As early as the morning of the 9th, Tan Renhao received an extremely important message that the US Atlantic Fleet was on its way back to Norfolk.

The intelligence department intercepted the communications of the US military and sent this important news to Luo Yunchong's theater command in a timely manner, which was then forwarded by Lei Shaoqing to Tan Renhao. As for the means by which the intelligence department obtained such important information, Tan Renhao did not know at the time, and he was a little unconvinced. On the morning of the 9th, the battle in San Diego was still going on, could it be that at this time the US military decided to abandon San Diego and let the Atlantic Fleet withdraw? At noon, after receiving a telegram from Han Shaofeng and learning that the American troops besieged in San Diego had begun to retreat, Tan Renhao was a little convinced of the authenticity of the information, maybe the Atlantic Fleet was really ready to return to Norfolk.

At noon that day, Tan Renhao sent a return call to Lei Shaoqing, asking Lei Shaoqing to contact the intelligence department as soon as possible to confirm the reliability of the information. Soon, Lei Shaoqing sent a telegram, saying that the intelligence was accurate and the intelligence department had made guarantees. By this time, Tan Renhao began to think about revising the combat operations of the fleet.

In fact, after the defeat of the British, the Empire's intelligence services first took control of the "Government Cipher School" located at Bletchley Manor. This was not a school, but the most important and secret code-breaking unit in Britain at the time, and it was not until the defeat of Britain that the intelligence services of the empire knew that Britain had such an intelligence code-breaking agency. Bletchley Manor, near London, was originally founded with the help of some Poles in exile in England, and a decipherment machine was developed as early as 22 years old. At that time, the agency was mainly engaged in deciphering the German army's communication messages, and it had brilliant "results". For example, when the German and Imperial Expeditionary Air Forces bombed the British mainland on a large scale, the agency repeatedly deciphered the German army's communication messages, mastered the details of the bombing operations, and made targeted deployments.

After taking control of Bletchley Manor. The intelligence of the Reich was a treasure, and this was directly related to future combat operations, and even related to the confrontation between the Reich and Germany after the war, so the Reich intelligence department kept it strictly secret, and there were no more than ten people who knew about the "Bletchley Manor", and all the officers and soldiers who participated in the takeover of Bletchley Manor were quickly repatriated back to the Empire mainland and settled in a secret military base in the northwest of the Reich. Subsequently, the personnel who participated in the research and restoration of the British decipherment machines were also assigned to other departments under various names. Anyway, at that time, even Prime Minister Xue Xiyue only knew that the imperial intelligence department had a very mysterious agency. The truth about this institution is not known at all.

In addition to the British decipherment machine, the biggest gain of the Imperial intelligence services at that time was a copy, to be exact, half of a document related to the American communication code that had not been destroyed. It was with the help of the Imperial Intelligence Service that the Empire's intelligence services, together with the help of some British intelligence officers willing to work with the Empire, and mathematicians who specialized in codes, to decipher the American communication codes. By July, the Empire's intelligence services were able to decipher about 20 percent of U.S. military communications.

Don't underestimate these two percent, because there are thousands of communication messages every day, and some of them don't make any sense at all, so no intelligence agency can do it. Nor is it capable of deciphering all the enemy's communication messages. Before proceeding with decipherment. Intelligence officers need to sift through several rounds of intercepted information before they have fully deciphered the important messages. Other words. In fact, it only takes a small part of the US military's communication messages to decipher the situation of US military movements.

At that time, the Imperial Intelligence Service had already set up radio monitoring stations in Jamaica, as well as radio monitoring stations in the Little Andrés Islands and the Azores. In order to be able to intercept the telecommunications of the United States, several freighters were even specially modified and deployed to the western waters of the Azores, which is about 1,500 to 2,000 kilometers away from the U.S. mainland, and is specifically responsible for intercepting the long-distance communication radio waves of the U.S. military.

At that time, he participated in the surveillance of the United States. and more than 50,000 personnel for intelligence analysis and decipherment, which is equivalent to three integrated marine divisions. Even with so many people, only about 20% of the telegrams could be deciphered. At that time, Tan Renhao received news about the return of the Atlantic Fleet to Norfolk that it was the department that intercepted a long-distance communication cable sent by the Admiralty in Washington and accurately translated it.

