When it comes to adventurism, Halsey is certainly the first man in the U.S. Navy. On the battlefield, Spruance is not lacking in adventurous spirit, but he will only make risky decisions when he feels worthwhile, assured, and without other options that do not require risk, and he will never be blind and will never take unnecessary risks. Halsey, unlike Spruance, would definitely choose the former over the latter if there were two options in front of him, one to risk and the other not to take a risk, and the outcome of the adventure was only a chance to get a bigger win.

To be precise, Halsey is a bit of an adventurer and more of a gambler. Although he was not as well-known as Yamamoto, the commander of the Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet, his adventurous spirit would certainly not be doubted. This actually determines Halsey's basic command ability, and when he has a strong enough fleet against an opponent who is not much different from his own, he will choose to take risks to achieve greater victories.

When Nimitz decided to leave three fleet carriers in the Fifth Fleet, with Spruance commanding a counterattack in the Central Pacific, Halsey was dissatisfied. He also had his own plan a long time ago, if this time the six fleet aircraft carriers and six small aircraft carriers were deployed in the Southwest Pacific Theater, then he could organize at least three aircraft carrier task forces and launch an attack from three directions, when the time came, the Tang Imperial Navy would take care of one or the other, and the strategic counterattack in the Southwest Pacific would definitely be successful, and MacArthur's ground forces could even hit back to the Solomon Islands in one go and drive the Tang Imperial army out of the Southwest Pacific.

In order to make Halsey understand the importance of the Central Pacific Theater, Nimitz approached Halsey to discuss it when he was on his home turf. In the end, Nimitz gave two reasons. Or rather, a reason and a condition persuaded Halsey. The reason for this is that the sea area of the Southwest Pacific Theater is narrow, and it is simply impossible for so many aircraft carriers to operate at the same time. The problems this has caused in command are difficult to solve. And the condition is that Spruance completes the offensive in the Central Pacific. Task Force 51 will immediately move to the Southwest Pacific Theater and threaten the Solomon Islands from the northeast to assist the Southwest Pacific Theater in completing strategic counterattack operations.

Halsey is not an unreasonable person, and he is well aware of his abilities. The Coral Sea is a limited area, making it difficult for six fleet carriers and six small carriers to deploy here. If he divides and enters the waters northeast of the Solomon Islands, then the result will be annihilated by the Tang Imperial Navy one by one.

In addition, Halsey knew that he was not capable of commanding three carrier task forces at the same time, so it was impossible for him to launch a counterattack in both directions at the same time.

Immediately after returning to Port Vila, Halsey began preparations for the arrival of the new fleet, while the Port of Brisbane was actively preparing for it. The first to return to the theater were three repaired South Dakota-class battleships, followed by three Essex-class carriers, six Independence-class small carriers, and four Iowa-class battleships. Three ships "Alaska"

A large cruiser, as well as dozens of other cruisers and destroyers, arrived, and it was Rear Admiral Mitchell of the United States Navy who commanded the fleet.

Halsey left Mitchell in the Third Fleet. He first left three fleet carriers, three large cruisers, and more than twenty other cruisers and destroyers in Port Vila to form the 31st Task Force. personally served as commander of the task force. Mitchell led the other warships to the port of Brisbane, and formed the 32nd Task Force with six small aircraft carriers and more than a dozen escort warships. Seven battleships and more than 20 escort warships formed the 33rd Task Force, with Kincaid as commander.

These preparations were not completed until the 15th, after all, there were many things that needed to be done to reorganize the three task forces, for example, the establishment of the headquarters of the three task forces was an extremely troublesome matter, and Halsey arranged for many staff officers of the Third Fleet, and in the end only a dozen people remained in Port Vila. In addition, the command system of the fleet, the ground communication between the fleets, and the command channels need to be arranged. By this time, the dust had settled on the "Battle of Midway", and the outcome of the naval battle was something Halsey had not expected.

