Ren Hao was a little suspicious that someone was playing a prank, the Atlantic ship appeared in the northwest direction, could it be that Spruance really wanted to surprise him? After calming down a little, Tan Renhao asked Zhu Rongzhe to confirm again whether the intercepted radio wave signal was from the Atlantic Fleet, and then he asked four reconnaissance planes that were originally planned to take off after dawn to fly in the direction from which the radio waves came.

Before the reconnaissance plane took off, Zhu Rongzhe rushed back. "It has been confirmed that this is indeed the radio on the newly commissioned 'Montana' class battleship in the United States, which is completely consistent with the information provided by the intelligence department before, and also completely consistent with the radio channel signal provided to us by Lei Shaoqing. What we intercepted was a long-wave signal, and the preliminary judgment was that it was from the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet, and it was most likely the signal from the 'Montana'. ”

Tan Renhao's expression became more solemn, and at this time, two reconnaissance planes had already been sent to the flight deck. Tan Renhao did not contact other aircraft carriers, and these four reconnaissance planes were all on the "Longganhu."

"You've already arranged for a reconnaissance plane?" Only then did Zhu Rongzhe discover that the reconnaissance plane was preparing to take off.

"Yes, it's arranged. Although this is a bit unbelievable, we should not have any luck mentality, and sending a few reconnaissance planes to find out the situation is not a loss for us. Tan Renhao turned his head, "Prepare to contact the Third Task Force and have them regroup into battle queues and move forward in our northwest direction." Tell the new recommendation. Prepare for battle as soon as possible, maybe Spruance really wants to use other battleships to fight the main force, and it won't be too far away from us, if that's the case, then we can only let the third task force go up first. ”

Tan Renhao's new order was soon sent to the nearby battleship "Nanning" by light signal. Prior to this, the radio monitoring station on the "Nanning" had also intercepted that signal, and when Tan Renhao was puzzled, Chang Jianxin was also very puzzled. They had always thought that Spruance would appear from the northeast, but who would have thought that Spruance would appear in the waters of the Bahamas?

The warships that followed Task Force 1 were soon grouped together, including six battleships and eight destroyers. Instead of directly radioing the warships accompanying the Second Task Force, Chang Jiexin sent several seaplanes over. Since it is possible to intercept the enemy's ground radio signals, it is also possible for the enemy to intercept the radio signals emitted by the First Fleet. Then. Tan Renhao didn't even rush to let the radar in the fleet start, just to avoid premature exposure. If the Atlantic Fleet was close to the First Fleet, then the radio signal from the radar would be enough for the First Fleet to be detected. Because of this, the fourteen cruisers and more than a dozen destroyers in Task Force 2 took at least two hours to arrive, and before that, there were only six battleships and eight destroyers for novices.

Soon, the ground battleships of the 3rd Task Force broke away from the formation and began to accelerate in a northwesterly direction. Chang Jianxin clearly understood what Ren Hao meant, if Spruance wanted to use battleships to sneak attack the First Fleet at night. Then the third task force could only rely on the front to block Spruance's battleship fleet, so that the first task force and the second task force could quickly withdraw from the battlefield. Send bombers after dawn against the Atlantic Fleet. Whether it can hold out until dawn depends on the performance of the third task force.

At this time. Tan Renhao still couldn't believe that Spruance would approach them through the narrow waterway in the Bahamas, and he also didn't understand whether Spruance already knew the exact location of the First Fleet, so he would choose to approach quickly at night and then launch a surprise attack. Anyway, the First Fleet also had hundreds of radars, and as long as a few radars were working, Spruance would not have a chance to use battleships to sneak attack the First Fleet at night. It is even more unlikely that a decisive victory will be won, could it be that Spruance's brain is short-circuited?

