The serious fear of the threat of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet made it impossible for Tan Renhao to concentrate on the matter at hand. Fortunately, he had already arranged the specific operation, and in the task assignment, the First Task Force did not participate in the operation of intercepting the transport fleet, and its main task was to guard against the US Atlantic Fleet and avoid being attacked by the US military during the operation.

When the first light appeared in the East, the aviation crews on the aircraft carrier were sending combat aircraft onto the flight deck. Bombs and torpedoes had been hung in bomb bays, and fighter jets were filled with fuel. If the reconnaissance planes find the US Atlantic Fleet, these combat planes will immediately set off to bomb the enemy fleet. But until this time, Tan Renhao still didn't have much confidence. If it was really Spruance who was commanding the Atlantic Fleet, then the Atlantic Fleet would not have rushed straight over. But in the same way, if the Atlantic Fleet had not come directly to rendezvous with the convoy, it would not have been possible to reach this area during the daylight on the 24th, and it would not have encountered the First Fleet. Thinking of this, Tan Renhao was a little more relaxed, if the Atlantic Fleet took a direct route, then the reconnaissance plane he sent would be able to discover it in time. On the contrary, if the reconnaissance planes did not gain anything, it would prove that the Atlantic Fleet did not appear in the sea area he expected, and it would not be possible to rush to the battlefield on the 24th.

In fact, through the possible situation, it can also allow Tan Renhao to roughly judge whether the commander of the Atlantic Fleet is Spruance or not. That's why I thought about it. Instead, Tan Renhao hopes to encounter the Atlantic Fleet, so that at least he can be sure that the opponent is not Spruance, and he is still sure enough to take out the Atlantic Fleet, so as to finally determine the absolute position of the Imperial Navy in the Atlantic. If Spruance had been the commander of the Atlantic Fleet, it would have been possible that he would not have been confronted during the day on the 24th.

While waiting for news from the reconnaissance aircraft, the front-line commandos finally sent back a report. Tan Renhao first received a good news. More than a dozen commandos successfully evaded the U.S. escort warships, and three of them boarded the USS Liberty. And the situation of cargo ships on the ground is being quickly controlled. In addition, several commandos boarded other transport vessels. Subsequently, Task Force 2 sent a report that the bomber group had bombed the American escort warships at 6:40 a.m., sinking at least 5 destroyers and frigates, and other escort warships were also hit. Bombers are also in pursuit.

After receiving this news, Tan Renhao finally breathed a sigh of relief, the successful boarding of the commando was the first step to victory, but this was by no means the last step. At this time, Pan Zekang, who followed the commando team to board the "Statue of Liberty", was not easy at all.

Before embarking on the boat, the Marine Corps second lieutenant officer who led the team gave Pan Zekang several spare magazines and had two soldiers accompany Pan Zekang, nominally acting with Pan Zekang, but in fact staying behind to protect the colonel's safety. This made Pan Zekang feel very unhappy, and he was not without hands and feet. Need someone else's protection? But he did not argue with the second lieutenant officers, and the officers and men of the Marine Corps would not argue with him as a technical officer.

The boarding operation did not encounter much trouble. When the fireboat carrying the commandos arrived, the American escort warship did not stay near the transport vessel. Moreover, at that time, the US military ground transport ships were rescuing the wounded, and few people noticed these small boats approaching quickly on the sea. The three fireboats approached the starboard side of the "Lady Liberty" almost at the same time, and the officers and men of the Marine Corps immediately threw out ropes with hooks, and in less than three minutes, more than 50 commandos were all ~ wheels. Pan Zekang was the last of their squad to get on board. The second lieutenant officer did not let him participate in the assault, but let him stay, and the two marines were left behind.

In order to prevent enemy dogs from jumping over the wall, the commandos try to avoid using firearms in action. Generally subdued crew members, and only when necessary will they use daggers to deal with individual dangerous people. These Marine officers and men are experts in the use of daggers. Within the first five minutes, there was no gunfire on board, and the commandos quickly occupied the ship's cockpit and telegraph room, the two most important upper compartments. Immediately, the commandos divided into several teams and went deep into the hull to occupy the engine room, cargo hold, and sailor's cabin. It wasn't until 6:35 a.m., five minutes after the commandos boarded the ship, that the crew raised the alarm and gunfire rang out.

