After Spruance left the fleet, Mitchell assigned his chief of staff to Task Force 51 as interim task force commander. Now Mitchell is the interim commander of the Fifth Fleet, and even Turner has to follow his command. For this, Mitchell did not feel the slightest bit happy, he had no personal vendetta with Spruance, and there was no personal conflict. In Mitchell's view, his contradiction with Spruance was a difference in understanding of the fleet's combat operations, not a personal one. Therefore, Mitchell was not happy about Spruance's departure, he only felt that he should do it, and only by doing so could the Fifth Fleet win. At least, now that Nimitz had backed his decision, Spruance would not have left the Fifth Fleet.

On the night of the 20th, after the end of communication with Pearl Harbor, Mitchell ordered the fleet to go south. He was not returning to Pearl Harbor, but to a decisive battle with the main fleet of the Don Imperial Navy. As Spruance judged, Mitchell was convinced that the main fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy had not left the battlefield and was still lingering near Oahu, so the best way to fight the enemy was to go directly south and look for opportunities!

As commander of Task Force 52, Turner had the right to make his proposal, while Turner still insisted on avoiding the enemy's main fleet, and it was best to return to San Francisco first, and wait until the fleet was well rested, the air force was replenished, and the battleship was filled with fuel and bombs before going to a decisive battle with the enemy. But Turner is not Spruance, and he has no authority to change Mitchell's decision. But it's not that simple.

While arranging the three task forces, Mitchell ran into a big problem. According to the previous establishment, the 51st Task Force and the 52nd Task Force acted together, relatively speaking, the 53rd Task Force was more flexible, and now Turner did not advocate going south, if the 52nd Task Force was pushed to the front, then Turner could only be allowed to command the two task forces, and Turner's passive attitude towards war avoidance would inevitably have a bad impact. As a last resort. Mitchell had no choice but to put Task Force 51 and Task Force 53 together and put them under his own command, leaving Task Force 52 behind, but this still did not solve the problem.

Turner had always opposed going south, and at that time he could not remove Turner from power, because Mitchell had no one to replace him, and Nimitz would not let Mitchell do so. Spruance's departure had already had a bad effect on the officers and men of the Fifth Fleet, and the fleet was still on combat duty. If the commander and chief of staff of the fleet were to be replaced at the same time, it would certainly have a worse effect. Eventually, Mitchell had to compromise and let Turner lead the fleet east first and then bypass. In other words, Turner's insistence had an effect, and at least the 52nd Task Force would not follow Mitchell to "send him to death". In order to ensure joint action, Task Force 52 was not able to completely disengage from the battlefield, and around dawn Task Force 52 was not northwest of Mitchell Land. Rather, in the northeast direction. It was about 120 nautical miles away from Task Force 53, which was sailing at the front.

Shen Guangwei's reconnaissance plane was the first to discover the 53rd Task Force, followed by the 51st Task Force. Because it took a lot of time to argue with Turner, and the reconnaissance work had to be arranged. Mitchell never had time to adjust the status of the two task forces, and by the time Shen Guangwei's reconnaissance plane arrived, the distance between the two task forces was only about 20 nautical miles, and it was impossible to avoid being discovered at the same time!

Mitchell was almost mad when the reconnaissance plane, which had evaded a dozen fighters in succession, had passed through the air defense network of Task Force 53, and finally had been hit by the anti-aircraft guns of a heavy cruiser over Task Force 51, had staggered out of the fleet and crashed into the distant sea. There is no doubt that it was a carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft of the Navy of the Don Empire, and the radio signal had already been sent. It was also sent out twice in a row. The whereabouts of the fleet have been completely exposed, the main fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy is not far away, and the battle is about to begin, but until this time, Mitchell does not know the specific location of the enemy at all!

