While the Tang Imperial Navy was worried about the U.S. military counterattack, Nimitz and President Sprue were worried about how they should launch a counterattack, or rather, how to turn the tide of the war in the Pacific. If the problems faced by the Tang Imperial Navy at this time were how to defeat the Australian continent and how to block the US counterattack in the Central Pacific Theater, then the problems faced by the US Navy were much more serious, and they were directly related to the victory or defeat of the United States in the war, and even the life and death of the United States.

After two and a half years of war, the US military has won many victories in the Pacific, and some of them are very important, such as the annihilation of the Second Task Force in the Central Pacific, which almost gave the United States the initiative. However, whether from the tactical level or from the strategic level, the victory won by the United States in the Pacific Ocean was not enough to turn the tide of the war, and the war situation in the entire Pacific theater has been developing in a more favorable direction for the Tang Empire, especially after the "Battle of the Coral Sea" and the "Battle of Necke Island", the US Navy completely lost its sea supremacy, and threatened the Tang Empire's ability to control the sea, and there was a power vacuum. From then on, the President of the United States, Admiral King, Secretary of the Navy, and Admiral Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, no longer needed to think about how to win the Pacific War, but how to hold the line and block the Tang Empire's attack. This also marks that the Pacific War has entered the stage of strategic offensive launched by the Tang Empire and the United States has fully shifted to the stage of strategic defense.

Of course, the Pacific Theater is not an isolated battlefield, it is an important battlefield of the entire global war, and it is the most important battlefield, so the changes in the situation in the Pacific Theater also prove the transformation of the situation of the entire Great War. The year 26 will be a year of strategic turning points in the entire war, and it will also be the most critical year for the final victory of the allies led by the Tang Empire.

The two most important countries on both sides of the war, the Tang Empire and the United States, knew that the Pacific theater would determine the outcome of the entire war, leaving aside the other battlefields, who lost the Pacific War. Then whoever loses the whole war. This is also the fundamental reason why since the United States entered the war, both the Tang Empire and the United States have spared no effort to invest heavy troops in the Pacific Theater, regardless of losses, or even partially give up victories on other battlefields, but also win the battles in the Pacific Theater first. And on this battlefield, where the navy is the absolute main force, both sides have made their best efforts, and of course, the efforts are not limited to the Pacific. To ensure victory in the Pacific theater. The warring sides have also made relevant adjustments and deployments in other areas, hoping to use the changes in the situation on other battlefields to affect the balance of the earth in the Pacific theater.

Joining forces with Germany to annihilate France and win victory on the battlefield in Western Europe was the Tang Empire's disguised pressure on the United States. With the fall of France, Spain was no longer actively involved in the fighting in North Africa, and even withdrew its fleet to its ports. There was no further offensive against the Persian navy in the eastern Mediterranean. Italy also had to deploy more troops to the north of its territory to meet the formidable threat of the German Army, which at that time had 80 divisions of ground forces deployed in northwestern Italy. And Italy committed less than 30 divisions in the North African theater! Britain was also exposed to the bombers of the Luftwaffe, and in addition, the submarines of the German Navy received better ports to the sea. Activity has also become more active in the Atlantic. As the Luftwaffe and the long-range aviation of the Tang Empire gradually took control of the British sky, Britain had to give more consideration to the defense of its homeland, rather than deploying more troops abroad, and even had to rely on the US Army and Army Aviation to complete territorial air defense and defensive operations.

It can be said that the defeat of France was another major turning point in the war after the defeat of Japan. Japan was defeated. Forcing the United States to enter the war ahead of schedule, it had to confront the Tang Empire head-on without preparing for war and fight for control of the Pacific Ocean. And the defeat of France forced the United States to turn to Britain. As well as the dispatch of ground forces on the North African battlefield, the deployment of more aviation forces in the United Kingdom, and the need to provide more war assistance to Russia, I hope that Russia can hold on, at least be able to contain the main forces of the German and Tang Empire on the continental battlefield, so that Germany cannot immediately attack Britain, and the Tang Imperial Army cannot put the elite corps into the North African and Pacific theaters. And the direct impact of this series of transfers is that the United States has had to increase the investment of the Army, thus reducing the investment of the Navy. This made it more difficult for the United States to hold off the Tang Empire's naval attack in the Pacific.

