Task Force 1 arrived at anchorage on New Hanover Island on the 28th, where it was resupplied with oil, water, and dry cargo. A refrigerated ship that had only recently been equipped with the Imperial Navy had brought a batch of fresh vegetables and fruits to the fleet, which was probably the most pleasing thing for the officers and men on the battleship. On the sea, fresh vegetables and fruits are always preferred over canned goods and frozen meats.

"Looks like we're going to improve our food tonight!" Hao Dongjue saw that the fruits in the basket were drooling, and he called the staff officer next to him over, "Remember to wait and get some fruit, pineapples, bananas and mangoes." ”

"You're not afraid of getting on fire?" Tan Renhao glanced at his partner.

"On fire, I'm feeling cold all over my body now, so I'm going to light a fire." Hao Dongjue laughed, "However, this frozen ship is really good, if you can eat fresh vegetables and fruits often in the future, the officers and soldiers will not have so much resentment." ”

"This problem should not be big, and this must also be in consideration of the hardships of long-term sea operations, so these refrigerated ships were specially built, after all, maintaining the morale and fighting spirit of officers and men is the most important thing."

The replenishment work is still in progress, and there are freezer cabins on the aircraft carrier, which are specially used to store food, but the space is not very large, so many vegetables and fruits must be eaten in these days, otherwise they will rot and deteriorate. The entire replenishment work lasted only twelve hours, and shortly after dawn the fleet left the anchorage.

Not everything is so smooth, and many uncertain factors may not even be able to imagine the impact. And the most uncertain factor in war is the weather.

Among the various natural factors, geography is a factor that can be determined, regardless of whether it is a river, a mountain, a forest, a lake, a sea, or an island, which can be determined before the battle.

Any good commander at the time of determining combat operations. Priority will be given to these identified natural factors. Weather is the only natural factor that cannot be determined, and no one can predict the weather accurately, and in many cases even short-term predictions cannot be made. Especially at sea, it is good to be able to accurately predict the weather for the next 24 hours, but in reality, it is very difficult to do. However, weather is the natural factor that has the greatest impact on naval warfare, and since the age of sails, the impact of weather has been even more serious than that brought by the enemy. Throughout the era of sails. The Imperial Navy lost more warships in bad weather than the enemy sank! Even now, weather is still an important factor on the battlefield, and any cadet of the Naval Academy must master some basic meteorological knowledge and must clearly understand the impact of weather on combat. For example, in the era of artillery warfare, wind, humidity of the air, temperature, rain and snow will have a huge impact on artillery warfare, especially shelling. By the time of aviation operations, the influence of the weather had not only not diminished. It's even enhanced quite a bit. Bad weather not only did not allow reconnaissance planes to find the enemy's ground fleet. Even aircraft carriers are not able to operate normally. It can be said that in the face of the weather, neither of the warring parties can do anything. It is impossible to change the weather only by going to the weather.

When Tan Renhao received the weather forecast for the next three days, he only felt that God was joking with him. Maybe the forecast isn't very accurate, but it's mostly not a big deal.

Over the next three days, the sea north of the Solomon Islands will be almost cloudy with showers. Storms are forming, but no one can tell for sure when they will appear.

", what does that mean?" Hao Dongjue also felt like being fooled, "The minimum cloud height is only about 4oo meters, and the cloud thickness may reach 15oo meters." Isn't that kidding us? ”

Tan Renhao smiled and shook his head, then leaned back on the chart table, where the staff officer in charge of the weather was marking the approximate direction of the air flow and the distribution of clouds on the chart. If the clouds are really as low as 4oo meters, then the bombers will have a lot of trouble, no dive bomber can drop bombs at such a low altitude, and in the clouds, there is no way to aim at the battleship on the sea, or even the battleship on the surface of the sea. How to drop the bomb may be a minor problem.

In addition to dive bombing, there are other options. However, the problem is that if the reconnaissance plane keeps flying at a low altitude of less than 4oo meters, the patrol radius will be reduced by at least 40 percent, and the search range will be even more limited. In other words, the probability of the current enemy will be reduced a lot, and if you can't even do it, how can you hit the enemy?

"Damn, looks like we're going to have to figure out something else."

"God is fair, at least Halsey is facing the same troubles." Tan Renhao could only think about the better, "When will the weather get better?" ”

"There was no hope before three days, and maybe it will be like this until ten days. This year's tropical sub-high is forming, storm season is just around the corner, and I'm afraid it will be difficult for these clouds to disappear. ”

"Then we have to overcome this difficulty even more." After the staff officer drew the weather conditions, Tan Renhao turned around, "The main problem is to judge the enemy's movements, is there any news from Yan Guozhong's side?" ”

"Not yet, but the U.S. troops on Kuah Island have not counterattacked in the past two days, maybe they are accumulating strength and preparing to launch a larger-scale counterattack."

"Maybe they're running out of ammunition." Tan Renhao's eyes fell on the Solomon Islands, "The U.S. military has held out on Kuah Island for several months, and in the last month or so, the 'Washington Express' has almost no way to send war materials to Kuah Island, and the airlift is also very dangerous, and it is a miracle that the U.S. military can hold on." If they were running out of ammunition by now, MacArthur would have urged Halsey to send the fleet out. It seems that in just these two days, Halsey is going to make a move. ”

"It's definitely these two days, but looking at the weather, I'm afraid that our artillery fleet will be fighting fiercely in the south, and we'll be searching in the dark here."

"Anyway, Halsey should get his battleship fleet out."