Mitchell had only one hope, that is, the reconnaissance planes that set off before dawn could find the main fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy in time. Because the reconnaissance plane suddenly appeared over Task Force 53, by the time the lookout on the battleship spotted the reconnaissance plane, it had already modified its course, so it was impossible to determine the approximate position of the enemy fleet from its course. What annoyed Mitchell even more. Air defense fighters over the fleet did not work at all!

Less than 7:35 a.m., Mitchell ordered all the radars on the battleship to be activated to strengthen surveillance of the surrounding waters. The enemy will not send only one reconnaissance plane, and several other reconnaissance planes will be arranged in the vicinity for the sake of a close search. Now that the position of the fleet has been exposed, other reconnaissance planes will soon arrive to monitor the fleet's whereabouts and determine important data such as the size of the fleet to provide support for the subsequent bombing. At that time, the United States had not yet installed radars on destroyers, and the number of cruisers escorting aircraft carriers was quite limited. In desperation, Mitchell could only order three cruisers to be transferred from the 51st Task Force to carry out air defense alert duties, and several battleships were assigned to the 51st Task Force at that time, and only the 51st Task Force could send cruisers to carry out air defense alert duties. But the problem is that the 51st Task Force is behind, the distance between the two sides is 20 nautical miles, after the fleet is exposed, the speed of the 53rd Task Force will soon increase to 24 knots, and quickly turn, the cruisers of the 51st Task Force will catch up, and pull up an air defense alert barrier south of the 53rd Task Force, which will take at least more than an hour, or even an hour and a half!

At 7:38 a.m., both the 53rd and 51st task forces each sent a group of fighters to carry out air defense duties. The fighters all left the aircraft carrier by eight o'clock. Because the fleet suffered losses during the bombing of Midway, each fighter group was not fully staffed, with a maximum of only 32 fighters and a minimum of 27. By 8 o'clock, there were already four squadrons and about 120 US fighters flying over the two task forces.

Soon after the radar was turned on, several reconnaissance planes of the Tang Imperial fleet were discovered, and when the fighters rushed over, these reconnaissance planes quickly burrowed into the clouds. Or turn around and turn back. Mitchell did not let the fighters go after the reconnaissance planes that had fled into the desert, and the enemy's bomber group would certainly arrive quickly, and as long as those reconnaissance planes did not reach the skies over the fleet, there was no need to waste the fleet's precious air defense.

At this time, Mitchell regretted a little that the main fleet of the Tang Empire was indeed in the south, but he was still at a disadvantage. The opponent will not blindly fight him, when he dreams of sneaking up on the opponent. The main fleet of the Tang Empire is also performing the same task, and now that he is exposed first, he will be the first to be hit! At 7:45, a reconnaissance plane sent back a report that changed Mitchell's pessimistic mentality, and that the main fleet of the Tang Empire had been discovered, to be precise, a task force had been discovered. And it was a US reconnaissance plane that flew close to the Second Task Force but was not discovered by the Second Task Force! Within fifteen minutes, that is, before eight o'clock, two more reconnaissance planes sent back the same report. So far. Mitchell finally seized the opportunity to fight back. That fleet was to the southeast. Less than 250 nautical miles away. Just as Hao Dongjue ordered the carrier-based bombers to attack, Mitchell did not hesitate and immediately ordered the bombers of the 53rd Task Force to set off. Five minutes later. Carrier-based bombers of Task Force 51 also began preparations for departure. In terms of time, Mitchell only set off the bomber group half an hour later than Hao Dongjue, and this half hour was quite crucial. More importantly, the reconnaissance plane sent by Hao Dongjue found the two US task forces at one time, but Mitchell's reconnaissance plane only found the second task force and failed to find the first task force and the fourth task force behind the second task force in a timely manner. Therefore, Mitchell can only organize forces to attack the second task force first, and has not threatened the other two task forces for the time being!

