The longer the time dragged on, the more uneasy Spruance became. His reconnaissance plane set off at about 10:40 a.m., and by 11:30 a.m., the reconnaissance plane should have flown nearly 180 nautical miles, and after that, it was very likely to encounter the 1st Task Force at any time.

It was at this time that Spruance felt very restless. Task Force 1 may appear anywhere to the north. In terms of time, Task Force 1 was recently able to appear 80 nautical miles northeast of Nihua Island and almost 200 nautical miles from the Fifth Fleet. As a result, reconnaissance aircraft now have the potential to detect the 1st Task Force at any time. But soon, Spruance calmed down.

The patrol radius of his bombers is 300 nautical miles at the nearest and 350 nautical miles at the farthest, and it will definitely be beneficial to him if time drags on. The strike radius of the carrier-based bombers of the Tang Empire is 300 nautical miles, which is a limit distance, and only in other aspects, such as the relative direction of movement of the two fleets, speed and other conditions reach the requirements, can the carrier-based bombers of the Tang Empire fly to such a distance to drop bombs, and then return to the fleet. If the time drags on, it proves that the 1st Task Force is farther away, and this limits the speed of the opponent's strike, gives the 5th Fleet more time to prepare, and even the 1st Task Force is likely to be unable to attack the 5th Fleet immediately. Of course, this possibility is quite small, after all, the reconnaissance planes of the 1st Task Force generally fly only 300 nautical miles, and do not fly farther.

"General, the report of the reconnaissance aircraft."

"Found Task Force 1?" Spruance was startled and first glanced at his watch. At 11:45 a.m., the reconnaissance aircraft should have been within 200 to 220 nautical miles north of the fleet, which was too close.

"Nope. It was encountered by the bomber group of the Don Empire, and. The staff officer hesitated, "We have lost contact with this reconnaissance plane, probably shot down." ”

Spruance was shocked again. "Did the reconnaissance plane report the specific location, as well as the size and speed of the opponent's fleet. Heading for these? ”

"Here's where it is." Someone had already marked the location of the telegram sent back by the reconnaissance plane on the chart, "but the size of the other side was not mentioned, and the telegram was only half sent." ”

"It's definitely coming towards us." Spruance gritted his teeth, "The enemy bombers will arrive within an hour, immediately let the fighters who need to be refueled return to the aircraft carrier to refuel, and all the fighters will be concentrated to the north of the fleet." In addition......"

The staff officer quickly memorized the commander's order, and when Spruance stopped, he looked over to the commander.

"When will our bombers take off?"

"Within half an hour."

Spruance hesitated. Yes, wait a little longer, maybe the reconnaissance plane will soon find out. Or immediately let the bombers go? If Task Force 1 had been 250 nautical miles away, it would have been possible for his bombers to return to the fleet, and then. If the reconnaissance plane determines the location of the First Task Force, and he is faced with the embarrassing situation of having less than half of the bombers left, it will be difficult to ensure the destruction of the First Task Force, and the bombers sent before will probably not even be able to find the First Task Force.

"Let the bombers go immediately." Spruance only hesitated for half a minute. "1 must take off in less than twenty minutes and go straight north."

"But ......"

"Arrange 24 escort fighters, if you encounter the bomber group of the Tang Empire, don't entangle with the other party, and tell the pilots in the lead that their mission is to deal with the first task force."

Spruance did not give the staff officer any chance to argue at all, "In addition, after the reconnaissance plane sent back the specific information of the first task force, it immediately sent the information to the leading pilot, if the bomber group could not return to the fleet, after completing the attack, all of them would go to Nihua Island to make a forced landing, and there was no need to return to the fleet, perhaps, after returning, there would be no aircraft carrier for them to land." ”

The staff officer glanced at the commander in surprise, did not dare to hesitate any longer, and immediately went to give the order.

