Once in San Francisco, Spruance was relieved of all command and boarded a train to the East Coast of the United States, returning to Baltimore, Maryland, his hometown. At this time, Spruance did not know that Mitchell was leading the Fifth Fleet to destruction, and the news would not arrive until the next night. In fact, Spruance was not in the mood to "care" about the Fifth Fleet at this time, he just wanted to return home early and live a quiet life.

At that time, Spruance had already been transferred to the reserve (according to the rules of the US military, generals who did not have active command authority were automatically transferred to the reserve formation, and until he received the next appointment, he was a reserve general), and there was basically nothing to do. After returning to Baltimore, Spruance could only learn about the situation on the front line through newspapers, but at that time, the newspapers in the United States were seriously inaccurate in their coverage of the war, and did not accurately report the war situation and the results of the battle.

Spruance did not believe the report that the Fifth Fleet had successfully repelled the main fleet of the Tang Empire and defended the Hawaiian Islands, because just before this report came out, Spruance received a call from Turner, knowing that the Fifth Fleet had suffered a crushing defeat, except for Turner's 52nd Task Force, the other two task forces were completely destroyed, and the six + battleships, as well as all but a few destroyers, were sunk. Opposite. The main fleet of the Tang Empire did not lose a single aircraft carrier, and the losses of the escort warships were minimal. The US Navy achieved not a major victory, but a crushing defeat.

If it had been a few years ago, this fiasco would have been able to inspire Spruance's fighting spirit and make him take the initiative to ask to return to the fleet, but now, Spruance not only did not have a trace of **, but felt relieved. At least this fiasco proves that Mitchell's adventurous action was completely wrong. Of course, it was no longer possible to hold Mitchell responsible, and the impulsive general had sunk into the sea with the fleet.

Soon Spruance received a telegram from Nimitz. At that time, Nimitz was still the commander of the Pacific Theater of Operations and the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet. In the telegram, Nimitz asked Spruance to be ready to return to the fleet at any time. He is working on Spruance's return to the Pacific Fleet. In addition, a new batch of warships is nearing completion, and the Pacific Fleet will soon be restored to strength, and what is missing is a commander who can dominate the overall situation. Spruance still didn't have much to say about Nimitz's telegram, because he knew that Mitchell's defeat would not change his predicament to a large extent.

If Mitchell's adventure succeeds, Spruance is slightly more likely to return to the Pacific Fleet, or to the Pacific Theater of Operations. When the time comes, Nimitz will definitely organize a strategic counterattack. While Mitchell continued to command the Fifth Fleet, Nimitz needed a good ground theater chief of staff. And Spruance is the best choice. But the problem is that now Mitchell has failed. Nimitz also has no ability to organize a strategic counterattack, and even defense is extremely difficult, and at the same time, the president will hold the Navy responsible, Mitchell has been killed, Turner has successfully preserved the 52nd Task Force, and only Nimitz himself can take responsibility|When Nimitz has problems with self-preservation, how can he get Spruance back to the Pacific Fleet?

Spruance's judgment was quite accurate. He did not receive any orders to return to the Pacific theater of operations, or to the Pacific Fleet. There were even very few calls to him. At this time, Spruance no longer had much hope for the Pacific theater, and at the same time did not have much hope that he would be able to return to the Navy, at least he was still an admiral, and his monthly salary would be delivered on time, and his family life was not a problem. With nothing else to do, Spruance began to prepare for the writing of his memoirs. Of course, fundamentally, Spruance would not forget about the Navy and the changes on the battlefield, even if on the surface he no longer cared about war affairs, but in fact, he would read the local newspapers in Baltimore every day, as well as the Navy's internal newspapers, and managed to get the Washington Post and the New York Times, and when he could not get access to more authentic war reports, he could only speculate about the battle situation ahead through these newspapers and his own analytical judgment.

