Task Force 52 under Turner's command was not out of the fight, and after arguing with Mitchell, Mitchell made concessions, and Turner made concessions. The 52nd Task Force would still follow Mitchell south, but Turner did not take Mitchell's route, he decided to sail east first, as far away from the dangerous sea as possible, and let Mitchell explore the way, and only after making sure that the main fleet of the Tang Empire had left, he went south.

Turner did not forget Spruance's advice when he left, and his basic point of view was the same as Spruance's, the Fifth Fleet at this time was not the opponent of the main fleet of the Tang Empire, and it was an irrational decision to rashly fight the enemy. But even Spruance is gone, so what can Turner do? He could only do as much as possible to preserve Task Force 52 within his purview, and try to keep Task Force 52 out of danger.

Before dawn, Turner had the fleet's reconnaissance planes set off. At this time, the 52nd Task Force was the worst of the three task forces of the Fifth Fleet, and in fact, from the time the Fifth Fleet was restored to the Third Task Force, the 52nd Task Force was the worst task force.

When Spruance reorganized the Fifth Fleet, the 52nd Task Force received the most recruits, especially in the air force, and the proportion of novices was close to eighty percent, and almost all the elites at that time were concentrated in the 51st Task Force. In the ensuing combat operations, Task Force 52 also suffered the greatest losses, from Nihua Island to Wake Island to Midway, Task Force 52 changed nearly a quarter of its pilots, and the proportion of novices increased considerably. After completing the bombing of Midway, Task Force 52 also dispatched more than 20 bombers to Task Force 51. At present, Turner actually has only about seventy percent of the combat capability of the air in his hands, and every air brigade is understaffed, and some even lack nearly half of the fighters. This is also the reason why Turner insisted on avoiding the war, the quality of the fleet's aviation was not high in the first place, and now there is a serious shortage of personnel, so how can it fight a decisive battle with the enemy?

According to the plan. The reconnaissance planes of the 52nd Task Force flew in the east and southeast directions, and the reconnaissance work in the south of the fleet was carried out by Mitchell's task force. Turner also didn't have enough reconnaissance planes to use to strengthen reconnaissance operations to the south, but he didn't know that the Tang Empire's task force was about 400 nautical miles south of him, and the distance was rapidly decreasing. By half-past seven, when Mitchell's whereabouts were discovered, Turner was about 370 nautical miles away from Task Force 1. The reconnaissance planes of Task Force 1 flew almost past him, and he didn't know it. It wasn't until he received Mitchell's message that he suddenly reacted, the main fleet of the Tang Empire did not leave, and had been active on the battlefield all the time, and now Mitchell has been exposed!

At 7:45 a.m., the air defense fighters of the 52nd Task Force took to the skies, and Turner's first thought was not to find the enemy, but to strengthen his own defenses. At the same time, he also ordered the radar to be activated, but the US military's radar needs at least fifteen minutes to warm up. It's past eight o'clock. There are already at least two groups of fighters patrolling around the fleet. And the radar on the cruiser was also activated. Turner's luck was indeed good, just ten minutes earlier, the reconnaissance planes of Task Force 1 had reached the maximum patrol radius. And if these reconnaissance planes can search for five more minutes, it is very likely that they will encounter the US air defense fighters and thus discover the 52nd task force!

The second time Turner received a telegram from Mitchell was when Task Force 53's reconnaissance planes found Task Force 2, but Turner immediately discovered that Task Force 2 was nearly 400 nautical miles away from him, and it was obvious that he could not immediately dispatch bombers to attack Task Force 2. He had three options, one was to leave the battlefield, and the other was to go to Mitchell's aid. The third is to go south, and two hours later dispatch bombers to strike at the enemy's task force.

Escape is obviously impossible, Mitchell has already sent a telegram, if Turner is out of battle at this time, although he can save the 52nd task force, but he will also fall into the crime of desertion, and eventually he will be court-martialed, and it is definitely a felony to escape.

