The impact of the storm on Task Force 31 was much more severe than Halsey had imagined, and even more severe than the Tang Empire's task force. At least, the three aircraft carriers in the Tang Imperial fleet are all large fleet aircraft carriers, and their ability to resist wind and waves is not too bad, but in Halsey's hands, those three small aircraft carriers are too vulnerable in the face of wind and waves.

The area most affected by the storm for aircraft carriers is not the Pacific Ocean, but the North Atlantic. The North Atlantic is one of the most stormy seas in the world, and aircraft carriers are high-freeboard warships with a large wind-bearing area, and the flight deck is actually an additional deck laid on top of the main deck, so it is easy to be damaged in a storm. In the North Atlantic, several aircraft carriers of the British Navy were damaged by storms, which is an important factor why the British Navy does not pay much attention to aircraft carriers.

The British Navy's aircraft carriers were the first to adopt the closed bow design, and the aircraft carriers with the open bow design were extremely vulnerable in storms. To withstand the storm, the British Navy even designed aircraft carriers with fully enclosed hangars. As a result, the number of aircraft carriers of several aircraft carriers with a displacement of more than 20,000 tons in the British Navy is about 6o, while the number of aircraft carriers of similar size in the Tang Empire, the United States, and even Japan in the same period is much more.

In fact, the combat effectiveness of an aircraft carrier comes from its aviation combat capability, and there is not much difference between an aircraft carrier and a transport ship without aviation combat capability. In addition, the core tactical idea of using aircraft carriers is offense, not defense, and offense is the only way for aircraft carriers to defeat their opponents. In these respects, both the Tang Imperial Navy and the U.S. Navy placed great emphasis on the offensive capability of aircraft carriers, which also placed special emphasis on the aviation combat capability of aircraft carriers. Opposite. As in the case of the British navy, which used aircraft carriers as escort warships for battleships, and whose mission was mostly defensive rather than offensive, the emphasis was on the carrier's adaptability rather than a strong air strike force.

These differences all determined that the initial aircraft carrier trial capabilities of the Tang Empire and the US Navy were not ideal. In fact, even to the "Lake" and "Essex" classes, the aircraft carriers of the two countries are still relatively poor in terms of seaworthiness. The displacement of these two aircraft carriers has increased a lot, but there is still the problem of a center of gravity that is too high (later. The "Essex" class reduced the number of spare ammunition for anti-aircraft guns, while the "Lake" class eliminated a lot of unnecessary isolation armor belts on the upper deck, all in order to lower the center of gravity of the aircraft carrier and enhance the stability of the aircraft carrier). This is not the case with large fleet aircraft carriers, but the situation with small aircraft carriers can be imagined.

The "Independence" class is a small aircraft carrier that has been transformed, and its hangar can only accommodate 3o fighters, and in order to improve its aviation combat capability, the US Navy has also added 15 tethering points on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier, which can mooring 15 combat aircraft, bringing the number of aircraft carriers on the aircraft carrier to 45. This is almost half of the standard number of aircraft carriers of the "Essex" class. But actually. In the storm, not to mention the preservation of the 15 combat aircraft in the tethered area, it is very difficult to even keep the 3O combat aircraft in the aircraft carrier hangar.

Halsey when he saw the performance data of the three aircraft carriers. It is known that these three aircraft carriers can only fight on calm seas, and cannot move in the storm area (the ultimate roll and trim angles of the aircraft carrier are an important indicator of the aircraft carrier's trial capability). Therefore, Halsey will not leave the storm immediately, and he must get the fleet out of the storm area, and when it comes to fighting in the southern seas, he first orders the formation of three "Independence" class aircraft carriers to go south, and strive to leave the storm area first, so as not to be destroyed by the storm. But in fact, these three aircraft carriers were almost destroyed by the storm.

