When Huang Xiaotian "cautiously" arranged for the bombers of the Tang Imperial Navy fleet to drop bombs on Wake Island, Nimitz in Pearl Harbor and Spruance on the aircraft carrier "Hancock" were also paying attention to the battle on Wake Island, but the focus of their attention was not the same.

Nimitz was concerned about how many casualties the U.S. troops on Wake Island were, how many facilities were blown up, and whether the U.S. troops on Wake Island would be attacked, and on the night of the 19th, when Nimitz received a telegram from the commander of the U.S. forces on Wake Island, confirming that the Tang Imperial Navy fleet had left the waters near Wake Island, and that the casualties and losses of the U.S. forces on Wake Island were reported, his feelings could be described as "mixed."

To Nimitz's "joy", Spruance was completely correct in his judgment, the Tang Imperial Navy had no intention of attacking Wake Island, and this was confirmed by a telegram sent back by a submarine received later, and the convoy that followed the Tang Imperial Navy fleet did not go to Wake Island, but went directly to Midway. The convoy was large, carrying at least a few divisions of marines, as well as a large amount of supplies. The problem would have been exacerbated if the force had landed on Wake Island, and now that it had been confirmed that it would be deployed to the three islands of Midway, Lysan and Gardner.

At that time, at least three submarines of the US military spotted this huge transport fleet on the route 1,500 nautical miles east of the Mariana Islands, and for the following day and a half, these three submarines followed the convoy and constantly reported the course and speed of the convoy. At the same time, five more submarines rushed over after receiving the telegram, preparing to launch a "wolf pack attack". It was at this time. Nimitz learned that a large "landing fleet" was sailing east, but could not be sure whether this "landing fleet" was going to attack Wake Island or reinforce Midway. … ap．16

The attack by American submarines began on the night of the 19th, when four submarines were in position, and the other four arrived in the second half of the night. But the captains of the American submarines soon discovered that they had chosen the wrong target this time. This transport fleet is indeed very large, but correspondingly, its escort force is also large enough. Outside of more than 50 large transport ships. There are more than 20 old and new destroyers escorting the escort, and these destroyers are all anti-submarine destroyers without exception. Among the more than 20 destroyers, five destroyers of the "City" class served as the lead ships, and they were divided into five formations, each with at least four destroyers. And any submarine captain knows. In the face of two destroyers, the probability of survival of the submarine will be less than 10%. And in the face of four destroyers attacking at the same time, almost none of the submarines survived.

The fighting at night was not fierce, except for the dull sound of depth charges exploding, except for the occasional "hissing" sound of flares burning in the sky. In the first half of the night, none of the four US submarines on the attack site were spared. All were sent to the bottom by depth charges dropped by destroyers. And the attacks of these 4 submarines all failed. And the other 4 US submarines that arrived in the second half of the night were not yet close to the convoy. It was discovered by the destroyer's surface-to-sea search radar that only two submarines made an emergency dive and quickly turned around. It took four hours to get rid of the attack after sailing upwards to the opposite part of the convoy at maximum speed, while the other two did not have time to make an emergency dive. Or the submarine that did not turn immediately was immediately caught by the sonar on the destroyer, and then dozens or hundreds of depth charges were dropped.

There was not a bit of suspense in the fight. According to the principle of normal escort staffing, a fleet of more than 50 transport ships only needs to move destroyers at most, which is, of course, the standard for escorting in relatively safe sea areas. This time, Liao Hanxiang sent out all the destroyers he could find in one go, and used more than 20 destroyers to escort more than 50 transport ships, which can be regarded as a great waste of the Empire's war resources, of course. The effect of strengthening the escort force is also quite obvious. As a result, all 54 transports arrived at Midway. Only one of the transports suffered minor injuries and spent some time repairing at Midway, returning to Apra Harbor with the next convoy to arrive.

