At 12:30, shortly after the departure of 33 SBDs, Spruance received a report from the bomber group in front that the fleet aircraft carrier of the Tang Empire had been hit several bullets, and a fire broke out on the battleship, although it had not yet sunk, but the aircraft carrier had lost its aviation combat capability!

At first, Spruance was a little unconvinced, until the communications staff officer asked the returning pilot again that Spruance was convinced that he had won and would definitely win!

"General, the enemy bombers didn't have time to take off, and our bombers arrived just when they arrived, okay."

"I know, let those bombers sink the aircraft carrier first, and then go to deal with the escort warships!" Spruance smiled, "We must not let that aircraft carrier return to port and sink it completely!" ”

"General, the last bombers have arrived, do you need to let them continue the attack?" … Computer station

At this time, the sixth and last group of SBDs transferred from Task Force 51 arrived over the fleet, and this group of bombers arrived more than an hour later than scheduled, mainly because the fighters of the three small aircraft carriers were not moving quickly, and many of the bombers were damaged in the previous bombing of Wake Island and Midway, so the departure time was a little later than Spruance expected.

Spruance glanced at the approaching bombers and said, "Let them land immediately, then refuel and prepare to go." ”

There were about 20 SBDs in this batch, and Spruance still did not choose to end, he had to make sure that the aircraft carriers of the Tang Empire were completely sunk, and not return with injuries again. Combat effectiveness is restored after a few months. And this is also the last strike force in his hands. The bombers on the aircraft carrier "Franklin" had already returned, but as a result, all the bombers on the return site were injured.

It was simply impossible to continue the bombing mission. And now there are only five SBDs on the way back, and they can't form a single fleet. Spruance could only throw into battle the last batch of SBDs to arrive.

It is hoped that this will determine the final outcome of the battle.

The 20 SBDs quickly landed on the aircraft carrier and immediately began to refuel. The aviation crew had been busy for seven hours, and many of them were exhausted, and as a result, the 20 bombers did not begin to take off until 1:10 a.m., which was already the fastest speed that the aviation crew could do.

At this time. In the Second Task Force, Zheng Guanhua had already ordered two destroyers to launch 10 torpedoes at the "Lake Bell" aircraft carrier and sink it so that it would not fall into the hands of the US forces.

"General, the search and rescue work is almost over, does the fleet need to turn?"

Zheng Guanhua was taken aback, and immediately said: "The fleet turned to the southeast, as close as possible to Kwajalein Atoll, and also, call the fighters on Kwajalein Atoll." After the fleet has entered the cover range of shore-based fighters, let them provide air cover! ”

The order was given, but the problem was. The fleet is now about 400 nautical miles from Kwajalein Atoll, and even if it were to get there as fast as possible, it would only be covered by shore-based fighters around 5 p.m., and before that. There will be no Imperial fighters in the skies over the fleet!

Immediately, Zheng Guanhua asked his staff officer to send out the combat information, which focused on mentioning that the US military fleet aircraft carrier was operating in the waters near Wake Island, and that it may have been wounded.

Until this time, Zheng Guanhua still did not understand why there were so many bombers on a US aircraft carrier. During the entire engagement, at least more than 140 U.S. fighters attacked the second task force, and from the information obtained by the Empire, the best fleet carriers of the U.S. military were equipped with a maximum of 120 fighters, and most of the time, in order to ensure the efficiency of the flight deck, the number of fighters carried would be limited to 100. And now that so many fighters have attacked Task Force 2, there are only two possibilities.

First, there is more than one fleet aircraft carrier in the US fleet, and Deng Zichao reported that there is an error, and second, the US military has a new aircraft carrier, which can carry 140 fighters. Obviously, the possibility of the latter is very low, if the United States has a new earth aircraft carrier under construction, then there will definitely be relevant intelligence, and now that the large-scale construction of the "Essex" class aircraft carrier has just begun, what reason does the United States have to build a new earth aircraft carrier? More importantly, the Imperial Navy is not lagging behind the United States in aircraft carrier construction, and according to current technology, it is quite difficult to build an aircraft carrier that can carry 140 fighters, and this will lead to a much reduction in the aviation combat efficiency of the aircraft carrier, and the technology of the United States to build aircraft carriers cannot exceed the Tang Empire, at least not too much, so what ability does the United States have to build an aircraft carrier that can carry 140 fighters and can ensure the efficiency of aviation operations?