Task Force 2's decisive counterattack crushed Task Force 51, sinking two of the three fleet carriers and wounding one, in other words, Spruance could no longer come to the southwest Pacific to support him, and even the strategic counterattack arranged by Nimitz would be halted because of this. Just when Halsey was about to lose hope, Nimitz sent him a telegram, saying that the counterattack in the Central Pacific would continue, and that Spruance had not been defeated, and the fleet had not been defeated, and asked Halsey to drag the fleet of the Tang Empire as much as possible, and the offensive in the Central Pacific was about to begin, as long as Spruance's counterattack was victorious, it would be a signal for Halsey's attack!

At Nimitz's request, on the night of the 19th, Task Force 31 left Port Vila, followed by Task Force 32 and Task Force 33 from the Port of Brisbane. Halsey would not blindly believe Nimitz's promise, but he would first carry out the orders of the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet, first hold back the Tang Empire task force, create an opportunity for Spruance's Jedi counterattack, and then he will launch an attack and finally decide the outcome of the battle.

One can imagine Halsey's situation at that time. If he fully believed Nimitz, he would have entrusted his fate to Spruance, and if he did not believe Nimitz, it would have led to the complete failure of Spruance's operation. What to do? At this time, Halsey's only option is to believe only half of it, and try to create opportunities for himself while completing Nimitz's task. In other words, Halsey decided to hold back the three task forces of the Tang Empire first, but at the same time, he had to be prepared to take the initiative to attack, if Spruance's counterattack failed, he would immediately start a decisive battle with the Tang Empire's fleet, and if Spruance's counterattack was successful, he would have to do it immediately, so that the Tang Empire's navy would be completely defeated!

Three task forces are hovering in the waters south of the Coral Sea, with Task Force 32 and Task Force 33 to the west, while Task Force 31 has been operating in waters close to New Caledonia. Until the 20th. It was only when the U.S. Marines landed on Wake Island, and the Tang Empire's Second Task Force had reached the waters near Wake Island, that Halsey began to believe it. Nimitz's plan has a good chance of succeeding, and Spruance certainly has a chance to pull off a miracle. At this time.

Halsey made up his mind to take advantage of the success of Spruance's counterattack and the chaos of the Tang Empire's navy to launch a surprise attack, at least one of the Tang Empire's aircraft carrier task forces, and then make the Tang Empire's navy unable to divide the two battlefields. In the end, the Tang Imperial Navy was forced to fully shrink the defense line and create conditions for a comprehensive strategic counterattack by the US military!

After determining this plan, Halsey immediately let the three task forces rendezvous, and looked for an opportunity, and at this time, he already had a rough idea of the deployment of the three task forces of the Tang Empire, and the telegrams sent back by the US Navy submarines played an extremely crucial role. Because these telegrams were sent by long-wave radios, the radio monitoring stations of the Tang Imperial fleet (which could only accept short-wave signals) were not detected. Halsey's chosen target was Task Force 4, which was relatively weak and in a position that was more vulnerable to a surprise attack.

To strike at Task Force 4, Halsey had two options. One is to go north from the central part of the Coral Sea, but there are at least hundreds of long-range reconnaissance planes of the Tang Empire patrolling over this sea area. The two task forces of the Tang Empire also had dozens, if not hundreds, of reconnaissance planes active, and if they wanted to go north smoothly, the hope of suddenly striking at the Fourth Task Force was very slim. It's almost impossible to even do. Halsey is not stupid, he also knows very well that if he is exposed in the central part of the Coral Sea, then the only result is that he will be jointly attacked by the two task forces of the Tang Empire, and in the end he will take out the fourth task force at most, and the bombers of the first task force will make all his aircraft carriers lie on the seabed!