The battle went on quite quickly. There were only 32 sailors on board the USS Liberty, plus a squad of U.S. Marines. There were more than 50 officers and men of the Imperial Marine Corps at the place of embarkation. The U.S. resistance was quickly crushed, and the Marines were neutralized by the commandos before they could even react, and most of the crew was successfully subdued and taken to an inspected sailor's cabin where they were interned.

It was only at this time that the second lieutenant officer who had boarded the "Lady Liberty" freighter with Pan Zekang ran back and called Pan Zekang to the cargo hold below. Hundreds of specially marked metal drums were stored in the cargo hold, and Pan Zekang could see at a glance the meaning of those markings, which was exactly the heavy water they were looking for. Immediately, Pan Zekang and several other Marine officers and soldiers counted the amount of goods, which was not much different from the information provided by the intelligence department, about 380 heavy water, and this would be the key cargo of the "Manhattan Project" of the United States.

At this time, the commandos were still conducting a comprehensive search of the freighter, and the team members in charge of the hugging had already sent out the signal that the operation was successful, and when Pan Zekang came out to discuss with the officers how to protect the cargo, the bombers of the second task force had already arrived and were attacking the US escort warships that had found that something was wrong and had reflexively killed the warships. Perhaps the Americans did not expect the First Fleet to arrive so soon, and the American officers and men on the escort warships could only watch the "Lady Liberty" freighter turn northeast. Soon, the bombers of the Second Task Force completely dashed the hopes of the Americans, and all the escort warships that first pursued them were sunk, and the other escort warships were also strafed by fighters and had to turn around and flee for their lives.

The situation was quickly brought under control, and the other commandos managed to take control of four other freighters, and are counting the cargo on the freighters. By this time, basically the overall situation has been decided, but

Happened at this time.

The two assault teams searching the USS Liberty finally entered the bilge of the freighter. Soon, the first assault team to arrive found that the bilge had been locked from the inside, and it was impossible to enter unless it was blasted or the hatch was boiled open with a welding torch. Just as the commandos managed to open the hatch, the USS Liberty exploded. At that time, the pilots of the bombers who were pursuing the fleeing American warship saw the huge column of fire rising from the middle of the freighter.

At the time of the explosion, Pan Zekang was in the navigation room at the stern of the ship discussing with a Marine Corps captain officer in charge of the assault how to keep the cargo and whether it was necessary to transfer it to the warship. At that time, Pan Zekang only felt a sharp shock under his feet, and then the whole person was bounced, and when he heard the explosion, he had already fallen heavily on the deck, and then he passed out.

The fire spread quickly and soon reached the fuel tanks of the freighter. At the time of the explosion, more than a dozen commandos were killed, others were wounded, and the American crew on board was imprisoned in the sailor's cabin, and no one could come out to extinguish the fire. The fire quickly got out of control, and by the time Pan Zekang got up from the floor, the Lady Liberty had begun to break off from the central blast point and was slowly sinking.

It was clear that the explosion was caused by a bomb on board the ship, and there must have been a crew member who was in the ship's ballast tanks and detonated the bomb after it was certain that the freighter had been occupied. This bomb had at least several hundred kilograms of explosives. The force of the explosion directly broke the keel of the freighter and blew through the bottom of the ship, there was no way to save the freighter, and there was no ability to evacuate the cargo on the freighter to other ships at that time.

At 6:48 a.m., less than three minutes after the explosion, Pan Zekang was forcibly towed away from the "Lady Liberty" by officers and men of the Marine Corps and took a fireboat to another nearby freighter. At least, the other freighters did not explode, which proves that the US military only cares about the "Lady Liberty" the most. When Pan Zekang came to the nearest freighter to the "Lady Liberty", the "Victoria" to go to the ground. The merchant ship, carrying 380 heavy water, was slowly sinking in the fire, and finally the ship broke off from the middle, sinking first into the bottom of the sea with its bow and then its stern raised high, struggling on the surface for less than five minutes, and finally sinking almost vertically.