Spruance knew very well that his decision was to send more than 200 pilots to the brink of death, but he had no choice now, the Fifth Fleet was a sure thing, and if he couldn't grasp this last chance, then he wouldn't even have a chance to die with the enemy. But at the same time, Spruance also knew very well that the bombers he sent urgently might not be able to threaten the first task force, and he certainly had no chance to arrange for the second batch of bombers to take off.

At 11:58 a.m., ten minutes after Spruance gave the order, the first SBD left the flight deck of the USS Franklin, and at this time, the bomber group led by Qiu Gengbo was less than 170 nautical miles from the Fifth Fleet, and the bombers would reach the skies over the Fifth Fleet in 50 minutes. It wasn't until 12:25 a.m. that Spruance arranged a group of 72 SBDs, 24 76Ds, and 24 F4Us that all took off. Like the Qiu Gengbo group, these bombers and fighters were only in squadrons (equivalent to the size of a Tang Imperial naval squad)

to form a team over the fleet, and then meet again in the middle of the flight, so that the fastest F4U is the last to take off. And by the time the last batch of 12 F4Us left the skies over the fleet, the first batch of 12 SBDs had already flown out about 70 nautical miles. By this time, Qiu Gengbo's fleet had already flown 90 nautical miles south. That is, by the time the last escort fighters of the US military took off, the two sides had already met in the air.

When the news of the battle on the front line arrived, Spruance suddenly came to his senses, and in his desperation, he ignored the question of time. At that time, the group of "Falcons" flying at the forefront of the Qiu Gengbo group attacked the first batch of SBDs without hindrance, and then all the "Falcons" were killed and began to deal with the American bombers. Before the F4U arrived, three squadrons of SBDs had already been routed, more than 20 bombers were shot down, and the other bombers, as well as the squadron bombers that followed closely behind, were also scattered!

"General. Are you going to get our air defense fighters up? ”

"All up, what are you waiting for?" Spruance roared loudly, his voice a little shaky. "Attention, focus on intercepting the opposing bombers. Let's meet our bombers as soon as possible and go find Task Force 1! ”

The air battle was fierce, and the "Falcon", which escorted the bombers, soon discovered the F4U that had killed it. This group of fighters was led by Colonel Yao Boyan, who did not make a fool of himself, after discovering that more and more American fighters were killed. He immediately ordered all the escort fighters to stop attacking the US bombers, and to make every effort to cover the bombers led by Colonel Qiu Gengbo to break through the interception of the US fighters.

At least, Yao Boyan knew very well what their first task was, it was just a "side job" to deal with the American bombers, and their task was to cover the bombers commanded by Qiu Gengbo to kill the Fifth Fleet, so they had to do their best to protect the bombers. In addition, Qiu Gengbo had already called on the radio, asking Yao Boyan and them to come over to cover the bombers immediately.

Although in a short time. The U.S. military lost more than 30 bombers (most of them were SBDs that took off first, and there were only SBDs on small U.S. aircraft carriers, not TBDs). But it also gave the Fifth Fleet valuable time to prepare for air defense, as the first ground fighters (actually escort fighters) encountered the bombers of Task Force 1 about 60 nautical miles from the fleet, more than 20 nautical miles away from the normal maximum air defense interception. That is, the loss of American bombers in exchange for the time of the fleet's air defense preparation.

Spruance was not at all relaxed. Especially when he learned that the other side had about 100 ground fighters, and most of them were bombers, Spruance immediately realized that the Fifth Fleet was finished. Perhaps, more than half of the bombers will be shot down before the bombs are dropped, far exceeding the previous air defense interception efficiency of the American fleet, but there will certainly be many bombers who successfully drop bombs and torpedoes. Then, when he learned that the bombers of the Tang Empire began to disperse and assault, he immediately understood that this was only the first wave of strikes, and the task of this batch of bombers was to paralyze the four aircraft carriers and make the Fifth Fleet lose its strike capability, and then the second batch of bombers would arrive and completely kill the Fifth Fleet!

