The U.S. submarine that had now joined the First Fleet was quickly sunk by the three that surrounded it. Compared with the destroyers of the US military, the fleet destroyers of the Imperial Navy are not very strong in anti-submarine capabilities, mainly because they lack actual combat training, and most of the destroyers are more often engaged in fleet air defense and air defense alert tasks in combat operations, and there are relatively few battles in which destroyers really use sonar and depth charges to deal with submarines. Thus, the fleet destroyers of the Imperial Navy generally acted together with three destroyers, and not two destroyers against one submarine.

It was not until after 11 o'clock that the destroyers in charge of the anti-submarine patrol on the periphery of the fleet had confirmed that there were no other US submarines, and Tan Renhao ordered the anti-submarine state to be lifted, and at the same time, the fleet began to carry out anti-submarine steering at this time, and the three destroyers responsible for dealing with the US submarines also returned to the formation. But the atmosphere in the fleet did not relax, and all the staff officers knew that the whereabouts of the fleet had been exposed, but the commander of the fleet did not give the order to turn the fleet.

"Tell Task Force 2 and Task Force 3 to step up their anti-submarine patrols, and maybe other U.S. submarines are approaching." Tan Renhao looked at Zhu Rongzhe, "In addition, the fleet is still on its current course, and the fleet must not turn without my order." ”

"But ......"

Tan Renhao waved his hand, not giving Zhu Rongzhe a chance to argue.

Zhu Rongzhe sighed secretly, he also knew what Tan Renhao was thinking at this time. When Tan Renhao turned around and went to the ground. He nodded to the communications staff officer of the fleet, asked the communications staff officer to send a telegram, and at the same time motioned with his eyes to the other staff officers to return to their posts, and stop questioning Tan Renhao's order, at this time, even if Zhu Rongzhe had great doubts and dissatisfaction, he must maintain the authority of the fleet commander, instead of taking the lead in questioning the fleet commander's decision-making.

The commander's cabin fell silent, and Tan Renhao gradually calmed down. The destroyer has already largely judged. The encounter with Task Force 1 was a modified Lesser Shark-class submarine. The submarine approached the fleet in a submersible state, and then raised its periscope about 5 miles from the aircraft carrier "Longganhu" and sent a telegram as fast as it could. The destroyer's radar first spotted the periscope, and then the radio intercepted the telegram sent by the US submarine, but the destroyer still arrived a little late and could not prevent the US submarine from sending the telegram. Aircraft carrier "Longganhu". As well as communications officers on several nearby cruisers, they confirmed that the submarine sent the telegram using the same channel that the U.S. Navy submarine communicated with the base. Moreover, the submarine made an emergency dive only after sending a telegram. At that time, the Imperial Navy did not crack the submarine communication code of the US Navy and could not judge the content of the communication. But Tan Renhao could guess that the aircraft carrier and the large number of warships must have been mentioned in this telegram, which was enough for Spruance to make a new judgment.

At this time, the whereabouts of the First Fleet had been revealed, and according to normal thinking, the fleet should definitely be turned immediately. Evade possible attacks, but Tan Renhao did not do so. He had many reasons not to do this, and these reasons were ignored by Zhu Rongzhe.

First of all. It was still the middle of the night, and there were still several hours before dawn, and even if Spruance could determine the location of the First Fleet based on the submarine's telegram, Spruance could not tell where the First Fleet would appear at dawn. Secondly, the Atlantic Fleet is without night reconnaissance, tracking. and strike capabilities, even if Spruance is near the First Fleet at this time. He was also unable to send bombers, much less to track the First Fleet. Finally, and most importantly, the patrol radius of the US reconnaissance planes is about 400 miles, perhaps a little farther, while the "Reconnaissance Eagle" can easily fly 450 miles away, and if the limitation of communication distance with the fleet is not taken into account, it can fly a little farther. In other words, the First Fleet's reconnaissance aircraft have stronger ground reconnaissance capabilities, and if Spruance wants to sneak attack the First Fleet, it may also be discovered by the First Fleet's ground reconnaissance aircraft.

