Spruance's superiors, subordinates, colleagues, and enemies all had the best evaluation of the U.S. Navy's fleet commander during World War II: a prudent fleet commander. There are two explanations for this assessment, one is that Spruance will be very cautious when formulating the fleet battle plan, and the other is that he will be very cautious when directing the fleet to fight. But these explanations forget that Spruance is by no means short of adventurous spirit, and when he determines that he needs to go on an all-or-nothing attack, he absolutely will.

In fact, the adventurous tactics were a common characteristic of the commanders of the aircraft carrier fleet at that time, but the degree of adventurous performance was different among the famous generals. Commanders like Tan Renhao and Halsey are the most adventurous, and if they can also achieve the purpose of the campaign, the two will choose to take risks instead of defending it. Spruance, on the other hand, chose to take risks only when there was no other way to achieve the goal of the campaign, rather than taking the initiative when there was another choice.

This actually also determines the command characteristics of Spruance, who would make very careful, deliberate, comprehensive considerations before making a decision, and then choose the most effective tactics to complete the combat operation. Of course, this also includes risky tactics. When commanding this fleet operation, Spruance chose the adventurous tactic, for the simple reason that it was the most effective tactic to achieve the goal, and at the same time his only option.

After judging that the Tang Empire's 1st Task Force and 2nd Task Force had successfully joined forces before the early hours of the morning, and that they were only 450 nautical miles away from Wake Island, Spruance made an extremely bold decision: the Fifth Fleet went south at full speed and reached the waters southwest of Wake Island. This is not the open sea area that Tan Renhao expected, but the sea area only about 100 nautical miles away from Wake Island!

Before Spruance made this decision, all the staff officers, including Colonel Smith, were opposed to doing so, because it was clearly a death sentence, an active delivery to the enemy. If the enemy's fleet could not be detected in advance, then the Fifth Fleet would be completely finished.

Turner even sent his task force chief of staff. Spruance was asked to revise this battle plan and consider it more carefully.

As always, Spruance would listen to the advice and suggestions of the staff officers, but he would never be influenced by the staff officers, and after he made a decision, he would not easily revise the decision, but would let the staff officers immediately carry out the order, and never give the staff officers any chance to argue.

Spruance made this bold decision with his own ideas and arrangements. After the "Second Battle of the Marianas". Spruance focused on studying the information of the three fleet commanders of the Tang Empire, especially Tan Renhao and Lei Shaoqing, as well as the combat operations they commanded before, and learned that Lei Shaoqing was Tan Renhao's chief of staff before, and the two had a very good cooperation, and Lei Shaoqing's aviation combat thinking was greatly influenced by Tan Renhao.

After studying Tan Renhao's information, Spruance believed that he had learned about the opponent. In all the battles commanded by Tan Renhao before, the spirit of an adventurer is revealed, which is very similar to Halsey. And Spruance knew his old friend well. and the commanding style of the former boss. As long as Halsey is given a chance, even if the whole army is wiped out, he will be crushed to pieces. He will also take risks and take out his opponents before he falls (exactly what Halsey did when he commanded Task Force 16 in the First Battle of the Marianas). Then Tan Renhao is also likely to adopt risky tactics in order to achieve his goal.

Of course, the caution and prudence shown by Tan Renhao and Lei Shaoqing before this also made Spruance a little puzzled, but this was just a doubt, as an excellent commander, it was understandable to judge the opponent's actions carefully and cautiously before the battle started. Spruance, on the other hand, is convinced that as long as Tan Renhao thinks he has seized his chance, then he will resort to risky tactics. And the First Task Force arrived at the battlefield several hours ahead of schedule, which proves that Tan Renhao is already taking risks, proving that Tan Renhao has seen the opportunity, then he will definitely adopt adventurous tactics in the next battle, that is, bombing the US landing ground at dawn, forcing the Fifth Fleet to fight, and then using the remaining half of the strength in his hand to take out the Fifth Fleet.

