The U.S. troops who landed on Wake Island had four infantry regiments, three engineer battalions, and two light artillery battalions (mainly equipped with mortars), with nearly 10,000 officers and men. According to Spruance's arrangement, this group of US troops had two tasks, one was to capture the 6th Deng, prepare for the follow-up troops to ascend the 6th, and establish a bridgehead position. The second is to attract the Tang Imperial fleet to come and provide an opportunity for the task force to annihilate the Tang Imperial fleet. The latter task was a little more important, but Spruance didn't tell the officers and soldiers that their job was to be the bait.

Nearly 10,000 American GIs were kept in the dark, and they completed the latter task very well, and indeed attracted the bombers of the Tang Empire. In the previous task, they did not do very well, the Tang Empire 6 Squadron held on Wake Island has nearly 10,000 officers and soldiers, and there are a large number of artillery, strong fortifications, dense defensive positions, and tenacious will to fight, it is difficult for the US troops on the 6th to expand the beachhead without the support of bombers. At the time of the fierce battle between the two fleets, the American army was still confined to less than three square kilometers of beach, and they had no basis to rely on to defend themselves, except for the dense strength of their troops and the construction of two improvised defensive lines.

On the first night of the naval battle, the 6th Fleet and the artillery formation left, in order not to shake the morale of the army, no one told the accurate news to the US officers and men, many people also thought that the 6th Fleet was to receive reinforcements, and the artillery formation was to replenish the shells, and not a single American soldier on Wake Island thought that they were about to be abandoned, and the nearest island controlled by the US military was still more than a thousand nautical miles away, and they were abandoned on an island with nearly 10,000 enemies who dreamed of killing them. On an island where there is no hope.

Before dawn, when the Tang Empire's reconnaissance planes 6 appeared in the vicinity of Deng6 Field one after another, some officers and men already felt that something was wrong, the airfield on Wake Island had been destroyed, and the shelling formation had also carried out an artillery bombardment of the airfield and the seaplane mooring point before leaving, and these planes did not take off from Wake Island. So, where did these planes come from? At dawn, before most of the American troops got up, they were awakened by the roar of bombers. When they watched hundreds of bombers roaring towards them, they initially thought it was their bomber, but when they saw the shape of the bomber and the bomber's marking, they immediately appeared. That's not their bomber, it's the enemy's bomber.

This wave of bombing did not kill many US officers and men, but it dealt a serious blow to the morale and fighting spirit of the US troops. All morning, the American commander managed to get in touch with the fleet, but he did not receive a single telegram. Eventually, the U.S. commodore telegraphed to Midway and Pearl Harbor, asking where the Fifth Fleet was and asking for support, at least a handful of artillery, so that they could attack without the support of the fleet. Until this time.

The commander of the US Deng-6 unit still did not think of it. Their Deng-6 operation was actually over, and now it was not artillery that was wanted, but transports. They will not go on the offensive, but flee for their lives.

It was not until noon that the U.S. brigadier general received a telegram from Spruance: the Deng 6 operation was canceled, the Deng 6 fleet would take them back to Midway Island at night, and if it was confirmed that they could not evacuate Wake Island and were unable to continue the battle with the Tang Army, they could choose to surrender.

Now the situation is clear, although Spruance did not mention the situation of the Fifth Fleet in the telegram (and Spruance did not need to mention the situation of the fleet to a commodore of the 6th Fleet), but the Fifth Fleet must be finished, otherwise Spruance would not give up the combat operation of landing on 6th Wick Island. The capture of Wake Island is the general goal of this campaign, and since even the general goal has been abandoned, the secondary goal of the campaign, that is, the task of annihilating the Tang Empire's task force, will definitely fail.

Also in order to stabilize the morale of the army, the brigadier general did not immediately disseminate information, but still deployed the defense according to the previous situation, and at the same time evacuated the wounded to the beach. According to the U.S. military's orders, when retreating, the wounded were the first to be sent away. And then it was the turn of the other officers and soldiers. But it is necessary to prepare for retreat, so how can we adjust the deployment without making the officers and men suspicious? That's a tricky question.