At this time. Tan Renhao already knew that the "Lady Liberty" had sunk. The report was sent by Task Force 2, and the pilots of more than a dozen bombers witnessed the freighter explode and sink past. The thing that Tan Renhao didn't want to see the most still happened, but the commandos couldn't be blamed for it. The "Lady Liberty" is a military fast freighter, much larger than the standard "10,000-ton ship", and the internal structure is much more complicated. At that time, the First Fleet did not have any structural drawings of such military fast freighters, and the commandos had no idea of the internal structure of the ships until they boarded the ship, so they could only search each compartment one by one. In addition, if the U.S. military is determined not to let the cargo on the ship fall into the hands of the Tang Empire, it will definitely arrange the last line of defense. Destroy the goods in the most extreme way. More than a dozen commandos were killed, and more than two dozen were wounded. The price is heavy enough.

The operation, so to speak, failed at the last moment. This is the last thing Tan Renhao wants to happen. After tremendous efforts, it seemed that it was one step away from success, but it turned out to be a complete failure, and the lives of more than a dozen officers and men were lost for it. At that time, Tan Renhao had no choice but to issue an order for the end of the operation, asking the "escort fleet" dispatched by the Third Task Force to cover the retreat of the other cargo ships as soon as possible, and at the same time, the interception fleet sent before was responsible for salvaging the officers and men who had fallen overboard.

By about seven o'clock, the relevant tasks were deployed. At this time. Tan Renhao also had to deal with another matter at the same time, that is, the search for the operation of the US Atlantic Fleet. It stands to reason. The reconnaissance planes he dispatched before dawn all reached the maximum patrol radius before 7 o'clock, and the patrol line composed of 72 reconnaissance planes was quite dense, and it was almost impossible to carry out cross-patrols to cover the entire sea area, but until 10 a.m. after 7 o'clock, no reconnaissance planes sent back a report. At this point, Tan Renhao basically confirmed that the US Atlantic Fleet did not rush over. In order to be on the safe side, at 7:15 a.m., Tan Renhao ordered another 72 bombers on standby on the deck to unload the second round of reconnaissance missions, and at this time, the first batch of reconnaissance planes was on their way back to the fleet.

At about half past seven, the battleships sent by the Third Task Force picked up several captured freighters, and the Second Task Force also sent 24 "Scout Eagles" at this time to assist in the search for the American Atlantic Fleet. At the same time, the bombers sent by Dongjue also caught up with the fleeing US escort warships and sent them all into the sea. The operation was basically over, and after being protected by Task Force 3, the safety of the freighters should not be a big problem, and the Germans would not attack Task Force 3 after knowing that the Lady Liberty had sunk.

At 7:50, before the second group of reconnaissance planes took off, Tan Renhao ordered the fleet to turn southeast and prepare to return to the Gibraltar fortress. At this point, there was no need for the operation to continue, and no matter whether the US Atlantic Fleet was coming to fight a decisive battle with the First Fleet, there was no need for Tan Renhao to continue to stay here. There are still many opportunities to destroy the US Atlantic Fleet, and there is no need to do it immediately.

Before returning home, the ships of Task Force 3 picked up hundreds of officers and men of the U.S. Navy, as well as sailors on merchant ships. Many of them were sailors on merchant ships that had been sunk by German submarines the night before. If it weren't for the Third Task Force sending out search and rescue planes and ships, most of these American officers and sailors would have become sharks' meals.

Just after eight o'clock, that is, when Tan Renhao felt extremely sorry for the failure of the operation, Pan Zekang sent a telegram. When he saw this telegram, Tan Renhao's mood was a little better. Although the "Lady Liberty" and the hundreds of tons of valuable cargo carried by this freighter have sunk to the bottom of the sea, it cannot be said that this operation has not gained any gains, and Pan Zekang's discovery on other freighters can be regarded as a little comfort to Tan Renhao.