After recovering the bombers on the evening of the 29th, the Fifth Fleet turned to the east.

After several massive bombardments during the day, most of the important military targets on Midway were destroyed, giving Spruance enough reason to prove that the Fifth Fleet had done its best to support the Marines in their attack on Midway, thus allowing Nimitz to convince the Marine generals to attack Midway directly, rather than by capturing Lysan Island. Although the losses of the Fifth Fleet were a little greater, they were still within acceptable limits. More importantly, through high-intensity bombing operations, pilots have accumulated a lot of actual combat experience, even if these actual combat experiences are not of great significance in the decisive battle of the fleet, this is still much better than commanding a group of "rookies".

Now, the task of the Fifth Fleet is to go back and "meet" the landing fleet and prevent the landing fleet from being attacked by the fourth task force. It may not be possible to completely put an end to the bombardment of the landing fleet by the Fourth Task Force, but judging from the information received in the morning, if the Fourth Task Force turns around quickly, then the Fourth Task Force will be able to arrange bombers to deal with the landing fleet in the early morning of the 30th, and it will still be able to stay outside the strike range of the Fifth Fleet.

Spruance realized the problem a little late, he had been spinning for days and nights, had not rested properly, and his head was a little foggy. But this was not the latest, on the same night, Spruance arranged for each of the two task forces to send a fighter group to cover the landing fleet, and contacted the landing fleet to let the landing fleet shift its course a little south in the evening, as far as possible to avoid the fourth task force. Although this would cause the landing fleet to reach Midway with a delay of several hours, perhaps even more than ten hours, and not being able to land at Midway on the morning of 1 July, it would be much better than the landing fleet being bombed by Task Force 4.

After arranging the affairs of the fleet, Spruance decided to go and sleep for a few hours. He was too tired, and with a good chance of a decisive battle with Task Force 4 tomorrow, he didn't want to be too energetic to command the fleet by then. But lying in bed, Spruance couldn't sleep. He asked himself repeatedly. Why would they make such a low-level mistake and ignore the important issue of "distance"?

After tossing and turning in bed for half an hour, Spruance simply got up, and after making a cup of strong coffee, he began to recall the day's combat operations, and perhaps he had made other low-level mistakes, but he had not yet thought of them. By the time Spruance connected the dots about what had happened during the day and thought about it from beginning to end. He suddenly found that he had made an even more serious mistake, that is, the two task forces bombarded Midway Island at the same time in the afternoon, which clearly told the commander of the Tang Empire's fleet that the Fifth Fleet was all concentrated in the waters near Midway, and no fleet was covering the landing fleet. Moreover, when the reconnaissance plane of the Tang Imperial Navy discovered the 52nd Task Force, it was very likely that the whereabouts of the entire Fifth Fleet would be exposed!

At this time, Spruance did not fall asleep at all, he immediately returned to the bridge of the commander's ship, and immediately turned out the chart. After depicting it on the chart. Spruance discovered an extremely serious problem, and that was that the Fifth Fleet was before dawn. It is impossible to completely stand between the landing fleet and the fourth task force. If the commander of Task Force 4 knew that the Fifth Fleet was all concentrated in the waters near Midway, it would be entirely possible for him to pursue the landing fleet and take out the landing fleet outside of the Fifth Fleet's strike range, and then fly away. Although this could not threaten the Fifth Fleet, it was able to disintegrate the US army's attack on Midway, and achieved the purpose of the Tang Imperial Navy to delay the US counterattack!

Also, would the commander of Task Force 4 have judged that the 5th Fleet will sail east at full speed at night? If it will, then he will definitely try to ambush the Fifth Fleet, and not volley the landing fleet, how to say. The Fifth Fleet is a bigger, more tempting prey, as long as it is annihilated, or even only needs to be disabled, then the US military will not be able to successfully capture Midway!

Thinking of these two possibilities, Spruance broke out in a cold sweat. Task Force 4 has too many opportunities, too many options to turn the tide of battle. And he has to take care of threats in many directions, which is almost impossible. What to do?