The tide of battle changed much faster than Spruance had expected. After "eradicating" the obstacle of the Fifth Fleet, the Tang Imperial Navy quickly attacked Kauai. The U.S. Marine Corps and Air Forces held a stubborn defense on Kauai, and Nimitz mobilized all the forces he could to deal with the Tang Empire's naval attack. For more than a month, the newspapers in the United States were full of victorious news, but Spruance knew very well that it would be impossible for the US military to hold Kauai after losing the cover of the fleet. Perhaps the Tang Imperial Navy's offensive preparations were not sufficient, so the attack on Kauai did not go well, but it was only a matter of time.

U.S. forces' insistence on Kauai has not been able to turn the tide of the war. The only hope at the time was Turner's Task Force 52 (which was later officially upgraded to the Fifth Fleet). But the problem is that the fleet has lost a large number of pilots in previous operations, and even if it has a complete number of warships and the replenishment of combat aircraft is quickly in place, in the absence of sufficient pilots, the fleet is simply not capable of fighting. As a result, the Marines spent months on Kauai without any prospect of a fleet. After the hardest efforts, Nimitz had no choice but to give the order to retreat, and the American troops scrambled to withdraw from Kauai.

Just before the fall of Couai, the Fifth Fleet suddenly received an order to leave San Francisco and begin the battlefield. At the time, the newspapers in the United States advertised that the Fifth Fleet would once again win a brilliant victory and finally turn the tide of the war in the Pacific. But in fact, after Spruance saw the relevant reports, he immediately knew that Turner was undoubtedly going to die. At this time, in the Pacific Theater, the Tang Imperial Navy already had two main fleets on combat missions, and their strength was more than five times that of the Fifth Fleet. In addition, the Tang Imperial Navy also deployed a large number of support fleets, so the marines did not need the support of the main fleet. When the Fifth Fleet left the safe port of San Francisco at this time, it was undoubtedly a mud cow into the sea, and there was no return!

Spruance's judgment was not wrong at all, there was no suspense in the combat operations of the First Fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy and the Fifth Fleet to encircle and annihilate the Fifth Fleet commanded by Turner, and from beginning to end, Turner even had a chance to return fire

While acknowledging the heavy losses suffered by the Fifth Fleet, the newspapers of the country also exaggerated the results of the battle, claiming that they had sunk eight aircraft carriers, ten battleships, and dozens of other warships of the Tang Imperial Navy in the battle. For unwitting civilians, this was indeed a great "victory", but for Spruance, it was simply a joke, at that time there were only nine battleships in the Tang Imperial Navy, and four of them fought in the Atlantic, and there were only five battleships in the Pacific Ocean, where did the ten battleships sink the Fifth Fleet?

With the last bit of strength of the Pacific Fleet being wiped out, there is no longer any suspense in the Pacific War. At that time, Spruance realized that after the Tang Imperial Navy was sure that it would win the Pacific War, it would definitely take action in advance to control the passage from the Pacific Ocean into the Atlantic, that is, the Panama Canal, and would use the Panama Canal as a breakthrough point to extend its power to the American continent, by seizing the Central American region, and finally landing on the American continent, and then advancing northward to attack the American mainland from Mexico.

At this time, Spruance wrote an extremely important report, which he was going to hand over directly to Admiral King. After all, Admiral King still appreciates Spruance very much. Soon after Spruance's report was handed over, news came that the Tang Empire Marines had attacked the Panama Canal and finally succeeded in occupying it. At this point, Spruance's reasoning was proven, and the only thing he didn't expect was. The Tang Imperial Navy's march into the Panama Canal would be so fast that the U.S. military lost the extremely critical Panama Canal before it had time to make defensive adjustments. With the fall of the Panama Canal and the successful control of the South Atlantic by the Tang Empire's navy, there was no suspense in the battle in the Pacific theater. The U.S. Navy could no longer send its fleet to the Pacific Ocean, and it would be impossible to confront the Tang Imperial Navy in the Pacific, and it was only a matter of time before Oahu fell.