At this time, Tan Renhao did not regret that the whereabouts of the fleet had been exposed, but regretted that he should not have sunk the US submarine so quickly. When he knew that the whereabouts of the fleet had been exposed, Tan Renhao had an extremely bold idea, that is, to use the First Fleet as a bait, let Spruance take the initiative to attack the First Fleet, and then use the First Fleet's more powerful reconnaissance and strike capabilities to defeat the Atlantic Fleet. It was precisely because of this idea that Tan Renhao did not order the fleet to turn, but continued to move along the original course. If Spruance really wanted to take out the First Fleet first, he should have followed at this time.

Although Tan Renhao didn't say this idea directly, Zhu Rongzhe still guessed it. After working with Tan Renhao for such a long time, Zhu Rongzhe also had an understanding of Tan Renhao's command characteristics. It can be said that Tan Renhao's decision to use the First Fleet to lure Spruance into being fooled at this time was completely in line with Tan Renhao's command strategy. This idea is not only bold, but also adventurous, and more importantly, Tan Renhao is full of confidence in the First Fleet. These three conditions are indispensable, if someone else is changed, he will definitely not make the same decision, but will order the fleet to turn around at the first time, first to avoid danger, and then to consider dealing with the enemy, and Tan Renhao is considering these two issues at the same time.

First of all, consider the issue of evasion, when the fleet could only be avoided in the south, or southwest. If it is scaled to the north, or northeast, it is possible to collide with the Atlantic Fleet, which is not called evasion, but active confrontation. Sailing westward, it will only get closer to the Bahamas and the Greater Andrés Islands, and will be discovered by US shore-based reconnaissance planes after dawn and attacked by US shore-based bombers. Whether it is to the south or to the southwest, it will be close to the Third Fleet, and even if the First Fleet can avoid the attack, it will lead the danger to the Third Fleet, and its whereabouts are not difficult to judge. In other words, the significance of circumvention is not very large, and the role it plays is not very large.

It is precisely because of this that Tan Renhao did not order the fleet to turn. Zhu Rongzhe also thought of this later, so he did not continue to argue with Tan Renhao. And in the case of unsuccessful evasion, the only option is a decisive battle with the Atlantic Fleet. From later Tan Renhao adjusted the reconnaissance deployment, as well as in the second half

Judging from the arrival of the 3rd Task Force and the redeployment of the 1st Task Force and the 2nd Task Force, Tan Renhao was mentally prepared to be beaten first. At that time, the 1st Task Force was in the front, the 2nd Task Force was in the rear, and the 3rd Task Force was in the center, sailing in a column to the southeast. In this case, no matter which direction the Spruance emerges from, it can only strike an aircraft carrier task force first. According to Tan Renhao's arrangement, as long as there is an aircraft carrier task force capable of dispatching bombers, it will be able to destroy the Atlantic Fleet's aviation combat capability, and then let the Third Fleet rush over to assist in annihilating the Atlantic Fleet. Therefore, even if it goes into battle under unfavorable circumstances, the First Fleet still has a relatively good chance of victory.

This is only an extreme case, and according to Tan Renhao's judgment, the probability that the First Fleet will first discover the Atlantic Fleet is more than 50%. At that time, the reconnaissance planes of the First Fleet were already conducting search and reconnaissance in the two most important directions, and as long as the Atlantic Fleet entered from these two directions, the probability of detection was close to one hundred percent. In addition, Spruance could not have appeared in the waters of the Bahamas, otherwise it would have been discovered by reconnaissance planes of the Third Fleet. Judging from the timing of the Atlantic Fleet's departure from Norfolk Harbor, and the fact that it did not move directly south, Spruance could not have appeared to the east of the First Fleet, and he did not have enough time for the fleet to maneuver. That is, in several directions in which Spruance will definitely appear, it will be detected by reconnaissance aircraft of the First Fleet, or the Third Fleet. Thus first exposed.

After Tan Renhao analyzed such a result, in his eyes, the discovery of the fleet by a US submarine was not only not a bad thing, but a good thing. Previously, Spruance must have been hesitating which main fleet to deal with first, and the approximate whereabouts of the Third Fleet had been revealed, and perhaps Spruance would accelerate his southward movement as a result. to deal with the Third Fleet. Now that the exact location of the First Fleet has also been revealed, Spruance will hesitate. If he decides to deal with the First Fleet first, he will have to adjust the fleet's operational arrangements, which will delay a lot of time. In addition, the location where Spruance is located is not necessarily the best position to strike at the First Fleet. Therefore, Spruance also needed to maneuver to a favorable position at night in order to be spotted by the reconnaissance aircraft of the First Fleet.