Tan Renhao only learned about the existence of this department after the war, so it was not unreasonable for him to doubt the accuracy of the intelligence at that time. At least, before that, the intelligence services of the Reich performed very badly. In particular, the intelligence operations against the United States are even more unsightly, and in many cases the German intelligence department is still needed to help, and now that the efficiency of the intelligence department has increased so much, it is not surprising that Tan Renhao has doubts about it.

In fact, Lei Shaoqing is also skeptical, the reason is the same as Tan Renhao, could it be that the intelligence department of the empire has taken stimulants and become powerful all of a sudden? As early as the morning, Lei Shaoqing transferred more than 30 long-range reconnaissance planes to Jamaica and asked all these reconnaissance planes to be dispatched in the afternoon to conduct repeated searches in the waters east of the Bahamas to make sure that the Atlantic Fleet had left the area.

Similarly, Tan Renhao also made this arrangement in the afternoon, allowing the Third Fleet, which is still operating in the southern part of the Bahamas and bombing the islands for several days, to have reconnaissance planes in the vicinity of the islands and all the eastern waters to closely search the interior of the islands and all the eastern waters to determine whether the Atlantic Fleet is still active in the waters.

It was not until after dark that night that Hao Dongjue sent a telegram saying that the reconnaissance plane had not discovered the Atlantic Fleet, not even a small US warship. Lei Shaoqing also sent a telegram very quickly, and the reconnaissance plane he sent out did not yield anything. At this point, Tan Renhao had to believe that the Atlantic Fleet might really have left. He then ordered Hao Dongjue to leave the southern waters of the Bahamas, pass through the Windward Strait, and finally go to the southern waters of Jamaica Island, and from the next day he would send bombers to support the offensive operations of the Marine Corps. At the same time, the First Fleet will also be transferred to the southern waters of Jamaica Island, and as the Marines gradually advance inland, the Third Task Force will no longer be able to help, and will return to the port of Colon ahead of schedule, and Zhu Rongzhe will take the command of the First Fleet to cooperate with the Third Fleet.

In other words, Tan Renhao has basically given up combat operations against the Atlantic Fleet by this point. The next morning, he returned with Task Force 3. By the 11th, when he had not yet arrived in Cologne, Lei Shaoqing sent him new information, a submarine operating outside the Chesapeake Bay had discovered the returning Atlantic Fleet, and the submarine had also carried out a sneak attack after sending a telegram, and had not been in contact with the base again, and had probably been killed by the US destroyers.

The return of the Atlantic Fleet to Norfolk was confirmed. Tan Renhao also breathed a sigh of relief. His speculation was not wrong, with the fall of San Diego and the transformation of the landing campaign into a ground battle, it no longer made much sense for the Atlantic Fleet to continue to operate on the battlefield, and it was reasonable for the US military to bring back the Atlantic Fleet at this time. And depending on the situation, in the short term, it is impossible for the Atlantic Fleet to leave Norfolk, and there is no need to think about its threat.

At that time, the 3rd Task Force also needed to return to the port of Cologne, and one of the main problems was that of the six battleships. In addition to the three battleships sent from the 6th Task Force. Most of the main gun barrels on the other three battleships were past their useful life, and many of the guns were out of order. In the past, if you wanted to replace the main gun barrel of a battleship, you had to go back to the Imperial shipyard. This would take at least two months for the fleet to travel back and forth. In order to avoid such troubles, the Imperial Navy temporarily converted a maintenance ship that was specifically responsible for replacing the main gun barrels for battleships. Now that the ship had reached the port of Cologne with dozens more huge barrels, Task Force 3 could go back and replace the battleship with new barrels.

The five aircraft carrier task forces remaining on the battlefield soon became the protagonists on the battlefield, and the carrier-based aviation had a clear advantage over the shore-based tactical aviation. First of all, the attendance rate of fighters, because the support equipment on aircraft carriers is more advanced, and the quality of the service personnel who maintain the fighters is also higher; as long as the catapult does not fail, the attendance rate of fighters is higher than that of ground airports. The second is the quality of the pilots, and the best pilots in the Navy are in the carrier-based aviation units. Naturally, the combat efficiency is also higher.