To achieve this. Tan Renhao will definitely send all the reconnaissance planes to find the Fifth Fleet without hesitation. Prior to this, Tan Renhao's reconnaissance planes were dispatched before dawn for each sneak attack, and then the reconnaissance planes were sent to patrol the predetermined sea area to search for traces of the enemy fleet, and as long as the enemy fleet was caught, bombers were immediately dispatched. This is Tan Renhao's command characteristic, and in Spruance's eyes, this is also a shortcoming of Tan Renhao.

The advantage of sending a reconnaissance plane before dawn is that when the reconnaissance plane arrives at the sea area to be patrolled, the sky is already bright, so that the reconnaissance plane can discover the enemy fleet in the sea area as soon as possible and gain valuable time for the first attack. But in the same way, the disadvantage is that the reconnaissance aircraft will fly most of the previous half of the flight in the dark, and on most of this route, it will be difficult for the reconnaissance aircraft to detect the surface fleet under the cover of *night* (please delete the forbidden book)!

That's what Spruance is going to take advantage of. He made careful analysis and calculations before making a decision. If the Tang Imperial fleet were to bomb the US landing site, it would have shortened the distance to within 300 nautical miles an hour and a half before dawn, and it was more likely to be 250 nautical miles, so that the bombers would have enough fuel to return home. If the Tang fleet had sent reconnaissance planes before the bombers departed, the reconnaissance planes would have flown in the dark about 200 nautical miles in front of them (the reconnaissance planes would have been cruising at a slower speed than the bombers in order to maximize their stay in the air). In order to ensure safety, if the US fleet entered the sea 100 nautical miles south of the landing site before dawn, it would be difficult for the Tang Empire's reconnaissance planes to fly over it, and it would be difficult to spot the warships on the sea that were strictly controlled by lanterns!

In other words, Spruance was to approach the Tang Empire's fleet under the cover of *night* (forbidden books please delete), while avoiding detection by those reconnaissance planes flying nearby, and then send reconnaissance planes to find the specific location of the Tang Empire's naval fleet and attack immediately after dawn.

This plan was indeed risky, and the distance between the two sides was shortened to within 200 nautical miles, both within the absolute strike range of the other side (meaning that the fleet could not leave the range of the bomber's strike after discovering the opponent's reconnaissance plane and then escaping in the best direction at the fastest speed), and who was discovered first. Then whoever finishes first. This is also the reason why other staff officers oppose it, this is almost a half-to-half gamble, the US military does not have any advantage, and the biggest possibility is that both sides will lose. If the U.S. fleet had suffered heavy losses, the result would have been a complete failure of the combat operation to land on Wake Island. The Tang Empire has lost two task forces, and there are still two task forces that can be transferred! It makes no sense for the US military to carry out one-to-one reciprocal attrition.

Spruance saw that half of the victorious hope. He was convinced that his judgment was not wrong, and the fleet of the Don Empire would send all reconnaissance aircraft. And these reconnaissance planes will pass over his head before dawn without detecting him, and in at least two hours, these reconnaissance planes will not return, it is the reconnaissance planes he sent that will reach the sea area where the Tang Empire's fleet is active around dawn, he can immediately organize an attack and kill the Tang Empire's fleet, and the chance of victory is definitely not only half, in Spruance's eyes, he has eighty percent of the victory!

Less than an hour after the departure of the reconnaissance plane of the Tang Empire. Two reconnaissance planes flew over the Fifth Fleet. As Spruance had expected, the two reconnaissance planes did not turn at all and did not emit any radio signals. All the while flying north. For five minutes, all the staff officers of the fleet were sweating, and the pilots of the two reconnaissance planes only had to look down to see the battleships on the sea that were gray by the moonlight (in fact, the chances of finding them were very small, the reconnaissance planes were cruising at an altitude of more than 2,500 meters, and at this altitude, it was difficult to spot a battleship on the sea at night, and most pilots would mistake the battleship for an undulating wave, or a reef. Or a whale ventilating on the surface of the surface).