It was too late to go to Mitchell's aid, and Task Force 52 was not close to Task Force 53. Otherwise, it would have been exposed a long time ago. Even if Turner had sent fighter jets immediately, it would have been impossible to get to Task Force 53 before enemy bombers. What's more, Mitchell didn't let him go to support, and the 52nd Task Force was also sailing in dangerous seas, which could be exposed at any time, if the fighters were sent out, then what would he do when the bombers of the Tang Empire arrived?

Turner had no choice but to go south to attack the Tang Empire's task force, and he did. At eight o'clock and 5:00, ten minutes after Turner had just received the second telegram from Mitchell, he ordered the fleet to turn around, approaching the Tang Empire task force, and asked the bombers to prepare for takeoff, and as soon as they reached the attack distance, they would be dispatched immediately. But things turned much faster than Turner had expected.

At 8:50 a.m., as the 52nd Task Force was rapidly moving south, the bombers loaded with fuel and loaded with bombs and torpedoes were successively brought to the flight deck, and while the aviation operations staff was relaying the battle order to the pilots, Mitchell's third telegram arrived. At this point, Turner was dumbfounded.

Mitchell's reconnaissance plane discovered another task force, and this task force was less than 330 nautical miles away from the 52nd task force at this time, and was about to enter the strike range of the 52nd task force, and it was not impossible for the bombers to force off at this time, and the extreme combat radius of SB3C and TBF could reach 350 nautical miles. And the most puzzling thing for Turner is, why didn't the reconnaissance planes of this task force appear? Since the enemy's reconnaissance plane was able to find Mitchell, there was no reason not to search north, but he did not find any trace of the enemy's reconnaissance plane.

Turner doesn't need to give himself a reason, and now he has a new goal. The second task force of the Don Imperial Navy has already appeared. In addition, when Mitchell sent the second telegram, he must not have been bombed by the enemy, and he would send bombers to deal with the task force that was first discovered, but the task force that was discovered now would not necessarily be attacked by Mitchell, so whether or not this task force could be annihilated depended on the bomber group of the 52nd task force. Turner quickly revised the order, but he ran into trouble with the new land. Modification of combat orders is trifle, and both enemy task forces have three aircraft carriers. The formation is comparable, so the bombing missions are basically the same, only the flight routes of the fleet need to be modified. The biggest problem is how to arrange escort fighters. At that time, the three fighter groups in the fleet had a total of only 74 fighters, which was a third less than the normal number. And of these fighters, 56 have already been flying over the fleet for almost an hour and a half, and only 18 are on standby on the aircraft carrier. If only 18 escort fighters were arranged, it would be impossible to cover the successful penetration of the bomber group, and those fighters patrolling the skies over the fleet would not have enough fuel to complete the escort mission.

Turner was faced with a difficult decision. Either arrange only 18 escort fighters and attack immediately and seize the opportunity to attack first. Either delay the attack, let some air defense fighters land to replenish fuel first, and increase the number of escort fighters. Turner's latter choice was characterized by his cautiousness, and the number of bombers in Task Force 52 was quite limited at the time, and the efficiency of penetration directly determined the success or failure of a strike. Therefore, the number of escort fighters is extremely critical. If there are too few escort fighters. It would have been impossible for a group of bombers to deliver a fatal blow to the enemy. However, the number of bombers remaining in Task Force 52 was not enough to form two batches of bombers, and Turner had only one chance to attack. There may have been other factors that made Turner make this choice, such as the fact that the two sides were still 330 nautical miles apart. The ideal range is between 250 and 300 nautical miles, so a delay is not a big deal, and it will also bring the two sides closer and give the bombers more time to attack. But there is no doubt that there is something wrong with Turner's decision.