That is, three days after the capture of the Panama Canal by the Tang Marines, Spruance received a call from Admiral King, and he immediately packed his bags and went to the Admiralty in Washington to report. Spruance's new identity was a special advisor to Admiral King. He is still in the reserves. and did not resume the status of an active general. However, it was back at the Admiralty and receiving special care from Admiral King that Spruance began to gain access to top-secret battlefield materials and participated in the strategic planning of the U.S. Navy.

During these months at the Admiralty, Spruance became much more sleek, and he was not primarily involved in combat operations in the Pacific. Rather, the work of expanding, and reorganizing the Atlantic Fleet. It was also from this time that the foundation for Spruance to become chief of the General Staff of the Atlantic Fleet was laid. At that time, Admiral King's first consideration was to make Spruance the commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Fleet, but soon after, Nimitz lost Oahu and was forced to withdraw to the United States, and all the former Pacific Fleet generals and officers were implicated in the defeat of the Pacific War. Spruance also came from the Pacific Fleet, and with that status in mind, Admiral King sidestepped the question of vulnerability to veto. Spruance was not nominated for the post of commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Fleet, but continued to serve as commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Fleet. And in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet, he nominated Spruance for Chief of Staff of the Fleet, which would make it easier to obtain presidential approval.

It's obvious. When it comes to dealing with military personnel relations and using officialdom techniques, Admiral King, who is in his 60s, is much more tactful than Spruance. If Admiral King had directly nominated Spruance for the post of commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Fleet, it would have been vetoed by the president. It was also a detour that finally the president approved Admiral Kim's nomination. At the end of 26, Spruance became Chief of the General Staff of the Atlantic Fleet as a special adviser to Admiral King and went to Norfolk Military Harbor. At a time when Admiral King was not directly commanding the Atlantic Fleet, Spruance became the de facto commander of the Atlantic Fleet.

At the time of Spruance's tenure. The latest batch of completed warships has already been delivered to the Atlantic Fleet. Originally, these warships were built for the Pacific Fleet, but the Pacific Fleet was finished. It could only be delivered to the Atlantic Fleet, which had different requirements, with the result that most of the ships were returned to the shipyard, took a month or two to be refitted, and were not delivered to the Navy again until the end of the year.

At that time, the U.S. Navy's new warships included six aircraft carriers: CV-34 Oriscany, CV-35 Revenge, CV-44 Enterprise, CV-45 Mountain, CV-46 Iwo Jima, and CV-47 Valley Ford. The first four "Montana" class battleships were also completed and joined the US Navy: BB-67 "Montana", BB-68 "Russo-Russian", BB-69 "Maine", and BB-70 "New Hampshire". The BB-71 "Louise Anna", which was originally planned to be built at the same time, was not successfully completed due to limited resources. In addition to this, there were twelve cruisers of the "Detroit" class, 12 cruisers of the "Miami" class, and 36 destroyers were in service at the same time.

These warships were enough to form a large main fleet, and their size was not below the first fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy. However, Spruance did not regain confidence because of this, and there was only one reason: the U.S. Navy did not have enough good officers and men to operate and use these warships, let alone turn the tide of the war.

Prior to this, the elite of the US Navy was concentrated in the Pacific Fleet, and the Atlantic Fleet was mainly responsible for escort missions, and there was no need to send the main fleet to support the British in controlling the North Sea and the Mediterranean, so the main warships were never deployed. Now that the Pacific Fleet has been completely lost, the remaining officers and men are simply unable to meet the needs of a large fleet, and it will not only be troublesome but also take a lot of time to retrain the officers and men. At that time, Spruance had no other choice, and he had no second way to improve the combat effectiveness of the fleet outside of training. Therefore, the first thing he did after arriving in Norfolk was to redeploy the fleet's training program and directly stated to Admiral King that he would resign as Chief of the General Staff if he was to send the Atlantic Fleet into battle before the training was completed!