The more he thought about it, the more he wondered, the three small aircraft carriers were still hundreds of nautical miles away, and it was impossible for them to participate in the battle, even if they rushed over in a straight course after the last bombing of Midway, it was impossible to send bombers at this time. Then, there must be other aircraft carriers in the US military, maybe a fleet aircraft carrier, maybe one, or multiple small aircraft carriers, anyway, there must be aircraft carriers that have not been discovered.

But there are also two problems, one is that Deng Zichao is unlikely to make such a serious mistake, Deng Zichao has also carried out reconnaissance missions before, and is recognized as the best bomber pilot, he can't even judge how many aircraft carriers the enemy has, unless the two American aircraft carriers are too far away, Deng Zichao only found one. But in the same way, if there is still a US aircraft carrier, then the bombers that arrive in the first round should appear at the same time, instead of being divided into several batches and appearing more than 20 minutes apart. If the U.S. military had two fleet carriers, then the first group of bombers would have at least 36 fighters, 48 dive bombers, and about 30 torpedo bombers.

This is the standard size of the first batch of bomber groups of the US military's two-aircraft carrier formation in the past. If it is a fleet aircraft carrier and a small aircraft carrier, then the first group of bombers will also have at least more than 30 fighters and about 40 dive bombers. Already about 20 torpedo bombers, and these fighters will form a group and arrive at the same time. This will allow the first round of bombardment to take out Task Force 2! But the problem is that the first round of bombing by the US military was not like this!

Too many questions. There are too many doubts. Zheng Guanhua could not accurately judge how many aircraft carriers the US military had and how many bombers it had. Therefore, he did not rush to send out these speculations. At about half past one, when the radars on the two cruisers spotted the approaching group of aircraft, Zheng Guanhua was immediately stunned. The US military really has more bombers!

"The size of the fleet is about 30 aircraft, and if you enter at high altitude, it should be all SBD."

"The fleet is speeding up, withdraw from the battlefield first!" Zheng Guanhua was shocked, but did not forget to give the order, "Get as close as possible, don't cover the aircraft carrier!" ”

At this time, the aircraft carrier "Bear Lake" did not sink, but leaned to the left seriously, and six of the ten torpedoes from the two destroyers exploded on the port side of the aircraft carrier. The aircraft carrier has already taken in more than 5,000 tons of water, and almost all of it is flooded on the port side, even if it is not bombed. It will also be overturned in half an hour. As a result, the battleship that the doomed aircraft carrier "helped" to escort the convoy and blocked the bombs of the American army.

The first attack of the 33 SBDs was the aircraft carrier "Lake Bell", which was still burning violently and had not yet completely sunk. Originally, these pilots judged that the "Lake Bell" aircraft carrier was finished, but Spruance had already given the order. It was necessary to ensure that the aircraft carrier was sunk so that it could not be given the slightest chance to return to port for repairs, and as a result, at least 20 SBDs "wasted" bombs on this aircraft carrier. In the end, when the American pilots found that the escort warships were fleeing southward, more than a dozen SBDs that did not drop their bombs chased after them.

The twelve SBDs were not able to successfully break through the anti-aircraft fire network of the two cruisers, and the cruiser and destroyer were much more flexible when they did not need to cover the carriers, seven SBDs were shot down before the bombs were dropped, and all five bombs dropped were dodged by the cruisers, and two more SBDs were shot down after dropping the bombs.

If the 21 SBDs had not wasted their bombs on the aircraft carriers at that time, perhaps the two cruisers would not have been able to escape.