When the U.S. troops were busy deploying, the Deng-6 Fleet, which retreated north at night, began to return, and it was not very fast, they could not go to Wake Island during the day, it was too dangerous, and the bombers of the Tang Empire could easily destroy the Deng-6 ships that had almost no defense. At the same time, to the south and southeast of Wake Island, a large number of Tang Empire warships were also approaching Wake Island, preparing to intercept the US convoy and trap the thousands of US 6 warplanes on Wake Island.

Tan Renhao returned to the command cabin in the evening, and more than a dozen warships had gathered around the "Li Jing," all of which were escort warships of the First Task Force. Except for the four destroyers that covered the return of the "Xingkaihu" to Guam, the two destroyers that were still searching for officers and men who had fallen into the water in the operational waters of the First Task Force, and the cruiser "Baoding River" that had been sunk, all the other warships gathered and followed the "Li Jing" to the battlefield on Wake Island.

"The search and rescue pilots were largely completed, more than a hundred pilots were found. The U.S. troops retreated too quickly to pick up our pilots. Also", Hao Dongjue has been insisting in the command cabin, "I found Zhang Zhitao." ”

"How's he doing, is he seriously injured?" Tan Renhao took the teacup handed by a staff officer next to him.

"Hurt? No, he was not injured, or rather internally wounded. ”

"Internal injuries? Bleeding in the body? Tan Renhao was a little puzzled, but it was normal for internal organs to be injured due to distance vibration during the battle.

"He's bleeding heavily from his stomach, and when he finds him, he's almost finished, and now he's been sent to Wake Island, ready to send him back to Guam tomorrow in the first batch."

Tan Renhao didn't think too much about it. "What about the rest?"

"The reconnaissance planes have already been dispatched, and the US 6th Fleet is about 12o nautical miles northeast of Wake Island, but the aviation ammunition stored on Wake Island has been blown up by the US military, and it is too late for the bombers to bomb the US 6th Fleet before dark." Hao Dongjue followed Tan Renhao to the chart table, and the location of the U.S. 6th Fleet had been marked on the chart, "According to our analysis, Spruance must have sent the 6th Fleet to pick up the U.S. troops stranded on the island, and the time when this fleet arrived on Wake Island was about ten o'clock in the evening." ”

"There is no shelling fleet of the current American army?" Tan Renhao looked at it for a while, and now there was only one symbol of the US fleet on the chart.

"Nope. Perhaps because the reconnaissance planes did not search for a sufficient area, they did not find the US artillery fleet, but one thing is certain: there were no US heavy warships within a few dozen nautical miles of the 6th Fleet. ”

Tan Renhao glanced at his partner, Hao Dongjue was still flawed in navigation operations, why did he say this clearly?

"There are several destroyers in the 6 fleet, but there are not many of them, and they all belong to those destroyers that used to only perform escort missions." Hao Dongjue shrugged his shoulders. "Spruance may have fled back to Midway with his large battleship."

Tan Renhao pondered for a while, then nodded slightly. "It's a possibility, but we still have to be on guard, Spruance isn't the kind of person who gives up easily."

"If he knew we still had an aircraft carrier and hundreds of bombers, he would have to give up?"

Hearing Hao Dongjue say this, Tan Renhao also felt that Spruance might lead the main battleship back to Midway Island first, after all, the strike power of an aircraft carrier and hundreds of bombers should not be underestimated, even if Spruance still had two battleships in his hand, as well as dozens of cruisers and destroyers. He also didn't have the capital to fight with 1oo bombers. It would have taken several hours just to load the officers and men of the US 6th Squadron on the island and board the 6th ship. And before dawn, they could not escape far, and as a result, they were overtaken by bombers sent by the aircraft carrier. And then it's completely finished.

"I'm ready to deploy."

"Deployment?" Tan Renhao glanced at his partner in surprise.

"Deployment of tonight's operation, I let ......"

"This is the deployment you made?" Tan Renhao was even more surprised, as far as he knew, this kind of artillery battle was done by himself, and Hao Dongjue would hardly interfere in the artillery battle.