"Contact Task Force 52 immediately and have them come over at night. The two fleets kept a distance of 50 nautical miles, and in addition, half an hour before dawn, the radars on all the battleships had to be activated, and as soon as the reconnaissance planes departed, all the fighters had to take off! "Spruance made the first decision, and the time for the decision was after 8 o'clock on the night of the 29th, and Huang Xiaotian was also considering the actions of the Fourth Task Force at this time." Contact the landing fleet and let them return to Necke Island at full speed at night, temporarily canceling the combat operation landing on Midway. No, contact the theater command and let Admiral Nimitz give this order. ”

The communications staff officer recorded Spruance's order, but he did not immediately send the report, because the long-wave radio station would be activated by the Theater Command, and the radio signal would be received by the Tang Imperial radio stations on the three nearby islands, and the whereabouts of the Fifth Fleet would definitely be exposed.

"What are you doing? Send a telegram now, don't waste time! Spruance also knew that the approximate location of the Fifth Fleet would be revealed after the telegram was sent, but it was night, and it was impossible for the Fourth Task Force to send bombers against him, and there were still ten hours before dawn, so he had enough time to escape from this area.

After the telegram was sent, Spruance stood in front of the charts again, still thinking about what to do next, or what Task Force 4 would do against him. It is impossible for the landing fleet to return to Necke Island at night, and even if it sails at the fastest speed, it is impossible to reach Necke Island at dawn, and it will be about 100 nautical miles away from Necker Island by then, which is enough, at least the shore-based fighters on Necker Island will provide air defense cover for the landing fleet, and it is unlikely that the Fourth Task Force will approach Necke Island, and it is not expected that the landing fleet will return to Necke Island, so the landing fleet may escape from the strike range of the Fourth Task Force.

But this is not the most important thing, the most important thing is whether the Fifth Fleet can withstand the blow of the Fourth Task Force. At least in Spruance's view, the opponent's primary target was not the landing fleet, but the fifth task force. Therefore, he had to determine the sea area where Task Force 4 was likely to appear. The difficulty was considerable, and Task Force 4 had more than 20 hours to seize a favorable position if it had begun maneuvering before 9 a.m. This meant that Task Force 4 could maneuver more than 600 nautical miles before dawn on the 30th, which covered almost any area around the Fifth Fleet, and it was clear that it was almost impossible to determine the location of Task Force IV.

Before Spruance could think about it, Turner first telegraphed back, asking about the specific route of the fleet, and the fleet's communication was on shortwave radios. There is no need to worry about the position of the fleet being exposed as a result.

"Tell Turner that I'll give him a new route later, and now try to get Task Force 52 close over, don't get too far away." Spruance hasn't made a decision yet. "In addition, let Task Force 52 cancel the fighter jets sent to the landing fleet tomorrow and use them to strengthen the fleet's own air defense. I'll send him the new reconnaissance mission later. ”

The communications staff officer didn't ask much questions this time, and judging from the commander's expression, it seemed as if a catastrophe was about to come.

Then, Nimitz called back. Instead of asking Spruance why he proposed to cancel the plan to land on Midway, he asked Spruance to save the Fifth Fleet as much as possible. Avoid incurring significant losses. At least in Nimitz's opinion. The Fifth Fleet was more important than Midway, and he trusted Spruance very much.

Spruance didn't call Nimitz back, he had already sent a telegram. There was no need to send any more telegrams, and Nimitz did not ask him to call him back.

After drinking the second cup of strong coffee in an hour, Spruance's mind cleared up a lot, but he also knew that the effect of coffee was not long, and there would not be much time left for him to make decisions, whether he could avoid the ambush of Task Force 4, or even fight back against the ambush of Task Force 4, depended on whether he could make the right judgment and make the right decision.

After thinking about it for half an hour. Spruance confirmed two key points. The first is to try to avoid being attacked by the 4th Task Force, after all, this time it is the 4th Task Force that takes the initiative to challenge, and the 4th Task Force has more time to choose the ambush location and attack method. In addition, if you can't avoid an ambush by Task Force 4, you must minimize your losses and seize the opportunity to launch a counterattack!