It was the telegram sent back by the two escaped US "Little Shark"-class submarines. Nimitz didn't care much about the loss of submarine forces, so to speak, the only thing that the US Navy has not suffered major losses in the war has been the submarine force. Moreover, this ambush operation is not a conventional tactic of submarines, according to the principle of the use of submarines by the US military, most of the submarines are operating in the waters west of the Mariana Islands.

What made Nimitz "worried" was that most of the facilities on Wake Island had been blown up, and the most troublesome thing was that the bombers of the Tang Empire seemed to know the specific location of the desalination devices, and all the three scattered desalination devices were blown up. Wake Island does not have much fresh water storage facilities, and the remaining fresh water is only enough to last for a maximum of ten days, and for ten days under the minimum standard of use. If the island cannot be replenished with fresh water after 10 days, or if new desalination equipment is sent, then the US military on the island will face the crisis of "water cut". Correspondingly, it is easier to transport desalination than fresh water.

In addition to the desalination plant, the diesel fuel used to keep the desalination plant running was also wiped out in the fire. Therefore, while providing Wake Island with a new desalination plant, it also had to find a way to send diesel fuel to the island. Most of the ammunition depot was also blown up, and more ammunition had to be supplied to the U.S. military on Wake Island. In addition, maintenance equipment and equipment for some important facilities had to be sent over, and a batch of medical equipment and medicines had to be provided for the wounded, and the seriously wounded had to be repatriated.

In other words, Nimitz had to send a fleet to Wake Island, bringing all the necessary supplies to Wake Island and bringing back the seriously wounded on Wake Island. There was no shortage of ships at Pearl Harbor, and within five days a fleet of ships from mainland China had arrived at Pearl Harbor. There is no shortage of equipment and materials on Oahu, and there are dozens of desalination plants on Oahu, as well as more than 100,000 tons of diesel, millions of tons of ammunition, and a large number of medicines. The problem was that the fleet had to be covered by the fleet to get to Wake Island. At least. In Nimitz's view, the purpose of the Tang Imperial Naval Fleet's focus on bombing the basic support facilities on Wake Island was not so simple.

After considering all factors, Nimitz sent a telegram to Spruance on the morning of the 20th, asking the Fifth Fleet to prepare for escorting the convoy and fighting the fleet of the Tang Empire.

Before receiving Nimitz's telegram, Spruance was also concerned about the fighting on Wake Island, and he was also concerned about how many facilities had been blown up, but his focus was not on how long the American troops on Wake Island could hold out, and how many casualties and losses there were. Rather, they were paying attention to the bombing efficiency of the bombers of that fleet of the Don Empire.

Because he was not able to obtain first-hand information, Spruance was unable to accurately calculate the bombing accuracy of Task Force 4 bombers. He could only gather as much information as he could and make a rough estimate. Spruance came to the final conclusion that both Task Force 1 and Task Force 4 were bombing Wake Island. The bombing efficiency is frighteningly high. In the four days of bombing, the accuracy rate of those bombers was more than 70 percent. Moreover, in the two night bombings, the accuracy rate of its bombing was also close to 50%. This was quite a high level of accuracy, given the quality of the pilots of the Fifth Fleet at the time. It is simply impossible to reach this level. It's unlikely even to reach half of this level!

While lamenting the increasingly excellent quality of the pilots of the Tang Empire's navy, Spruance did not have much confidence in whether the Fifth Fleet could defeat the opposing fleet. If the bomber pilots of the Tang Empire had more than twice the bombing accuracy of the Fifth Fleet, then even if the Fifth Fleet had six fleet carriers, the aviation strike capability would be more than twice that of the opponent. Then it's a tie at most. If you take into account the gap between the fighter pilots of the two sides, it may be difficult to reach a draw.

