After receiving a telegram from Admiral King and learning of the activities of the Tang Li fleet in the southeast of the Bahamas, Spruance was a little skeptical, and the main problem was that this fleet had been operating in the waters southeast of the Bahamas and had not moved the area of activity for several days. If the commanders of the opposing side had taken into account the threat of the Atlantic Fleet, then they would not have been so careless.

At that time, a total of six reconnaissance planes sent back reports, and in the end only three reconnaissance planes returned to the base, and the other three reconnaissance planes lost contact with the base. Spruance first marked on the charts the exact locations of the encounters with enemy fighters reported by the three reconnaissance planes returning to base, and then marked the positions of the other three reconnaissance planes when they lost contact with the base. With these six points, Spruance identified two circle centers. At this point, Spruance roughly judged that if the patrol radius of the air defense fighters of the main fleet of the Tang Empire was the same in all directions, then the place where the two circles were located should be the sea area where the fleet of the Tang Empire was located. And the center of these two circles is quite close, that is, the approximate location of the fleet of the Tang Empire can already be deduced from this.

If the adversary wants to use this to lure the Atlantic Fleet into being fooled, then it is the Third Fleet, not the First Fleet, which bombed the Bahamas before, and the First Fleet did not participate in the bombing operations. At this time, the Atlantic Fleet was in the direction of 25 degrees of the Third Fleet, about 700 miles away from the Third Fleet. Spruance did not immediately let the fleet kill him. He was still worried that the First Fleet was lying in ambush somewhere to the south, and that it could strike a fatal blow to the Atlantic Fleet at any time, and if he went directly south at this time, he would undoubtedly run into the muzzle of the First Fleet.

When this judgment was made, it was already the night of the thirteenth, that is, at this time, the First Fleet led by Tan Renhao was approaching the Third Fleet, a few hours later. The First Fleet encountered the American submarine. Spruance received a telegram from the command of the Atlantic Fleet just before dawn on the 14th that the submarine had discovered another fleet of the Don Empire. At this point, Spruance was almost certain that the two main fleets of the Tang Empire were indeed covering and cooperating with each other. The problem was that the Third Fleet was less than 200 nautical miles away from the First Fleet at the time, and Spruance did not judge who was covering from that. This is because the US reconnaissance planes were approaching the First Fleet, and the submarine was found only in a huge fleet that has always had aircraft carriers, and there was no accurate report on which fleet it was, and it was impossible for the submarine to determine the number of the fleet in the sudden contact.

Spruance's judgment was confirmed, but it was still a difficult puzzle to solve. First of all, Spruance could not judge the specifics of the two fleets that were exposed one after another, that is, it was not known which one was the First Fleet and which was the Second Fleet. Secondly, Spruance was not able to judge the cooperation of the two fleets based on these two pieces of intelligence. Is it the south covering the north, or the north covering the south? Or rather. The two fleets have been operating crosswise, covering each other. Otherwise, how could the pilots of the Third and First Fleets be captured at the same time? In the end, the whereabouts of the two fleets were practically uncertain, the reconnaissance aircraft were not able to fly over the fleet, and the submarines quickly lost contact with the rear. Although these two fleets had been exposed, Spruance had received the information for several hours, or even more than a dozen hours, and he could not get the Atlantic Fleet to attack based on these two pieces of information. And when he reached the attack position, he had to find the whereabouts of these two fleets again.

Arguably. At that time, Spruance received information that made the situation of the battle gradually clear, but at the same time, it also made the situation more ambiguous. What he was most worried about was that the two main fleets of the Tang Imperial Navy crossed cover, so that he could not guarantee that the attack would be on the Third Fleet, not the First Fleet. There is no guarantee that the attack will be used as a cover, not as a decoy. If the timing of the attack, as well as the wrong target, will cause irreparable damage. The Tang Imperial Navy could bear the losses, as long as the Atlantic Fleet was killed, even if it lost a main fleet, the Tang Imperial Navy would still be able to ensure sea supremacy. On the contrary, the US Navy cannot afford to lose, a new batch of warships will not be commissioned until the beginning of next year, and more time will be needed to replenish the lost fleet officers and men. As long as the Atlantic Fleet misses something, then the US Navy will lose its naval supremacy in the North Atlantic and lose the last line of defense to defend its homeland, thus completely losing this war without even the slightest suspense. In this case, Spruance can only act more cautiously and without any mistakes.