The five aircraft carrier task forces have 15 aircraft carriers, and excluding reconnaissance aircraft, each aircraft carrier has 108 fighters and bombers, that is, the five task forces have a total of 1,620 combat aircraft, which is roughly equivalent to the total number of tactical aircraft deployed on at least 20 large airfields. In fact, it was the "Scout Eagle" that played a key role at that time. With the arrival of these reconnaissance planes, the air force has a greater advantage in seizing air supremacy. Although the "Reconnaissance Eagle" has also exposed many problems in actual combat, such as its radar detection ability of ground targets is quite low, and it often treats low-flying aircraft as a convoy. Or the convoy may be treated as low-flying aircraft, but the limited air combat command capabilities of the "Reconnaissance Eagle" and the ability to detect enemy aircraft groups play an extremely important role. Before the Marine Corps established a front-line aviation command center, the "Reconnaissance Eagle" became almost the only means of detecting enemy aircraft groups at long distances.

The full participation of carrier-based aviation units in the battle to support the Marine Corps also gave Han Shaofeng a great deal of sweetness. On the 11th, the Marines began to advance to the US airfield in Palmasoriano, and the carrier-based aviation was responsible for providing them with uninterrupted air support during the day, while the shore-based aviation was switched to night sorties. The reinforcement of the air force not only made up for the fire attack loophole in the absence of fire support ships, but also provided a wider range of air support, which provided help for the rapid assault of the Marine Corps.

By the 13th, the Marines had taken the U.S. airfield near Kaimanera, which was only a large field airfield, but it was the first airfield that the Marines had captured. At this time, the U.S. military also discovered that the Marine Corps was focusing on attacking the airfield, but did not deal with the towns where the U.S. troops were stationed, so they understood the offensive intentions of the Marine Corps. At that time, without the full support of the air force, I am afraid that Han Shaofeng would have encountered more trouble.

Relatively speaking, after the capture of San Diego, the aviation is still a supporting role on the battlefield, playing the role of supporters, and the marines are the real protagonists on the battlefield. By the 16th, Han Shaofeng had 10 reorganized marine divisions, four of which had regained their combat effectiveness after receiving additional troops, and two other marine divisions that had not been replenished. That is, at that time he had twelve marine divisions in his hands, and the total strength of the ground forces exceeded 200,000. By this time, the Marines had advanced their front to the line of Palmasoriano-San Luis-Tiguavos-Guantanamo-Bocrón, occupying an area of about 30,000 square kilometers centered on Santiago. In this area, there are two regular airfields of the US military, one large field airfield, and four small field airfields. According to the campaign plan formulated before, the Marine Corps had achieved the basic campaign purpose, but Han Shaofeng did not stop at this time.

By the 20th, Han Shaofeng had withdrawn six marine divisions with serious losses, and at the same time transferred the eight marine divisions remaining in Jamaica to the front line, increasing the strength of his troops to 14 marine divisions, but the actual strength of the army had dropped to about 180,000. On the same day, the forward unit of the Marine Corps had advanced to the vicinity of Bayamo, and another unit was advancing towards Holguin. These two cities are the two most important inland cities in southeastern Cuba, and they are both nodes of highway communication lines, as long as these two cities are occupied, they will basically blockade the southeastern region of Cuba, and lay the foundation for the deployment of strategic bomber forces in the next Luo Yun rush to Cuba. In other words, this is the highest purpose of the campaign, and Han Shaofeng has been moving towards this goal from the beginning.

The U.S. military is also well aware of the importance of these two cities, of which Bayamo is located on the plains of Guacanayavo Bay, although it is surrounded by swamps, but it is extremely suitable for mechanized troops to fight, and transportation is relatively convenient. On the contrary, Holguín is located in the mountains and is a must-stop on the way to the northern coastal region of Cuba. The U.S. military has left heavy troops in both places, and Bradley is also actively deploying troops. It is not easy for Han Shaofeng to quickly conquer these two cities. But a very important point, whether these two cities are captured or not, by the end of August, Luo Yunchong will already be able to send strategic bomber troops to Cuba!