This is a very real problem, and the naval aviation operations are different from the previous ground artillery battles. In the artillery battle of battleships, even if the gunners are of poor quality, as long as there are enough battleships, they can still crush the opponent. But aviation combat is compared to combat efficiency. To make a simple analogy, how many of the 100 bombers will be able to successfully break through the enemy's air defense interception, and how many will be able to successfully drop bombs. And what is the bomb delivery accuracy? Adding up these three probabilities is the actual strike capability of the fleet. And this is where Spruance has the most confidence. If there is a real fight, perhaps the more than 600 fighters on the six fleet aircraft carriers in his hands may not be able to beat the more than 300 fighters on the other side's three fleet aircraft carriers, and as long as it fails in the air, then the fleet will have no hope, and even survival will become a luxury.

Early in the morning of the 20th, before Spruance had time to start a new day's training, Nimitz's telegram arrived. When he received the new order, Spruance was also very embarrassed, if he went to the battlefield at this time and fought against the task force of the Tang Empire, he was not very sure. If it was indeed Task Force 1, he was even less sure. Nimitz's order was clear, and the fleet carrying supplies for Wake Island would depart on the 22nd, and in order to ensure the safety of the transport fleet, the Fifth Fleet had to leave the waters east of the Hawaiian Islands on the 21st at the latest, and go to the waters of Wake Island to expel the task force of the Tang Imperial Navy.

Spruance first canceled the fleet's training schedule, and then sent someone to call Turner over. Before Turner arrived, he had been thinking about how the Fifth Fleet should move, he didn't want to rush into battle so hastily, the fleet's training was far from in place, but he couldn't disobey Nimitz's orders, and he knew very well that if the convoy couldn't reach Wake Island, then in early July, the American forces on Wake Island would be defeated without a fight.

"If we want to sail east to challenge the Tang Empire's task force, then we must act together, and we must not be separated easily!" Turner's point of view is also direct, "We must not give the opponent a chance to break through, only by acting together can we threaten the opponent, if the commander of the Tang Empire's task force feels threatened and takes the initiative to retreat, it will be even better." ”

Spruance pondered, he hadn't made a decision yet.

"Also, we should leave early." Turner hesitated slightly, "In my opinion, if you can train your team through actual combat, it's a hundred times better than training." ”

"So what do you think we should do now?" Spruance looked at the major general, who had been with him for more than two years.

"Put on the appearance of a big attack, first bomb the Kwajalein Atoll, so that the other side thinks that we will attack the Marshall Islands, so that the Tang Empire's task force will inevitably leave the waters of the Marshall Islands." Turner marked the location of Kwajalein Atoll on the chart, "As long as the airfield on Kwajalein Atoll is destroyed, then we can operate in the waters between Wake Island and the Marshall Islands, and unless the Tang Empire's task force has full confidence to defeat us, we can only retreat to the eastern waters of the Caroline Islands, and our convoy will be able to reach Wake Island unimpeded." ”

Spruance nodded slightly, but he still didn't immediately agree to Turner's proposal.

"The fleet to Wake Island this time is not small, and it can be completely disguised as a landing fleet. Judging from the actions of the Tang Empire task force yesterday afternoon in withdrawing from the waters near Wake Island, our whereabouts have actually been exposed, and there must have been quite a few Tang Empire submarines operating outside Pearl Harbor. Well, as soon as this convoy leaves Pearl Harbor, it will be immediately discovered by the submarines of the Don Empire. Therefore, we can take advantage of the transport fleet. ”

"Looks like we're going to have to take a risk!"

Spruance had already thought of this, and sent a threatening signal by posing for a large-scale attack, so that the Tang Empire task force took the initiative to retreat. Of course, what he valued most was not how to scare off the Tang Empire's task force, but to train the pilots of the Fifth Fleet by bombing Kwajalein Atoll. Moreover, as long as the Tang Empire's task force retreated again, then he would be able to roughly understand the basic purpose and intention of the Tang Empire's navy in the Central Pacific Theater, which would be of great help to future combat operations. But the most critical question is, will the Tang Empire's task force retreat easily? In addition, the fleet has at least four days to maneuver, and at that time, it may appear in any part of the sea near Wake Island and the Marshall Islands, which is no small threat.