In this case, Spruance would not have been able to adopt a strategy of aggressive entry. As long as he still has a little doubt in his heart, he will not easily launch an attack, let alone enter the dangerous sea area easily. That is, on the morning of the 14th, Spruance ordered the speed of the fleet to be reduced to 14 knots, which was 2 lower than the economic cruising speed of the fleet. Subsequently, he ordered the fleet to turn to the 300 course. That is, Spruance abandoned the idea of going south and instead headed in the direction of the northern Bahamas, that is, Jacksonville, Florida.

It is clear that Spruance's decision was to temporarily avoid the main fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy and avoid premature confrontation with the enemy. Spruance did not report this situation to Admiral King, according to his combat style, as long as the fleet left the base, he would not easily take the initiative to contact the rear, and he would not think too much about the orders of the rear. At that time, the Atlantic Fleet was still in radio silence, Spruance emphasized that the fleet could never send a telegram without his orders, and he did not explain to the staff officer what the purpose of steering and shifting was, and Spruance thought there was no reason for him, the actual commander of the fleet, to explain these issues to the staff officer. But Spruance ignored one point, that is, the staff officers of the Atlantic Fleet Command were not his original members of the Fifth Fleet, many of them were directly arranged by Admiral King, and had been under the leadership of Admiral King, and they had only been transferred to Spruance's leadership for a short time, and they were not familiar with Spruance's command style at all, and they were not very familiar with the chief of the general staff who was transferred from the Pacific Fleet, could they accurately understand Spruance's intentions?

to the fourteenth day and night

The Atlantic Fleet has reached about 150 miles north of Grand Abaco▊|The Atlantic Fleet has reached about 150 miles north of Grand Abaco▊|The Atlantic Fleet has reached about 150 miles north of Grand Abaco▊|The Atlantic Fleet has reached about 150 miles north of Grand Abaco▊|The Atlantic Fleet has reached about 150 miles north of Grand Abaco, and the mainland is no more than 200 miles. At this time, Spruance ordered the fleet to turn southward, preparing to pass through the Florida Strait west of the Grand Islands in the northern Bahamas, enter the waters of the Bahamas, and then wait for the plane to turn around, after all, the main fleet of the Tang Empire operating in the southeast of the islands. In other words, Spruance returned to the route predicted by Tan Renhao, although its purpose was not to enter the Gulf of Mexico through the Florida Strait, but it was still taking the Florida Strait route. At this time, the First Fleet had already left the initial mobile standby area, and it was impossible to arrange reconnaissance planes to continue to monitor the Florida Strait.

When Spruance made this decision, he was probably the only one who really understood the purpose and significance of doing so, and all the staff officers in the Atlantic Fleet at that time were doubting Spruance's decision, and some were even doubting Spruance's ability. The suspicions of these staff officers were not unfounded.

After leaving Norfolk Naval Harbor, the Atlantic Fleet has been wandering outside the battlefield, going back and forth, but it has not entered the battlefield. And those staff officers who have always hoped for an early decisive battle with the enemy fleet and victory as soon as possible must be seriously puzzled and suspicious of this. If Spruance had been waiting for an opportunity, it had already arrived on the morning of the 13th and 14th, and in the opinion of many, having known the approximate position of the enemy fleet, there was no reason to continue wandering outside the battlefield. When Spruance ordered the fleet to sail northwest. Some staff officers objected, but Spruance did not explain it to the staff officers. Then, when Spruance ordered the fleet to go south, more staff officers began to doubt his decision.