Cloudy weather with showers had the greatest impact on the aircraft carrier, but it did not have a great impact on the battleship, which did not need to use reconnaissance aircraft to spot the enemy anyway, and the tactical arrangements of both sides were basically fixed. While Halsey was troubled by the weather, Halsey was troubled by the three telegrams that MacArthur had sent in one day. The content of these three telegrams was only one, that is, to send the 32nd Task Force to attack as soon as possible, escorting the convoy loaded with two 6th Army Divisions and the war materiel for the defenders of the island for three months to Kuah Island.

Halsey is also aware of the negative effects of the weather. If you can't find the Tang Empire's aircraft carrier task force, you can only let the third task force. While the certainty is great, the problem is that Halsey doesn't want to go home empty-handed. After the supplies are delivered to Kuah Island, there is little point in letting the 32nd Task Force go north to adventure, and if the 32nd Task Force does not move, then the Tang Empire's aircraft carrier task force can completely choose to avoid the war, and when the time comes. There will be no chance to annihilate the aircraft carrier task force of the Tang Empire.

By the afternoon of the same day, MacArthur's fourth telegram arrived. The content of this telegram was more direct, and MacArthur gave an order directly to Halsey, demanding that if the 3rd and 32nd Task Forces did not take action that night, and thus led to the defeat of the Battle of Kuah, Halsey would bear all the responsibility. Then, Nimitz's telegram arrived. MacArthur urged Halsey to send a telegram to General Marshall, who then contacted the president. It was the president who put pressure on Nimitz. Nimitz had to get Halsey to act at the right time, and to focus on the big picture, which was the official language anyway.

Now Halsey has no way out. Task Force 32 remained in the port of Brisbane and was ready to leave at any time. MacArthur's convoy was also in the port of Brisbane, and it was a fast convoy, reaching the maximum of the 32nd Task Force behind the operation.

In the afternoon of the same day, Halsey ordered Task Force 32 to prepare for its departure, and then contacted MacArthur to postpone the departure of the fleet until the second day, because it was too late that evening. At this point, Halsey didn't realize it. He was on the question of these two telegrams. Previously, Task Force 31 had been receiving telegrams but had not been able to determine its location, but this time, Halsey sent the telegram directly from the radio on the flagship.

Radio waves are transmitted in all directions, not in a concentrated direction, so when the U.S. Theater Command in Brisbane received the telegram, it was located on the island of Kuah, Bougainville. and three radio listening stations in Lae received the radio waves. Because the distance between Kuah and Bougainville is too close, and the angle between the radio waves is relatively small, the specific location of the radio waves is finally measured by the radio listening stations between Kuah and Lae. Soon, the results of this calculation were sent to Tan Renhao's hands.

"Probably in this position." The communications staff officer marked the approximate position of the measured radio waves on the chart. "Because the angle is too small, the accuracy of the calculation is very limited."

Tan Renhao nodded and asked the staff officer to leave first.

"To the east of the New Hebrides, it seems that we have guessed it this time." Hao Dongjue only spoke at this time.

"The scope of this sea is too wide." Tan Renhao shook his head, "We originally predicted that this was the sea area where the US fleet was most likely to be on standby, but the problem is that we have not determined that this radio wave is coming from the US aircraft carrier, and we have not received any signal from this radio station before." ”

"It should be a new radio station, and it will most likely come out of the U.S. fleet aircraft carriers." The Brave and the Hornet were both badly damaged, and perhaps the radio station on it was blown up, and Halsey would have chosen one of the two carriers as the flagship, most likely the Brave, and if the carrier was used as a new station, then we really don't have any characteristics to compare it to. ”

Tan Renhao nodded slightly. "There is a possibility, but it can't be discharged from a U.S. patrol warship."

Hao Dongjue fell silent, this is the problem. The U.S. Third Fleet already had a lot of small warships, and there were quite a few patrol ships in the waters near the New Hebrides, and these ships were mainly responsible for monitoring the strait here, so as not to be washed into the Coral Sea by the fleet of the Tang Empire. These warships also sent telegrams frequently, and a lot of radio waves came out of this sea every day. It's really hard to determine if this is a signal from the main fleet of the United States.

"Renhao, let's assume first." Hao Dongjue suddenly thought of something, "Let's assume that this is from Halxi, if so, why did he send a telegram?" ”

"This ......"

"Under normal circumstances, unless there is a special reason, the radio stations of the fleet are strictly forbidden to send telegrams, and everyone knows this, and Halsey will not fail to understand this truth. If your previous analysis of the situation on Kuah Island was correct, then MacArthur would have urged Halsey to send out a fleet of battleships to cover the convoy to Kuah Island. If Halsey couldn't withstand the pressure, he would have to inform the battleship fleet and get the battleship fleet ready to go north. ”

"You're saying that if the U.S. fleet of battleships goes north within these two days, then the signal must have come from Halsey's flagship?"

"It's just a possibility, maybe it's just a misunderstanding. Of course, we can assume that if there is no other radio activity in the vicinity that has not been heard before, then we can be sure that the signal that suddenly appeared, and which has never appeared before or again, is from Halsey's flagship. ”

Tan Renhao nodded slightly. If the American battleship formation went north, then Halsey would also lead his fleet north, and at this time the fleet would go into radio silence, and the radio would definitely not send any more signals. And the ships patrolling the New Hebrides are signaling almost every day, so it's easy to spot.

"Looks like we're going to have to get ready for Halsey!"

"Then we will contact Huang Xiaotian and them immediately, and then comrade Yan Guozhong, let the third task force get ready, and let the 6th team get ready."

Tan Renhao nodded, and then asked Hao Dongjue to draft the telegram, and then sent a plane to the nearby island to send the telegram out. He wasn't as careless as Halsey.