port of the Spanish Caribbean Fleet, and later became an important military port of the US Navy. Finally, there is Miami in southern Florida, which also has enough infrastructure and berths, but the problem is that Miami is near the Florida Strait, too close to the front line, if the commander of the Tang Imperial Fleet dares to take the risk, he will take the initiative to sneak attack Miami and sink the Atlantic Fleet in the port.

In other words, unless Spruance wanted to go to the Gulf of Mexico, he would have to go to the port of San Diego. But the problem is that the port of San Diego is not far from the front line, and if the Tang Imperial Navy attacks Jamaica from Grand Cayman and takes down Jamaica, the port of San Diego will be exposed to the shore-based tactical bombers of the Tang Imperial Navy. And now it seems that the operation of the Tang Imperial Navy to capture the Bahamas will certainly not be successfully completed, and it is very likely that it will turn to attack Jamaica and then Cuba, and if the Atlantic Fleet goes to Santiago at this time, it is very likely to be trapped in Santiago.

After considering all the possibilities, Spruance had to prepare to travel to New Orleans, which he least wanted to visit. Before that, Spruance had been avoiding going to New Orleans, after all, after entering the Gulf of Mexico, the role of the Atlantic Fleet would be greatly reduced, and it was even possible that it would be sent to cover the sea route from New Orleans to Tampico, which was by no means a task that should be completed by the Atlantic Fleet. But the problem was that he had no choice at all, whether it was going back to Norfolk, or to San Diego, or Miami, it was too risky.

Just as Spruance was about to order the fleet to turn to New Orleans, a telegram arrived, and when he read it, he almost jumped in shock. This telegram was sent directly by Admiral King, and although the content of the telegram was not directly related to the Navy, it certainly affected the next move of the Atlantic Fleet.

More than ten minutes earlier, Tan Renhao also received a telegram. It was the telegram he had been waiting for, and the Third Fleet, which had been silent for hours, finally called him back. It was 5:45 a.m. on 16 July, and Tan Renhao had just ordered the fighters to cover the takeoff of the Third Task Force. It can be said that Huang Xiaotian's telegram did not come too late, and the content of this telegram also surprised Tan Renhao.