Right now. Tan Renhao could only wait for the report of the reconnaissance planes, at least those reconnaissance planes would be able to find the Atlantic Fleet at night. After the 3rd Task Force broke away from the formation, the 1st Task Force began to turn southeastward, widening the distance from the 3rd Task Force. Twenty minutes later, the 2nd Task Force, which had received the news, began to make the same turn, and the ground warships belonging to the 3rd Task Force that had been following the activities of the 2nd Task Force were speeding up to catch up with the main formation of the 3rd Task Force. At this time, the radars in the fleet were all turned off, which was the first mistake Tan Renhao made.

While the three task forces were moving separately, two US night reconnaissance planes were approaching the First Fleet at high speed, and one of the reconnaissance planes, which had been converted from a maritime patrol plane, reached the west of the Third Task Force at 0:20 a.m. It took the pilot half a minute to judge that they were the battleships of the Tang Imperial Navy, and immediately turned around, not entering the visual surveillance range of the Third Task Force; at night, it was very difficult for the lookouts on the battleships to see the planes, and only when the reconnaissance planes flew too close could the noise make them exposed.

Another night reconnaissance plane converted from a B-24 bomber reached about 20 nautical miles west of the First Task Force at 0:28 a.m., and the mines it carried detected the aircraft carrier "Longganhu," which was at the rear of the fleet. At this time, the First Task Force had just completed its turn, and the aircraft carrier "Longganhu", which was originally at the forefront of the fleet, fell to the rear, so it was the first to be discovered. It didn't take much effort for the pilot on the reconnaissance plane to judge that it was the "Lake" class aircraft carrier of the Tang Imperial Navy, and immediately sent a telegram. The reconnaissance plane did not leave Task Force 1 immediately, but followed Task Force 1 all the time.

At that time, the headquarters of the 1st Task Force and the 3rd Task Force were both dealing with contacts with the US Atlantic Fleet, and it was not until 0:50 a.m. that the staff officers reported to Tan Renhao that the radio had intercepted a faint radio signal, which was suspected to have been sent by a US reconnaissance plane. At this time, Tan Renhao suddenly realized that because most of the reconnaissance planes had already been sent out, and all the radars in the fleet were turned off, giving the US reconnaissance planes a chance to sneak closer, there was no doubt that the whereabouts of the First Fleet had been completely exposed. Contact Task Force 3 and get him

Prepare for air defense, don't ......" In the panic, Tan Renhao also has a little hand. "Let them prepare for an artillery battle as soon as possible, and in addition, contact the second task force to make all the bombers ready to take off, and wait for the reconnaissance planes to send a message, and strive to let all the bombers take off before dawn, and then strengthen the air defense of the fleet."

"Need to contact the Third Fleet?"

Tan Renhao hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Wait until the reconnaissance plane sends a message, and then contact the Third Fleet, in addition, let Huang Xiaotian first send us three squadrons of air defense fighters, as long as we attack first, we can destroy the Atlantic Fleet, and the main task of the Third Fleet is to protect our security."

The order for combat mobilization was quickly communicated. Tan Renhao still had to continue to wait for the report of the reconnaissance planes, which had set off at about 12:10 and then flew at full speed at 320 knots. If the US Atlantic Fleet is within the range of striking the First Fleet, the reconnaissance planes should send back a message before half past one o'clock in the morning; if the reconnaissance planes still do not find anything after half past one in the morning, then the US Atlantic Fleet will most likely be several hundred nautical miles away and will not be able to threaten the First Fleet at all. As a matter of fact, the location of the US fleet can be roughly judged from the time when the reconnaissance plane sent back the message. This was Tan Renhao's idea at the time, but he would soon know that his idea was completely wrong.

At this point, in the northwest, Spruance received the first message from the Miami Army Air Station at midnight and 30 a.m. A night water patrol aircraft spotted a fleet of several battleships, and the fleet was moving rapidly to the northwest, that is, towards the Atlantic Fleet.