If Turner had sent bombers immediately, or if Spruance had been in Turner's position, he would have done so. US bombers were able to reach the skies over the First Task Force before half past 10 o'clock, and at this time, the number of air defense fighters of the First Task Force was quite limited. An Shile's fleet had to land to replenish fuel and ammunition, and Zhu Xiaohuo's group would not be able to return until about 10:50. And there is not much fuel left, so they have to rush to land. There are only about 20 fighters in Yao Boyan's group over the fleet, which is simply not enough to organize the fleet's air defense network. And Turner's delay was enough for the Ansle group to refill the fuel and take off again, and it was also enough for some fighters of Zhu Xiaohuo's group to take off again. Therefore, these dozens of minutes are extremely crucial, but Turner did not seize this opportunity!

It wasn't until half-past nine, when Mitchell was almost finished, that the bomber group of Task Force 52 began to take off. The size of this group of bombers was extremely large, and the crew on the US aircraft carrier spent 40 minutes refueling 30 fighters. At the same time, all the bombers were prepared for departure. Turner sent all the bombers in his hands in one go. Although the size of the fleet is very large, the number of fighters over the 1st Task Force will also reach its peak when this batch of bombers arrives, and it will certainly not be so easy to break through the air defense network of the 1st Task Force.

The take-off of 77 SB3Cs, 72 TBFs, and 48 "Super Corsairs" took a total of 35 minutes. At the time of the first SB3C's takeoff, the actual distance between the 52nd Task Force and the 1st Task Force should have been about 310 nautical miles, because this attack distance was still quite far, so the bombers were on the road one after another after takeoff, and the group was formed during the voyage. As a result, there was still one squadron of TBFs that got separated from the large group of aircraft and returned to Task Force 52 after flying blindly at sea for two hours, and it was this TBF that almost brought the destruction back to its lair.

After all the bombers had departed, Turner received a fourth telegram, which was sent not from Mitchell, but from Pearl Harbor. Unbeknownst to Turner, Mitchell had been killed and Task Force 53 and Task Force 51 had been annihilated. Nimitz issued a direct order in the telegram for the 52nd Task Force to withdraw from the battle as soon as possible and not to engage in a decisive battle with the main fleet of the Tang Empire. But it's too late, the fleet is already on the road, and it's impossible to recruit it back.

In desperation, Turner quickly made a decision, first ordering the fleet to turn to the northeast, and then having the communications staff make contact with the bomber group and revise the return rendezvous point. At this point, Turner finally thought that they had failed, and even if the bomber group of the 52nd Task Force could annihilate the task force of the Tang Empire, it would be impossible to reverse the outcome of the entire battle. What made Turner even more uneasy was that the other two task forces had been annihilated, and the enemy had an absolute advantage, and now he must be looking for the 52nd task force with all his might, and perhaps several reconnaissance planes were flying in his direction. The 52nd Task Force is the best remaining fleet of the US Navy, if it is annihilated again, then there will be no fleet in the Pacific Ocean that can cope with the attack of the Tang Imperial Navy, and the US Navy will be completely finished!

Turner finally made a wise decision to preserve Task Force 52 and withdraw from the battlefield as soon as possible. Dozens of warships rushed across the sea at a speed of more than 30 knots. Turner was also calculating the distance to the enemy, and if the Tang Empire's task force did not turn, then he would be able to open up the distance between the two sides to more than 350 nautical miles in two hours, which was the maximum strike range of the enemy's carrier-based bombers. Two hours, during which it will be decided whether Task Force 52 will survive or not, as well as whether Task Force 52's attack will be effective.

This was Turner's most nervous moment, as he kept moving around the Commander Cambridge, and the other staff officers were nervous. The successive telegrams have made the situation of the battle very clear, the enemy's six rounds of strikes have completely wiped out the 53rd Task Force and the 51st Task Force, and now, the enemy's bombers are already on the way back, so the enemy has the ability to send reconnaissance planes again, and they must be searching for the 52nd Task Force. Turner wanted to calm himself down, but he knew he couldn't, he couldn't calm down until he was sure he was out of danger, and he couldn't calm down.