In other words, after the First Fleet was exposed, Spruance made up his mind, so that Spruance took the initiative to attack the First Fleet. In this way, the threat to the Third Fleet is much smaller, and Tan Renhao does not need to feel guilty about the safety of the Third Fleet and the sacrifice made by Huang Xiaotian. If the First Fleet can seize the opportunity to take out the Atlantic Fleet, it will turn defeat into victory, and thus quickly decide the supremacy of the Atlantic Ocean. Let Han Shaofeng agree to attack the Bahamas first, so as to determine the entire campaign operation. These. are all more beneficial to Tan Renhao. To achieve this, of course. In the end, it was necessary to defeat the Atlantic Fleet and minimize the losses of the First Fleet in battle.

By the early morning of 14 July, Tan Renhao had already adjusted the fleet's reconnaissance forces, and the first batch of reconnaissance planes that had just returned to the aircraft carrier were dispatched again, and at the same time, the reconnaissance planes of the second task force were also fully dispatched. As the reconnaissance planes took off one after another, the fleet's ground aviation service personnel also began to check the status of the bombers and fighters, and the two task forces and the six aircraft carriers landed bombers and fighters to make preparations for departure before dawn.

By three o'clock in the morning. The third task force maneuvered between the two aircraft carrier task forces, at the same time. The 3rd Task Force was also divided into two groups, of which six battleships and eight destroyers, mainly part, joined the 1st Task Force, and two battleships covered one aircraft carrier, strengthening the fleet air defense of the 1st Task Force. A dozen other cruisers, as well as destroyers, all joined the 2nd Task Force, which also strengthened the 2nd Task Force's fleet air defense. In this case, even if Spruance attacked first, it would be a heavy price to defeat the 1st Task Force or the 2nd Task Force, and the anti-aircraft guns on the battleships and cruisers in the 3rd Task Force were by no means ornaments!

After completing the adjustment of the fleet formation, Tan Renhao could only continue to wait. By this time, all the reconnaissance planes in the fleet had been dispatched, and the cruiser was also preparing for the launch. These seaplanes will depart one after another after five o'clock to strengthen their search and reconnaissance capabilities. The range of the newly equipped seaplanes was much longer than before, and the cruisers and battleships were retrofitted with new catapults at the fortress of Gibraltar to meet the needs of the new seaplanes. Although the reconnaissance capabilities of these seaplanes are not as good as those of the "Reconnaissance Eagles", they can also play a certain role in making up for it.

Looking at the battleships "Nanning" and "Guangzhou" sailing on both sides of the aircraft carrier, Tan Renhao's mood gradually calmed down. As early as when the First Fleet was founded, Tan Renhao studied the method of mixing the three task forces. Comparatively speaking, the battleship's anti-aircraft cover capabilities were incomparable to any other battleship. Before, the Navy rarely used battleships to escort aircraft carriers, mainly because there were not enough battleships, and the combat missions of the Third Task Force had always been relatively heavy, and after the existence of large air defense cruisers, no one thought of using expensive battleships to cover aircraft carriers. In order to enable the three task forces to fight in the best way under various circumstances, Tan Renhao spent a lot of time exploring the tactics of fleet formation, and Chang Jianxin was mainly responsible for the relevant training work. Now, this tactic can finally come in handy, but I don't know how much the strength of the covering aircraft carrier has increased after the warships of the third task force have been integrated, and perhaps it will only be confirmed after the arrival of American bombers. Of course, it is better never to confirm this with real combat, and no one wants the fleet to be bombed.

When the sky gradually brightened, Duchen brought breakfast to Tan Renhao, and at the same time did not forget to bring a cup of strong coffee. By this time, Tan Renhao had not rested for nearly two days. The reconnaissance plane still did not send a message, and Tan Renhao did not have any appetite at all. Spruance must have acted, but why didn't the reconnaissance plane find anything?