The United States did not give up the fight because of this, at that time. There is no definite number as to who will win or who will lose, and if the US Navy can achieve two or three major victories in the Pacific, perhaps the tide of the war in the Pacific will be completely reversed. If the U.S. Navy wants to win victory in the Pacific, it must have a prerequisite, that is, the Tang Imperial Navy will divide its forces elsewhere, so that the U.S. Navy will not fight more with less, but at least ensure the balance of forces between the two sides. The only way is to threaten the Indian Ocean, so that the Tang Imperial Navy has to send troops to the Indian Ocean.

This is why the United States has been asking Britain and France to send expeditionary fleets south. In the event of an inability to quickly capture the Suez Canal, the only access to the Indian Ocean is the Cape of Good Hope. The United States made the best efforts, and finally allowed the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet to set off at the cost of providing a large amount of strategic assistance, sending a large number of air forces, and ground forces to assist Britain in the defense of the homeland, as well as participating in the war in Western Europe (when France was not yet defeated). At that time, the United States did see hope, as long as Cunningham could defeat the South Atlantic Fleet of the Tang Empire, go all the way into the Indian Ocean, and threaten the North Indian Ocean route, then the Tang Empire Navy would have no choice but to send at least one, or even two task forces, into the Indian Ocean to hold the life route of the North Indian Ocean!

Hope was once so close to the United States, especially when Cunningham defeated the South Atlantic Fleet of the Tang Empire in one fell swoop, and the Fifth Task Force rushed to the aid of the South Atlantic, the whole country was tumbling, and even thought that victory was not far from them. And the actual situation at that time was indeed the case, if Cunningham could hold out for a few more months, then the Tang Empire would only have two aircraft carrier task forces fighting in the Pacific Ocean, while its most powerful first task force was in the Indian Ocean, and at that time, the US Navy's counterattack would have a great chance of victory. In the opinion of most Americans, since the commander of the British number one naval fleet in Cunningham L13 was able to defeat two Don fleets in one fell swoop, then he was able to hold out for a few more months. When the time comes, the U.S. Navy will turn defeat into victory in the Pacific Ocean, and then attack the Tang Empire from the east and west, then the Tang Empire will not be far from the end, at least the Tang Empire Navy will not be far from the end.

The changes that followed far exceeded the expectations of the Americans, and the rapid defeat of France had a huge impact on the French expeditionary fleet. Although the French Expeditionary Fleet remained and continued to fight alongside the British Expeditionary Fleet, the French Expeditionary Fleet was already disillusioned and could not play much of a role. To the surprise of the Americans, Task Force 1 and Task Force 3 defeated Cunningham in May, not only holding the North Indian Ocean route.

And it also fought back to Cape Town, and even annihilated the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet! Even if the Tang Imperial Navy had no plan to expedition to the Gold Coast at that time, and there were no relevant preparations, but as far as the situation at that time was concerned, as the door to the Indian Ocean was closed again, the hopes of the Americans were completely shattered.

It was at this time that the tide of battle took a complete turn. Nimitz initially set the date for the counterattack to be the end of May, and although Spruance was adamantly opposed to launching a counterattack so soon, he finally agreed to Nimitz's plan. In Nimitz and Spruance's view, as long as the First Task Force is not fighting in the Pacific, then it can concentrate its forces to launch a counterattack in the Central Pacific, and then the Fifth Fleet will seek an opportunity to annihilate the Second Task Force and the Fourth Task Force of the Tang Empire. Even though Task Force 1 quickly moved to the Pacific Ocean, and Task Force 5 regained its combat effectiveness. By that time, the officers and men of the Fifth Fleet would have gained actual combat experience, and their chances of winning a decisive battle with the First Task Force would not be too small. But the problem is that Cunningham was defeated at this time. Nimitz had to revise his counterattack plan.

