Spruance rarely showed any excitement, even as he watched the group leave the fleet and embark on the course to attack the enemy fleet, which was in stark contrast to the people around him, when the bomber group departed, the officers and men of the aircraft carrier, and even the officers of the fleet staff, were very excited, as if they had already won the victory, not the imminent victory.

"Now, Task Force 2 is definitely finished." Once Smith had calmed down, he returned to Spruance's side, still with a smug smile on his face.

Spruance nodded slightly, but didn't speak. In the last battle, he used the aviation on three aircraft carriers to inflict heavy damage on the 1st and 2nd task forces of the Tang Empire, and at that time, the 2nd Task Force had three aircraft carriers instead of two. This time, he has four air groups on four aircraft carriers, and he is still half of the bombers dispatched, while the second task force has only two aircraft carriers, and the corresponding number of escort warships will also be reduced a lot (in fact, the number of escort warships in the second task force is not small, and even two more heavy cruisers than the first task force).

Of course, Spruance doesn't show his thoughts until the real results are returned, and most of the time, he is a cautious commander.

"When will the other bombers be ready to take off?" Spruance glanced at his Colonel's Chief of Staff (in fact, Smith was only the Chief of Staff of Task Force 51, not the Fifth Fleet, which Spruance had left at Pearl Harbor).

Smith glanced at his watch and said, "About twenty minutes, now the orderly is hanging bombs and torpedoes for the bomber, and the pilot is still concentrated, this is the shortest time." ”

"When you're ready, get the pilots ready to go." Spruance sighed, "We've only found Task Force 2. And the first task force of the Tang Empire has not yet appeared. ”

"Maybe Task Force 1 is still coming."

"Do you think so?" Spruance didn't directly blame Smith, "If you think that the commander of the Tang Imperial fleet who is hiding is easy to deal with, then we will lose badly." Now that Task Force 2 has dispatched bombers to attack our landing grounds, if Task Force 1 hadn't arrived, Task Force 2 would have easily exposed itself? They endured it for two days, can't they endure it for a few more hours? ”

Smith shrugged his shoulders, knowing that he had overdone the joke he had started with.

Seeing that Smith still looked a little improper, Spruance shook his head. He didn't have much hope for this colonel, so he didn't care much about this colonel's opinion.

Just as Spruance was about to return to the commander's bridge, an officer of the communications department ran over with a telegram in his hand. Spruance took the telegram and quickly swept it through it, then handed it to Smith as he walked briskly onto the Commander's Bridge.

"This was only sent from Pearl Harbor, and it was determined that the signal was sent from the radio station on the aircraft carrier 'Xingkai Lake,' the flagship of the First Task Force, and the signal lasted for more than two minutes before it was interrupted."

As the communications staff officer spoke, the nautical staff officer had already marked the exact location on the chart on that wall. "This is the approximate location of the signal. The error in the south is about 50 nautical miles. The east-west error is about 86 nautical miles. ”

"Where's our nearest reconnaissance plane?" Spruance's expression still hasn't changed much.

"The nearest reconnaissance plane is here." The nautical staff officer traced more than a dozen points around the sea he had marked, "about 80 to 120 nautical miles from this area." ”

"It's too late!" Smith whispered, "They're too close to us."

For the reconnaissance plane to return to the ground at this time, we are afraid that we will have to wait for half an hour, or even an hour. “

Spruance nodded slightly, then pondered.

"Maybe they are summoning reconnaissance planes, and our ground air defense fighters have not discovered the reconnaissance planes of the Tang Empire, and we still have enough time to ......"

"You think we can delay time?" Spruance's sentence is much heavier, "Immediately arrange for twelve SBDs to take off without bombs, and search this sea area at the fastest speed."

The bomber group took off immediately after hanging the bombs! “

"Commander, we should now let the air defense fighters take off!" Smith immediately offered his advice.

"There's no time, let the reconnaissance planes and bombers take off first!" Spruance wouldn't have listened to Smith's advice at all. He glanced at his watch, "It's seven o'clock and fifteen, General Tan Renhao will definitely arrange for the bombers to take off at the same time as sending out the signals, and these electromagnetic signals are sent out at about six forty-five minutes, counting the take-off time of their bombers, at most an hour and a half later, that is, at eight and fifteen, the bombers can reach us, and if we don't send a bomber group immediately, we won't even have a chance to fight back!" ”

"But ......"

"John. Go and give orders now! Spruance bypassed Smith and gave the order to the communications staff, "Also, contact Major General Turner and ask him to arrange for the bomber to take off immediately, under the unified command of our long plane." ”

Smith immediately walked over, apparently still thinking Spruance was problematic in his decision.

"Colonel Smith, if you think there is a problem with my command, you can record all of this, and after the battle, you can report to Admiral Nimitz about the battle, which is also your authority. But now, I'm the commander of the fleet, and you have to obey my orders and carry out my orders, understand? Spruance didn't give Smith a chance to speak at all this time.

Smith swallowed, and the words he said to the edge of his throat were pressed back by Spruance.

"Very well, then go and carry out this order now, I want to see the reconnaissance planes rise into the air in two minutes, and the bomber group starts taking off in twenty minutes!"