Before getting out of the storm zone, in order to increase the stability of the aircraft carrier. As well as to avoid the tethered fighters from crashing into the equipment on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier, the three "Independence" class aircraft carriers all invariably abandoned the fighters tethered to the flight deck. But this did not prevent the birth of disaster. Because the displacement is too small and the open bow is used, in order to control the displacement (in fact, to ensure the degree), the load-bearing structure between the main deck and the flight deck of the aircraft carrier is not very strong. As a result, before escaping from the storm, the front end of the flight deck of the aircraft carrier "Princeton" was almost completely destroyed by the storm, the rear hangar was also affected, and several fighters at the front end of the hangar were damaged. At least five pieces of the Independence's ground flight deck were blown off. Although the aircraft carrier has spare planks (instead of an armored flight deck, a plank-laid flight deck), it will take at least several hours to repair the flight deck, and the carrier will have to be stabilized first. The situation with the "Belaurain" was slightly better, only some of the exposed aviation equipment was affected. As a result, all three aircraft carriers were damaged in the storm.

Halsey was furious when he learned of this, and almost immediately dismissed the three captains. By half-past three, Halsey had a clear answer. Before dawn, the "Bellaulwood" could arrange for the fighter to take off, the "Independence" would not be able to repair the flight deck until at least half past seven, and the "Princeton" would have to return to port for repairs and could not be repaired at sea.

Anger doesn't solve anything, and Halsey controls his anger.

He could only let the "Princeton" aircraft carrier group return to Port Vila first, and withdrew from this combat operation. At the same time, the "Independence" was asked to speed up the repair and arrange for the "Independence" to send a reconnaissance plane to the "Blauwood." But the problem is that at this time the "Blauwwood" had only 3o carriers, of which there were 12 fighters, 18 sBd, and it was the sBd that was capable of carrying out reconnaissance missions, not the 749. In other words, before dawn, only the "Blauwwood" could send 18 reconnaissance aircraft, which is 6 fewer than the 24 reconnaissance aircraft previously identified.

The lack of six reconnaissance aircraft is still a trivial matter, and the small aircraft carrier group, in order to get out of the area of influence of the storm as soon as possible, sailed in a southeasterly direction, and not in a southwesterly direction, as in the case of the fleet aircraft carrier group. In other words, after getting out of the area of influence of the storm, the small aircraft carrier group still needs to sail northwest to meet the fleet aircraft carrier group, and the "Blauwood" sent reconnaissance planes not at half past five. It was six o'clock, at least half an hour later than the time when the two fleet carriers sent bombers.

When the fleet arrived, the aircraft carriers "Brave" and "Hornet" were fully equipped with fighters, and each carrier had 36 F4u, 48 sBd, 24 TBd, and 12 sBd used as reconnaissance aircraft. And in the storm, the aircraft carrier "Valiant" lost 8 fighters (4 sBd. 3 TBd, 1 74).

Once again, the problem was in the hands of Halsidi. In order to ensure the discovery of the aircraft carrier task force of the Tang Empire, Halsey needed to send at least 36 reconnaissance aircraft, and the seaplanes on the cruisers escorting the aircraft carrier were destroyed, that is, all 36 reconnaissance aircraft had to be dispatched by the aircraft carrier. Even if it is reduced to a minimum, only 24 reconnaissance aircraft will be arranged. In the case that "Belauwood" could not send reconnaissance aircraft. Each of the two fleet aircraft carriers had to arrange 12 reconnaissance aircraft. The reconnaissance planes carried by US aircraft carriers are all sBd reconnaissance models, and in fact they are equipped with radio-to-ground sBd bombers with better performance.

In an emergency, the sBd can also be used as a reconnaissance aircraft. Now both aircraft carriers have sBd destroyed by the storm. If Halsey is to make sure he finds an opponent. He would have to reduce the size of his bomber fleet, and it would be even more important for him to keep a few more reconnaissance planes in order to ensure the destruction of his opponents.

Is it to secure the present opponent, or to ensure the destruction of the opponent? Halsey didn't hesitate for long, if he couldn't show up his opponent, then how could he destroy his opponent? As a result, Halsey cut only 6 reconnaissance aircraft and arranged for 3o sBd to carry out reconnaissance missions, with the "Intrepid" sending 16 and the "Hornet" sending 14. Outcome. He left only 81 sBd and 41 TBa, which can form a two-wave bomber group, and if the reconnaissance plane successfully returns, then Halsey can also use the bombers on reconnaissance missions to form a third wave of bombers.