Immediately after the reconnaissance plane of the Tang Empire passed, Spruance ordered the reconnaissance plane to take off and go to the sea area where he predicted the activities of the naval fleet of the Tang Empire to search for targets. In order to increase the success rate of the search, Spruance sent out 48 reconnaissance planes on four aircraft carriers and more than 20 seaplanes on cruisers to conduct a high-density search within 90 degrees. Among them, the SBD numbered 21 approached Task Force 2 just after dawn and sent a telegram back.

Up until this point, Spruance did nothing wrong. However, he had a slight problem arranging the route of the reconnaissance plane, and at the same time ignored the impact of one of his previous orders. When arranging the search range of the reconnaissance planes, in order to maximize the probability of discovering the Tang Imperial fleet, he set the route interval of the reconnaissance planes to a minimum, and at the same time was worried that the Tang Imperial Fleet would shorten the distance of the landing site to less than 200 nautical miles (at this time, the distance between the two sides was only about 100 nautical miles, and the first batch of US reconnaissance planes to take off flew these 100 nautical miles at night), Spruance also arranged a seaplane on the odd reconnaissance route, and the take-off time of these seaplanes was about half an hour. That is, Spruance arranged intensive reconnaissance, not dragnet reconnaissance! In addition, Spruance ignored the effect of withdrawing the landing fleet and the shelling group (which at this time consisted of only four cruisers and six destroyers) from the landing field.

Spruance's mistake was almost fatal, and the naval battles of this era were actually about who made fewer mistakes and who made no fatal consequences. According to Spruance's reconnaissance arrangement, when the US reconnaissance plane reached the patrol radius, its easternmost reconnaissance plane was already about 25 miles west of the First Task Force, which was rapidly moving eastward, and the visual distance of the reconnaissance plane pilot was within 20 nautical miles (most of the time, reaching 10 nautical miles was quite good). In other words, the reconnaissance range arranged by Spruance did not actually cover the 1st Task Force, which had already begun to be transferred!

Of course, there were many factors that led to this mistake, and in fact, Spruance could not have predicted that Tan Renhao would break away from Task Force 2 at full speed after sensing the danger, let alone that Task Force 1 would not move south, but eastward (Spruance's reconnaissance planes had a search radius of 300 nautical miles, and even if Task Force 1 and Task Force 2 moved south at the same time, they would be discovered). Of course, the top commanders on both sides of the war made mistakes, and this was the only mistake Spruance made.

After receiving the telegram from the reconnaissance plane, Spruance did not hesitate and immediately ordered half of the bombers to take off and immediately go to bomb the second task force. Up to this point, Spruance was still convinced that his tactics were correct, and the other staff officers had begun to trust the commander. The subsequent intelligence from Pearl Harbor proved the location of the Second Task Force, and the radio listening stations set up by the US military on several islands received the radio signals sent by the Second Task Force of the Tang Empire, and the position coincided with the sea area where the reconnaissance plane discovered the Second Task Force (a bit of an afterthought).

The bombers sent by Spruance were sent from two fleets, of which 36 SBDs and 32 TBDs were departed from Task Force 51. and 24 F4Us. The bombers from Task Force 52 took off half an hour late (the time for communication), and there were 36 SBDs, 30 TBDs, and 24 F4Us.

After letting the bombers take off, Spruance immediately prepared the remaining bombers to take off, he did not know the specific location of the first task force and the second task force, so he judged that the first task force might be behind the ass of the second task force, so the reconnaissance aircraft had not yet discovered the first task force, but it would not be long before the first task force was discovered. So Spruance got the rest of the bombers ready to take off, and unbeknownst to him, this order was actually the only way he could save himself!

Now, Spruance began to wait for more news and results reports, of course, he didn't know that Tan Renhao was also calculating him now.