Nimitz also thought about taking advantage of the fact that Task Force 1 had not yet returned to the Pacific to launch a quick counterattack in the Central Pacific, but this time Spruance did not budge, and Spruance's reason was simple. If the U.S. military launched a counterattack at this time, then the Tang Imperial Navy would not take the initiative to meet the battle, but would tighten the defensive line and let the second task force and the fourth task force withdraw to the rear, or even the home ports of the empire. And it will definitely take time to attack the forward defense line of the Tang Imperial Navy. If nothing else, it would take at least a month to conquer Midway. And if you want to attack the Mariana Islands, I am afraid it will take half a year, and this is not counting the time for preparing for the attack. By that time, the First Task Force had already returned to the Pacific Ocean, and even the Fifth Task Force had regained its combat effectiveness, and the Tang Imperial Navy had at least twelve fleet aircraft carriers, plus several small aircraft carriers, while the US Navy had only six fleet aircraft carriers. Under such circumstances, the Tang Imperial Navy could calmly launch a counterattack, while the US Navy did not even have the ability to resist.

That is, with the annihilation of the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet, the opportunity for the US Navy to counterattack in the Pacific Ocean has been lost and is gone forever. France has been defeated, the remaining dozen or so "old ships" of the British Navy need to defend the homeland, and they have to contain the Persian Navy in the Eastern Mediterranean, making it difficult to organize an expeditionary fleet again, and the capital ships under construction of the US Navy are difficult for aircraft carriers to enter service in the short term. Then, the Tang Imperial Navy did not even need to leave the capital ships in the South Atlantic, and could wait until the battle on this side of the Pacific was won before sending the fleet into the South Atlantic.

After abandoning the plan to launch an immediate counterattack, Nimitz and Spruance agreed that whenever a counterattack was launched, the question of the quality of the officers and men of the fleet must be solved first, and if the quality of the officers and men of the fleet could not be improved, then victory would never be achieved. Therefore, Nimitz agreed to Spruance's request to delay the counterattack as long as possible, and at the same time ensure that the fleet's training activities can be carried out normally, until Spruance believes that the fleet has the ability to counterattack, and then plan a counterattack.

Nimitz made this decision for three reasons, one is that the quality of the officers and men of the fleet is indeed so bad that even Nimitz can't believe it. At that time, 80 percent of the officers and men of the Fifth Fleet were newly assigned, and at least 50 percent of its carrier-based air force was novices. The second reason is that he needs time to organize other counterattack forces. It takes time to mobilize the marines, organize a landing fleet, transport fleets, and reserve war supplies, and the Tang Empire is also clearly strengthening the defense line in the Central Pacific, so he needs more time to organize more troops. Finally, and most crucially, the main purpose of the Tang Imperial Navy in the Pacific Ocean is still to attack Australia, which can be seen from its troop deployment and fleet mobilization, so there is not much danger in the Central Pacific for the time being. As long as MacArthur holds out in Australia for a few months, then Nimitz has a chance to fight back.

Nimitz reported his plan to Admiral King, who agreed that Nimitz would be fully prepared before launching a counterattack. Subsequently, after consulting with Marshall, King and other senior generals of the army and navy, the US president believed that a hasty counterattack would completely bring down the US Navy and eventually lose the Pacific War. In addition, by the end of the year, a new batch of warships will be commissioned, including the second batch of four Iowa-class battleships, several Essex-class aircraft carriers, and the first batch of large Oahu-class anti-aircraft cruisers (that is, a simplified version of the "Alaska" class). As these ships enter service, the U.S. Navy's strength will return to a fixed position, so it is necessary and important to take cautious counter-action before then.

At the same time that the President of the United States directly ordered MacArthur to defend Australia and try to delay the offensive speed of the Tang Empire, Nimitz also issued a new order to Spruance, that is, to complete the training of the fleet as soon as possible and make basic preparations for the upcoming counterattack! But for Spruance, this is definitely not an easy task, it is not much easier than defeating the fleet of the Don Empire on the battlefield.