It took Spruance only three minutes to make a decision and give the order, that is, at 7:18 he gave the order, and by 7:20 a.m., twelve SBDs with no bombs on them, but with auxiliary fuel tanks, left the aircraft carrier "Essex" where he was sitting. By 7:40 a.m., the first SBD with a bomb on it left the carrier. Almost at the same time, the "Yorktown" in formation

The aircraft carrier landed bombers and began to take off. Five minutes later, bombers from Task Force 52, about 80 nautical miles northeast of Task Force 51, the Intrepids and the Hornet, also took to the skies. By eight o'clock sharp, all the bombers, as well as the 36 "Corsairs" that Spruance had arranged for this group of bombers, had all taken to the air, and then left the sky over the fleet, ready to form halfway through. Because the bomber groups of the two task forces were operating together, Spruance left 12 fighters in Task Force 52. No more escort fighters were sent. In addition, because 12 SBDs on the "Essex" were previously dispatched, there were 12 SBDs missing from this batch of bombers.

After the bombers took off, Spruance took all the fleet air defense fighters into the air.

At this time, there were 12 air defense fighters over the 51st task force, and there were 6 fighters on each of the two aircraft carriers, counting the spare ones (the US aircraft carriers can carry 1 to 3 reserve fighters, and if the opponent is strong, they will generally choose to carry 3 fighters), the 51st task force only has 30 air defense fighters. All 16 aircraft on board the aircraft carrier were lifted off at 10:00 a.m. And the 12 on air patrol still had enough fuel to hold out until after nine o'clock.

The situation was better for Task Force 52, as 12 fewer escort fighters were deployed, while Task Force 52 had 42 anti-aircraft fighters. Of these, 14 on air patrol can hold out until after 9 o'clock, while 30 fighters on board the aircraft carrier can leave the aircraft carrier before 8:20 a.m. to join the fleet air defense patrol.

The key direction of the ground air defense of both task forces is southeast, and all air defense fighters are concentrated in this direction, and judging by Spruance, the bombers of the Tang Empire will definitely arrive from this direction. When the bombers took off one after another, Spruance did not forget to activate all the ground radars in the fleet, but by the time it was past eight o'clock, the radars still found nothing, and Spruance could only speculate. The reconnaissance planes of the Tang Empire had already discovered them at about 6:40, and at that time the air defense fighters had not yet taken off, and the lookouts on the battleship were not very vigilant, so they were not able to detect the reconnaissance planes of the Tang Empire.

The reason why Spruance made such a quick decision was simple: according to the information provided by Pearl Harbor, they were only 120 nautical miles away from the 1st Task Force of the Tang Empire, and only 180 nautical miles at the farthest.

And now the Tang Imperial Navy has been equipped with new bombers, and its cruising speed has increased considerably, calculated at a compromise distance of 150 nautical miles. The Tang Empire's bomber group only took an hour and a half at most from the time it took off to the time it flew over, and the Tang Empire's bombers must have risen into the air shortly after 6:45, that is to say, the Tang Empire's bomber group would arrive at about 8:15. If the fighters take off first, then the bomber group of the Tang Empire will arrive before it leaves the sky over the fleet, and the result will inevitably destroy the intensity of his strike on the first task force.

This is a choice that has no choice, since he has been exposed, don't expect to be able to block the attack of the Tang Empire's advanced bombers in defense, and piloted by the best pilots in the world. Spruance had personal pain, and he was very envious of the fleet commanders of the Tang Empire who had so many excellent pilots with a lot of actual combat experience and very skilled skills. And that's exactly what he lacks, so he can only use quantity to make up for the qualitative gap.

Spruance also firmly believes in one thing, that is, his opponent, Vice Admiral Tan Renhao, commander of the Tang Empire's First Task Force, will never hesitate or delay. Now, maybe he can't save the two task forces, so he let the 52nd task force a little further back left 12 more air defense fighters, hoping that the 52nd task force can escape the attack, and the 51st task force will bear all the pressure, and the 51st task force will be the bomb magnet to attract the bombers of the Tang Empire. At the same time, he must count on the success of the bombing campaign against Task Force 1 and the bombing campaign against Task Force 2 before. As long as these two points are achieved, then he still has two aircraft carriers, and the Tang Empire's Fourth Task Force will take a few days to arrive, and in these few days, he can do a lot to change the situation on the battlefield.

In fact, Spruance's mind is very clear, these judgments are made by him in three minutes, which is enough to prove that his mind is very clear, and very flexible, in three minutes, he made so many analyses, and immediately made decisions, trying to achieve the purpose of the campaign, from this point it can also be seen that Spruance is an extremely decisive commander, especially in critical moments, he will make judgments and decisions at a very fast speed.

The rest of the wait made Spruance feel like he was going through hell. According to his estimates, the bombers of the Tang Empire arrived between 8:05 and 8:25, but by 8:25 a.m., the fleet was still quiet, the cruisers with radars had not raised the alarm, and the fighters patrolling the southeast of the fleet had not detected the enemy group.

By 8:30, Spruance was a little unable to sit still, could it be that Tan Renhao made a stupid move, and after exposing himself, he didn't immediately send bombers, or rather, Tan Renhao didn't find them at all? Compared to the two, Spruance prefers to believe the latter. It is impossible for Tan Renhao to make a stupid move, but the problem is that he will not let the bomber stay on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier for dozens of minutes longer, in the battle that determines life and death, dozens of minutes is enough time to decide everything, he should completely let the bomber take off first, at least let the plane on the reconnaissance mission set off first, fly at maximum speed, and then the bomber immediately takes off and flies behind the reconnaissance plane, so now the reconnaissance plane of the Tang Empire should also arrive!

These doubts gave Spruance a headache, but he had no other way, he didn't have a plane in his hand, and he couldn't use the precious air defense fighter to do some work to prove his guesses, right? The only thing he could do was wait. Before the arrival of the bombers of the Tang Empire, a telegram was sent back, which was not sent by reconnaissance planes, but by the bomber group attacking the second task force!