At that time, Spruance was woken up from his bed by a staff officer, and when he received the news, he couldn't believe it. There is no doubt that the fleet with the battleships was the third task force in the First Fleet, in the First Fleet and the Third Fleet. Only the 3rd Task Force had battleships. But the question is, could the First Fleet have already discovered his whereabouts, otherwise how could they arrange for a fleet of battleships to approach at night? Also, how could the First Fleet appear so close? Hasn't the First Fleet been operating off the eastern coast of the Bahamas before?

With these questions in mind, Spruance was confused. But this did not prevent him from immediately sending three destroyers equipped with radar from the task force of the 21st Task Force under his direct command, with four "Monlie" ships as the main force, to speed up to the front, and if the battleship fleet approached, the radar on the destroyers would give him at least half an hour to prepare.

Shortly after the departure of the three destroyers, another telegram arrived at 0:55. This was sent from the army air station in San Diego, where a night reconnaissance aircraft spotted a fleet with aircraft carriers, which was sailing rapidly to the southeast, and reconnaissance aircraft were trailing behind the fleet. Now, Spruance no longer doubted. It must have been the other task forces of the First Fleet, but he was even more puzzled. Why did this fleet sail in a southwesterly direction? And it's so close, can't it be said. Did the First Fleet discover the Atlantic Fleet and then let the Third Task Force come up and fight while the other two Task Forces tried to distance themselves at night and then attack after dawn?

Spruance quickly affirmed this judgment, otherwise, the three task forces of the First Fleet would have acted separately a long time ago, and they would not have allowed the aircraft carrier task force to get so close. It was at this time that an airplane flew over the fleet. Spruance was not reported to him at the time, and Spruance was not alerted to the noise coming from the plane. First, he did not know that the Tang Imperial Navy already possessed carrier-based reconnaissance planes that could carry out reconnaissance missions at night, and second, there were a large number of US military ground night reconnaissance planes operating in nearby waters at that time. But in fact, this was one of the four reconnaissance planes sent by Tan Renhao.

At that time, the Atlantic Fleet was sailing in the Straits between Lamu Island and Long Island, and there were at least 20 small islands in the vicinity. The Bahamas archipelago has 700 islands and is known as the "Land of a Thousand Islands". Spruance would not have chosen this route if it weren't for the fact that the U.S. military was very familiar with the situation in the waters of the Bahamas. The radar on the reconnaissance plane flying near the Atlantic Fleet could not distinguish between the battleship and the island, and when the battleship was too close to the island, it could not even distinguish the radar reflection signal of the battleship from the screen. In other words, although the reconnaissance plane flew less than 5 miles from the Atlantic Fleet, it was not able to detect the fleet on the sea!

At this point, Spruance was confronted with a tricky question, should he go up to the enemy for a decisive battle, or should he turn away from the battlefield? Obviously, if he went up to fight the enemy at this time, he would not be able to deal with those aircraft carriers of the Tang Empire, and at most he could only deal with the third task force. And after dawn, all the bombers of the Tang Imperial Fleet will be dispatched, and I am afraid that it will be difficult for the Atlantic Fleet to reap the benefits in frontal air combat. But if he turned around and retreated, he would lose the opportunity to defeat the First Fleet, and perhaps never again.

After hesitating for five minutes, Spruance made a decision, the 21st Task Force [+ Speed left the Strait to meet the Third Task Force of the Tang Imperial Navy, while the 22nd Task Force and the 23rd Task Force, that is, the two task forces with aircraft carriers as the core, turned to the Suma Strait, striving to leave the strike range of the Tang Empire's carrier-based bombers before dawn, and then dispatched bombers to deal with the Third Task Force, striving to kill the Third Task Force first.

After making this decision, Spruance asked the fleet staff to activate the radio, contact all nearby air bases, and ask the Army to provide air defense cover for the fleet after dawn, and to dispatch long-range bombers against the fleeing carrier task force. But Spruance overlooked the fact that the reconnaissance planes that had missed with him before would definitely not miss the fleet that had already left the Channel again when they returned!