Then, the only option left now is to pass through the reef-covered waters of the Great Barrier Reef, go north along the northeastern part of the Australian mainland, appear to the southwest or west of Task Force 4, and then immediately dispatch bombers to attack Task Force 4. In this way, Task Force 1 was hundreds of nautical miles away, and there was no time to rush over and launch an attack, at most providing part of the air defense support for Task Force 4, and while striking Task Force 4, Halsey could keep the fleet in a safe sea area and use the cover of shore-based fighters to resist the opponent's attack, or rather, he would not be attacked at all. Then concentrate on dealing with the First Task Force, and in the case of strength advantage, even if he fights head-on with the First Task Force, he has a great chance of victory!

But the big question is, how can the fleet safely pass through the waters of the Great Barrier Reef? There is no continuous route in this sea area, where the water depth is more than fifteen meters, at least no one has yet found such a route for large warships, and the seven battleships have the deepest draft of the three task forces. Halsey finally came up with a solution, which was to have Task Force 31 and Task Force 32 advance inside the Great Barrier Reef, using destroyers to explore the way ahead, measure the depth of the channel, and ensure that the battleship did not run aground. Task Force 33 sailed outside the Great Barrier Reef and tried to arrange fighter planes to cover the fleet, and the last two routes of the three task forces met in the eastern waters of Bougainville Reef (a coral reef in the Great Barrier Reef group, which is not a geographical name with Bougainville Island), or let Task Force 33 immediately go north, catch up with the Tang Imperial fleet at night, and settle the battle with giant artillery.

On the night of the 21st, Task Force 33 separated from two other task forces and sailed separately towards the central waters of the Coral Sea, and then Task Force 31 and Task Force 32 entered the waters of the Great Barrier Reef from the southwest of Marion Reef, and three destroyers were at the front of the fleet, taking turns measuring the depth of the channel. Therefore, the speed of the fleet is very slow. In order to avoid the occurrence of grounding on the reef, dozens of warships were lined up in a single column, and the average speed of the fleet was less than 8 knots!

On the night of the 24th, the fleet reached the sea about 20 nautical miles west of Homswa Reef and about 40 nautical miles from Bougainville Reef. Task Force 33 also reached the waters near the Willis Islands, one of the islands in the Great Barrier Reef, under the cover of Army fighters. So far, none of the Tang Empire's reconnaissance planes have discovered the 33rd Task Force, and the Tang Empire's long-range reconnaissance planes were less than 30 nautical miles away from the 33rd Task Force when they were the closest, and then they were driven away by US fighters. Because the fighters of the US Army Aviation have been operating in the skies over the waters of the Great Barrier Reef since May, and they have frequently intercepted the long-range reconnaissance planes of the Tang Empire, this has not attracted attention!

It was also on this night that Halsey received a telegram from Nimitz, the 25th was likely to be the day when Spruance won a decisive victory, and the Tang Imperial Navy was likely to be chaotic on the 25th, if it could seize the opportunity to annihilate an aircraft carrier task force of the Tang Imperial Navy on the 25th, then the counterattack would be more than half successful!

Upon receiving Nimitz's telegram, Halsey immediately began to arrange reconnaissance work, and the last time he received information about Task Force 4 on the 22nd, that Task Force 4 was operating about 80 nautical miles south of Tagura Island and had been wandering in the area for several days. Therefore, when Halsey arranged the reconnaissance plane, this was the focus of the search area, but on the night of the fourth task force had already moved dozens of nautical miles to the south!

The first batch of reconnaissance planes sent by Halsey set off at half past five in the morning, and this batch of reconnaissance planes did not yield anything. The second group of reconnaissance planes set off at 9 o'clock, and this time Halsey expanded the search area of the reconnaissance planes and expanded the search area to the south by 50 nautical miles, but the result was still not any gain. By half past one in the afternoon, when Halsey sent out the third group of reconnaissance planes, he again shifted the search range of the reconnaissance planes to the south by 50 nautical miles. Among these reconnaissance planes, one of them happened to pass over the Fourth Task Force on its way back and sent out the message at half past three.

At this time, Halsey's fleet was about 40 nautical miles northeast of Shak Reef, while Task Force 4 was fifteen degrees south-east, 300 nautical miles, and was still sailing at full speed to the northeast, and this distance continued to expand!