After escaping this catastrophe, Zheng Guanhua did not dare to stop any longer, and after letting the destroyer pick up the American pilot who had fallen into the water, the fleet continued to return to the west. Zheng Guanhua did not forget one thing, that is, he sent people to interrogate the US pilots who were not finished, and to find out the specific situation of the US fleet.

At half past two o'clock in the afternoon, the aviation operations staff counted the number of US bombers, and divided them into several batches before and after bombing the Second Task Force There were at least 160 sorties, and after deducting some of the bombers that carried out two bombing operations, the US military dispatched at least 140 to 150 fighters to attack the Second Task Force, and this is very likely to be all the carrier-based fighters that the two fleet aircraft carriers might have dispatched!

The results of the interrogation of the American pilots did not come out until about five o'clock in the afternoon, by which time the fleet had entered the covered waters of shore-based fighters sent from Kwajalein Atoll, and the American bombers did not arrive again.

Zheng Guanhua was extremely shocked by the results of the confession of the US pilots, these pilots were on a small aircraft carrier, not on the aircraft carrier of the US fleet! And it was the aviation on those three small aircraft carriers!

At this time, Zheng Guanhua felt a little annoyed, wasn't it a small aircraft carrier carrier that bombed Midway before? But the problem is that neither a small aircraft carrier nor a fleet aircraft carrier bombed Midway Island can be rushed over now. It was also because the American pilots concealed part of the situation (this is very common, and soldiers of any country will be told what they can and cannot say after they are captured), so Zheng Guanhua still does not know the tactical arrangement adopted by Spruance. No matter what the result is, Zheng Guanhua finally determined one point, that is, in addition to the fleet aircraft carrier numbered CV-13 that was discovered, and three small aircraft carriers, there should be active US aircraft carriers in the Central Pacific, most likely two or three small aircraft carriers, or one fleet aircraft carrier!

After making this clear, Zheng Guanhua immediately sent the telegram to the theater command. And the intelligence services were asked to figure out the size of the US fleet in the Central Pacific as soon as possible. Of course, the 2nd Task Force had already been routed, and the battle had been fought so far that the 2nd Task Force had only two cruisers, and sixteen destroyers had not suffered serious damage, while the other battleships were either sunk or damaged, without exception.

At this time, on the "Franklin", Spruance did not complain to his men.

The last group of 20 SBDs confirmed that the Tang Empire aircraft carrier had sunk, but it was not possible to find other warships that escaped. Spruance did not reproach the pilots, after all, the battle had been fought so far, and he had won the victory, but an absolute victory, but at the same time, he was also blamed.

At about two o'clock in the afternoon, Nimitz sent a telegram asking Spruance why he did not arrange fighter planes to cover the convoy, but Spruance did not report on the cover convoy, but sent back the news of the annihilation of the second task force, which was enough to change Nimitz's opinion. Spruance was not wrong, and Nimitz immediately sent a telegram of commendation, and asked Spruance to lead the USS Franklin aircraft carrier battle group back to Pearl Harbor as soon as possible, and send the surplus cruisers and destroyers to Task Force 51, while Task Force 51 would sail east first, receive additional fighters, and then return to the Wake Island battlefield.

At about five o'clock in the afternoon, the damage report of the "Franklin" was sent back, and the first search and rescue planes also returned, rescuing more than 30 pilots. The wounds of the "Franklin" were not fatal, but because the cabin was seriously flooded, and many of the key equipment on the aircraft carrier, such as two catapults, and several blocking cables had problems, it had to return to Pearl Harbor for major repairs, otherwise it would be difficult to restore combat effectiveness.

The USS Franklin Carrier Strike Group returned around the evening, with Spruance leaving six destroyers to escort the carriers, sending the rest of the warships to Task Force 51, and bombers capable of continuing operations to Task Force 51.

At this time, Nimitz was also making further adjustments, and the landing fleet that was originally near Midway Island began to move south, and the American transport ships that were not sunk by the bombers of the Tang Empire also approached Wake Island and were sending war materials and weapons to the American Marines on the island. The battlefield has not calmed down, and to the south, a new storm is brewing.