There are too many luck and coincidence factors in the fight, and Mitchell is not the kind of person who is indecisive, otherwise he would not have parted ways with Spruance for sticking to his claims. Before half past eight. The first batch of bombers of Task Force 53 all took off, and the group consisted of 62 0336s, 58 Asahi F, and 31 Super Corsairs. At 8:38 a.m., the first group of bombers of Task Force 51, which had 58 0336s, 55 Asahi Fs, and 29 "Super Corsairs", also left the aircraft carrier. Instead of converging together, the two large groups flew in the direction of Task Force 2.

It's not that Mitchell doesn't want to send out another bomber as well. He believed that the three task forces of the Tang Empire must be operating together, and since one of the task forces had been discovered, they would definitely be able to discover the other task force, or even the other two task forces, and the remaining bombers under his command would be able to launch a fatal blow. As soon as the conditions were ripe, these bombers could take off immediately, but the conditions were not ripe at that time. The main reason why other bombers could not take off in time was not the lack of accurate intelligence, but the fact that the aviation crews in the fleet could not immediately prepare these bombers for takeoff!

The question of the quality of officers and men has once again become a fatal problem for the US fleet. In high-intensity fleet aviation operations, it is not the officers and men of the fleet who are most severely tested, nor the pilots, but the aviation service personnel. The efficiency of bomber sorties is determined by the quality of aviation service personnel, and the US military does not have a high-quality aviation service unit, so it will not be able to make bombers dispatch quickly, which ultimately limits the strike capability of aircraft carriers. If Mitchell had been able to send out the second batch of bombers at once, Task Force 2 would have been wiped out. But the problem is that the aviation service personnel under him can't do it at all. According to the most optimistic estimates, the second batch of bombers will take at least half an hour to refuel, and another fifteen to twenty minutes to load the bombs, and even if a group of fleet officers and men are mobilized to assist and at the same time refuel and carry ammunition for the bombers, it will take at least half an hour to prepare. In other words, the second batch of bombers will not be able to take off until about 9 o'clock, and the bombers sent by Hao Dongjue will arrive before 9 o'clock!

At 8:45 a.m., just as Mitchell was eagerly waiting for the second group of bombers to hit the road, two reports came back almost simultaneously. The first report was sent back by a reconnaissance plane, a reconnaissance plane flying north of Task Force 2 spotted another task force with at least three aircraft carriers, and this was Task Force 1. The reconnaissance plane soon lost contact with the fleet, and the reports that could be sent back were quite accurate. And the second report was sent back by the bomber group he had just sent out, and this group of bombers had encountered the enemy's bomber group!

Mitchell immediately gave the order for the fleet's air defense operations, and all the fighters that could take off took off immediately, and the bombers that had been refueled and loaded with ammunition also took off immediately, but at that time, less than a third of the bombers in the two task forces had completed their preparations before takeoff. In addition, this batch of bombers did not have the cover of fighters, and all the fighters were concentrated over the fleet! In addition, Mitchell did not forget one important thing, that is, to get in touch with Turner and tell Turner the location of the second Tang Imperial Navy task force, so that Turner could also play a role. Prior to this, Mitchell had already told Turner the location of the first Tang Empire's task force, and as for whether Turner had taken action, he did not know, and the 52nd Task Force did not send a telegram!

Relatively speaking, Mitchell's defensive preparations were very inadequate, and when his bomber group was intercepted, the three cruisers sent by the 51st Task Force had not yet reached the eastern side of the 53rd Task Force, so they could not play the role of air defense alert, let alone expand the air defense circle of the fleet, and could only let the fighters linger in the airspace near the fleet, shortening the distance to intercept enemy bombers. In addition, the two task forces were not relocated to the air defense array until 8:55 a.m., when the enemy bomber group was about to arrive, and at least three of the escort warships in the aircraft carrier battle group did not reach the exact defensive position. What annoys Mitchell even more is that he suffers a lot from the trouble caused by the two task forces crowded together, and in the end, these will be the bane of the fiasco of the American army!