"yes, is there anyone else who is going to help me but me now?" Hao Dongjue laughed, "I put eight destroyers in front of the right, and if the US military boards six ships and goes south, these destroyers will carry out a torpedo attack first." The cruisers formed an artillery formation southeast of the U.S. 6th Fleet, and the other destroyers bypassed around the west of Wake Island, and finally closed the door and beat the dogs, so as long as the U.S. 6th Fleet came, it was guaranteed that none of them would slip away. ”

Watching Hao Dongjue mark the route of action of the three formations on the chart, Tan Renhao immediately laughed, it seems that Hao Dongjue, this kid, is also trying to master the basic ground naval battle tactics, before. He does not care about this kind of combat operations, believing that as long as the bombers arrive, all problems will be solved, but in fact, in many cases, it is not the bombers that can completely solve the problem, and the artillery still has the value of artillery.

"Well, if there is a problem, I will correct it immediately."

"Pay attention to the degree of this formation that is detouring to the west, and the time of arrival, arrange the communication and contact methods, and don't fight your own people when the time comes."

Hao Dongjue hesitated for a moment, and then immediately made a note of this. "Any other questions?"

"Also, pay attention to liaising with the warships of the Second Task Force, determine the rendezvous time, and the communication channel. There's nothing else, and for those two things, your plan is pretty good. Tan Renhao patted his partner's shoulder, "Just learn slowly and pay attention to the details." ”

Hao Dongjue laughed awkwardly, he also knew that Tan Renhao wanted him to have the opportunity to become the commander of the fleet, and if he wanted to become the commander of the task force, he must have a certain knowledge of artillery warfare.

Huang Xiaotian was also born in the air force, and when he went to serve as the chief of staff of the Fourth Task Force, he entered the formation class, and spent half a month gnawing at the theory of fleet operations, otherwise how could he have a chance to become a commander.

"How is the situation of the officers and men of the 'Daihai'?" Tan Renhao opened the topic.

"It's all salvaged, and there are a lot of casualties." At this time, Hao Dongjue's expression darkened, and he took out a cigarette, "There are only more than 4oo officers and soldiers rescued, and most of the officers and soldiers were rescuing the aircraft carrier at that time, no one would have thought that the oil and gas leakage in the pipeline was detonated by high temperature, and the aircraft carrier sank within five minutes, and many people had no chance to escape at all." More than a hundred corpses were recovered, and the rest sank along with the battleship. ”

Tan Renhao's expression also sank, he wanted to smoke a cigarette, but finally held back.

"But there's good news." Hao Dongjue also changed the topic, "The wound of the 'Xingkai Lake' is not very serious, it only takes more than ten days to repair, most of the required spare parts are readily available in the rear, and the aircraft carrier will go to Naha Port for overhaul after returning to Guam for simple repairs, and the required spare parts will also be delivered to Naha Port in time, at least, we still have an aircraft carrier, right?" ”

"That's good news." Tan Renhao stood up, "When are we going to arrive at Wake Island?" ”

"It's about half past eight, and it's expected to meet with the warships of the Second Task Force at about eight o'clock, and I heard that Lao Lei and they will also come with the 'Eldest Sun Wuji'." Hao Dongjue smiled reluctantly, "I'll go and contact them and prepare for the night battle." ”

When Hao Dongjue was busy, Tan Renhao came to the outside of the command cabin. The sky had already darkened, and the battle with the US army was only more than ten hours, but after these ten hours, he felt as if more than ten days had passed, or even months. In the past, more than ten hours, maybe even the warm-up before the battle was not enough.

In the era of sails, it was normal for the two sides to chase for several days before the official battle broke out, while in the dreadnought era, it took more than ten hours to grab a position before the artillery battle began. Now the pace of naval warfare has been much quicker, and in the battles between aircraft carriers, there are actually not many factors for grabbing positions and chasing, and almost all of them are encounters, and as long as the reconnaissance planes find the enemy's position, then the battle will immediately explode, and the victory or defeat will be decided in a few hours at most. High-paced naval battles are more demanding on commanders, and if the response is slow, sometimes even if it is ten minutes slower, the consequences are not conceivable.

High-paced combat is a major feature of the decisive battle of aircraft carriers, and this is also the inevitable trend of naval warfare, which requires the commander's accurate judgment, when Tan Renhao calmed down, he was even glad that he was able to make a quick decision at a critical moment, perhaps this is also a key factor in victory.