The bombers of the Tang Empire attacked very quickly, and they quickly dispersed into small squads and began to assault from several directions at the same time, and the US fighters could not take care of them at all, and this was due to the problem of the quality of the US pilots and the problem of the Fifth Fleet's air defense command.

"General, a telegram from Kauai, their reconnaissance plane has spotted Task Force 1!"

Spruance was stunned for a moment, then immediately came to his senses, and then took the telegram. This was sent from the Air Force Command on Kauai, and a long-range reconnaissance plane that took off at half past eight spotted a large fleet in the waters northeast of Nihua Island, and it was determined that there were aircraft carriers in the fleet and that bombers were taking off one after another. By the time Spruance finished reading the telegram, the staff officers had already marked the exact location of Task Force 1 on the chart. He immediately walked over, and then found that the First Task Force was about 270 nautical miles away from the Fifth Fleet, and it was sailing south at full speed, which was already within the maximum strike radius of American bombers.

"Are you sure there's a bomber taking off?"

The staff officer nodded. "Absolutely sure, and it shouldn't be too small."

Spruance picked up the telegram again, could it be that Tan Renhao was an hour late in sending the second batch of bombers? But he thought about it for a moment, Task Force 1 had bombed the supply fleet before, and perhaps, their bombers had just rushed back.

"General, the report of the reconnaissance aircraft, the discovery of the 1st Task Force, as in the previous report, is in the same sea area."

Spruance immediately turned around and looked at the staff officer who was reporting the situation.

"However, we have lost contact with this reconnaissance aircraft."

At this time, Spruance did not have any doubts, it must be the first task force, only fighters can shoot down reconnaissance planes, and the information provided by the Kauai Air Force is completely correct.

But the problem is that the news came too late, if it had been an hour earlier, even if it was half an hour, Spruance could have sent all the bombers, but now, the bombers of Task Force 1 had flown over, and it was too late.

Perhaps, Spruance's mood at this time can be described as complaining. After receiving the news, the air force on Kauai wanted to prepare the reconnaissance plane for departure, so its long-range reconnaissance plane was not able to take off at the first opportunity. And he himself was delayed for half an hour before, so the reconnaissance plane of the Fifth Fleet left half an hour late. If the Kauai side could have let the reconnaissance plane leave half an hour earlier, or Spruance had been able to let his reconnaissance plane take off half an hour earlier, perhaps, the result would have changed completely, at least, he would have enough time to arrange for the second batch of bombers to depart, but now it is like this, the second batch of dozens of bombers are all left on the aircraft carrier, and they cannot take off at all.

The brutality of the decisive battle of the aircraft carrier was completely demonstrated at this time, and for half an hour, Spruance missed the opportunity to attack first and use all his strength, and the Fifth Fleet had to suffer a fierce blow from the other side. And what the final decision in the half hour may not only be the fate of the Fifth Fleet, but even the fate of the US Navy, the direction of the Central Pacific Theater, the direction of the Pacific War, and even the entire global war will have a huge and far-reaching impact.

At this moment, Spruance felt hopelessness, and he was completely hopeless. Half an hour undid all his efforts in these days, months, and even a year.

Spruance lost not only the battle, but also the confidence, and he knew that he had lost at the hands of the opponent he had always valued and feared the most. It's only half an hour, and if he can, he's willing to exchange half of his life for this half an hour, but at this time, I'm afraid even God can't save the Fifth Fleet!

"General, the Independence has been shot!"

Spruance turned his head numbly, he didn't know what to do, what else could he do? What else can he do under siege from dozens of bombers?

"Be careful, enemy planes are diving!"

Spruance felt someone push him to the floor, and the carrier shook.

He briefly lost consciousness, and by the time he got up from the floor, the bridge of the Commander's ship was covered in smoke. Then he arrived, and someone grabbed his arm.

"Send the general to the cruiser, and the officers of the fleet command immediately retreat......"