The best way to avoid an ambush by Task Force 4 was for the fleet to sail south, but it was still impossible to completely leave the range of Task Force 4 before dawn. In addition, the adversary did not find the landing fleet on the predetermined course. It would have been thought that the Fifth Fleet had already evaded to the south, and its bombers would immediately go out to catch up with the Fifth Fleet. Therefore, it is clearly not the best option to avoid to the south. Worst of all, if the fleet evaded to the south, it would enter the narrow sea between the islands of Lysan and Gardner, and in the event of a blow, the routes of escape would be quite limited. In addition, you have to be on the lookout for extremely fast torpedo boats at all times.

Well, what about the withdrawal from the battlefield to the east? This is not ideal, if the Fourth Task Force is determined to kill the landing fleet first, it will appear to the east of the landing fleet, that is, northeast of Gardner Island, so that it can avoid the bombers of the Fifth Fleet, and the Fifth Fleet continues to sail east, undoubtedly directly into the muzzle of the Fourth Task Force, and as long as the Fourth Task Force finds that the landing fleet is returning to Necker Island at night, then it is possible to expect the Fifth Fleet to return to Pearl Harbor, so as to set up an ambush here and kill the Fifth Fleet!

Heading west back to Midway? This is contrary to the withdrawal from the fighting. And this will inevitably lead to the Fifth Fleet staying on the battlefield for at least one more day. If its whereabouts are revealed, then Task Force 4 will not pursue the Fifth Fleet at all, but will go all out to attack the airfield on Necke Island, seize air supremacy, and then "slaughter" the landing fleet returning to Neck. By the time Spruance had regrouped his fleet and returned to Necke, it was feared that Task Force 4 would have returned to Apra Harbor.

Why circumvent Task Force 4? Spruance suddenly thought of this problem, the Fifth Fleet has six aircraft carriers, and even if it has lost more than 100 fighters, there are nearly 200 fighters in the fleet, as well as more than 300 bombers. More than 200 fighters were enough to meet the tasks of the air defense of the fleet and escort two bomber groups at the same time. Moreover, the Fourth Task Force has only three aircraft carriers and more than 200 bombers, and it is difficult to attack the two task forces of the Fifth Fleet at the same time. The Fifth Fleet is superior to the Fourth Task Force, and no one can send a bomber group based on guesswork until the reconnaissance planes find the other side. In other words, even if it encounters the Fourth Task Force, the situation will be advantageous to the Fifth Fleet. If you can seize this opportunity to take out the Fourth Task Force, then you will be able to turn defeat into victory!

Thinking of this, Spruance suddenly felt that the fog in front of him had suddenly opened, and he didn't need to run away at all, it was Task Force 4 that needed to escape. As long as the two task forces of the Fifth Fleet act together, even if the bombers of the Fourth Task Force depart first, Spruance still has the opportunity to get the two huge bomber groups on the road before they are bombed, and then withstand the bombing of the Fourth Task Force, and finally kill the Fourth Task Force, and solve this "obstacle" that restricts the movement of the Fifth Fleet once and for all!

If you want to take the initiative to look for the Fourth Task Force, then the best way is to let the fleet deviate a little to the north, and try to arrange the flight routes of the reconnaissance planes as much as possible, focusing on the north and east sides of the fleet, especially the northeast direction, which is the direction in which the Fourth Task Force is most likely to appear. If you're lucky enough to find Task Force 4 first, then the Fifth Fleet might even land a nice big victory!

Convinced of this idea, Spruance made a decision to fight Task Force 4 in a decisive battle, do everything he can to defeat Task Force 4, lay the tide on the Central Pacific Theater, and finally turn the tide of the war. Perhaps, this required prayer for God's help, but Spruance did not pick up the Bible at this time, but arranged the operation of the fleet, believing more than God that proper planning was the key factor in victory.