At that time, several senior staff officers had already raised questions that the fleet's decision to sail south in the waters of the Bahamas was wrong, which would expose the fleet to a frontal attack from the enemy fleet, and it would be difficult to defeat two enemy fleets at the same time, but Spruance did not give a reasonable explanation. No explanation was even given, just that the staff officer continued to obey his orders, instead of questioning the commander's decision-making. At this time, Spruance did not realize that there was something wrong with his staff team. In fact, this was also a serious problem when Spruance commanded the fleet in battle. At the time of the Fifth Fleet. He seldom explained his combat intentions to the staff officers, and his only requirement was to obey his orders. If he is the commander of the Atlantic Fleet at this time, then there is naturally no problem, after all, the US military also has strict military discipline, and subordinates must unconditionally obey the commander's decision-making. But the problem is that Spruance is only the chief of staff of the Atlantic Fleet, and the senior staff of the fleet is directly accountable to Admiral King, not to Spruance. In this case, several senior staff officers had the right to report the situation to Admiral King, and not blindly obey the command of the chief of the general staff.

On the evening of the 14th. Just as Spruance was on his way to rest, several of the main staff officers gathered. They all questioned Spruance's ability to make decisions. What puzzled them the most was why the fleet had to go around a *** and then return to the waters of the Bahamas. Rather than leaving Norfolk and heading straight south. As a result, not to mention the delay of several days, and the fuel of some warships in the fleet, especially the destroyers, has been consumed a lot, the ability to sustain combat has been affected, and the energy of the officers and men has also been reduced. What's more, the enemy fleet operates in the southeastern waters of the archipelago, if it goes south directly from the archipelago waters. Isn't that the initiative to run into the muzzle of the enemy's gun?

Spruance was unaware of this secret discussion among the staff officers. He was still the same as he had been when he commanded the Fifth Fleet. In directing the fleet to fight according to his own routine, he paid little attention to the reaction of the staff officers. That night, after discussion, the staff officers all agreed that the situation should be reported to Admiral King, and at least the fleet commander should know what the fleet was doing now, and as for whether Admiral King would continue to support Spruance or turn to support the General Staff, the answer would only be available after the situation was reported. However, at that time, the communications staff officer in charge of the fleet's liaison with the outside world did not agree to immediately break the radio silence, but thought that the next decision of the chief of the general staff should be observed. It was this that the Atlantic Fleet did not send a telegram that night.

Because the discussion was conducted behind Spruance's back, there were only a few staff officers involved, and they all said that they would keep it absolutely confidential. So, when Spruance returned to his position as fleet commander on the morning of the 15th, he had no idea what had happened last night. By this time, the Atlantic Fleet had reached the sea where the Northwest Strait of Providence meets the Strait of Florida. Spruance's first order in the morning was to let the fleet enter the Northwest Strait of Providence and then watch south in the eastern strait of Andros. When the staff officer began to change shifts, Spruance issued another order, asking one of the seaplanes in the fleet to bring the latest activities of the fleet to Miami, and asked the US shore-based air forces deployed in Florida and Cuba to make preparations to cover the fleet, and at the same time to dispatch more reconnaissance planes to search the waters southeast of the Bahamas, and strive to find the main fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy before dawn on the 16th. At that time, the staff officers who were preparing for the "rebellion" at night were replaced and rested, so they did not know that Spruance had actually reported the situation of the fleet to Admiral King.

By this time, Spruance's campaign intentions were quite obvious. He first judged that the main fleet of the Tang Empire would still operate in the waters southeast of the Bahamas, and then believed that the adversary would focus on monitoring the northeast, perhaps taking care of both the north and the east, but would not continue to focus on the waters of the Bahamas. Based on these two judgments, Spruance decided to let the fleet use the islands in the archipelago as a cover, take the opportunity to approach the main fleet of the Tang Empire, and then attack. When the time comes, if the fleet is exposed, it can also be covered by shore-based fighters, and at the same time it can coordinate with shore-based bombers to attack. In this way, the fleet can be attacked, retreated and defended, and no matter how bad it is, it can successfully retreat without risking it on the ocean. But Spruance always ignored the fact that the fleet staff officers were already quite dissatisfied with him.