Once this arrangement was decided, Halsey's next thing to do was to roughly determine the opponent's position. Since Tan Renhao is a commander who also advocates attacking, he will not easily avoid battles, but will take the initiative to look for opportunities for decisive battles.

Halsey first ruled out the possibility of the Tang Empire's fleet in the open sea, unless Tan Renhao thought that his three aircraft carriers could withstand the devastation of a Tier 12 storm, otherwise he would not dare to leave the fleet in the open sea. At that time, maybe Halsey doesn't need to do it, and the storm can help him make the three aircraft carriers of the Tang Empire ineffective. Because the storm moved north, Halsey was not worried about the Second Task Force, which had been operating in the waters near the Marshall Islands, to make it over.

After ruling out this possibility, Halsey immediately judged that the Tang Empire's two aircraft carrier task forces must be operating in the waters east of the Taau Islands, between Flinnsbury Reef, or a little further south, and this sea area will be free from the influence of the storm at about six o'clock, and then the Tang Empire's ground reconnaissance planes will be on their way. And this sea area is about 5ooo square nautical miles, if you want to completely search this sea area, you need at least 3o reconnaissance aircraft. This is also the main reason why Halsey decided to set the reconnaissance aircraft to 3o.

But if you really want to search this sea area, time is still the main problem. Halsey put a lot of effort into the deployment of reconnaissance planes, and Task Force 32 was able to reach the nearest 18o nautical miles and the farthest 25o nautical miles from the sea area where the other side might be active at half past five, and then send out reconnaissance planes, and these reconnaissance planes could reach the predetermined search area between half past six and seven o'clock. If all goes well, then between half past six and seven o'clock, the Tang Empire's task force fleet will be found. If the first wave of reconnaissance planes did not find the target, then the 16 reconnaissance planes dispatched by the "Blauwood" would have been able to carry out supplementary searches and expand the patrol area. As a result, the time of the current enemy fleet will be delayed until after half past seven.

In other words, whether or not the Tang Empire's aircraft carrier task force can be found, there will definitely be a result before eight o'clock. By eight o'clock, Halsey could get all the remaining bombers ready to take off. These are secondary, the main thing is whether the fleet of the Tang Empire will appear within the predetermined sea area.

Halsey was still confident in his judgment. In his opinion, after the probability of the Tang Imperial fleet going north was zero, the only option was to go south. If Tan Renhao were to deal with Task Force 32 in the waters south of Kuah Island, he would have to bring the fleet within 5o nautical miles north of Bougainville Island. If Tan Renhao chooses to deal with Task Force 31 first, then it would be best for him to leave the fleet in the waters southeast of the Taau Islands. This is all within the search range of reconnaissance aircraft. Thus, Halsey confirmed that he was able to find the task force of the Tang Empire.

Now the question is, when will the storm pass, and when will he be able to send reconnaissance aircraft.

Weather is the most unpredictable, and Halsey can roughly judge the sea area where his opponent is, but he can't judge the change in weather. The formation of the storm was an accident, and the movement of the storm was beyond the expectations of any weather forecaster. No one can tell if the weather will change in the next few hours. For Halsey, the biggest adversary may not be the opposing task force, but the vagaries of the weather.

In fact, the biggest trouble for both warring sides is not the opponent, but the weather. Tan Renhao and Huang Xiaotian were able to roughly predict the approximate location of the opposing fleet, but they were also unable to accurately predict the changes in the weather. The effects of the weather have far outstripped the enemy, and the dangers posed by the weather have far outstripped the enemy.

At about four o'clock in the morning, the commanders of both sides had already made their decisions, although the storm was still raging, although the weather had not completely improved, and although neither side could accurately judge the position of the opponent, but both sides were ready for the final decisive battle. At this time, on the battlefield to the south, the battlefleets of both sides were also engaged in fierce battles. The battle in the waters south of Kuah Island is only part of the larger battlefield, and the battle that is about to break out in the waters north of the Solomon Islands is the real key, and it will finally decide who controls this area!