Unlike Tan Renhao, who had long decided to fight with his opponent, the Spru fleet did not think about how to fight the opponent when it left Norfolk, and it was not that he wanted to take the initiative at that time, but received an order from the upper echelons and had to lead the fleet to set off. It can be said that when the fleet left the Norfolk military port, Spruance did not even have a complete battle plan in his hands!

After the last two aircraft carriers were built, Spruance continued to strengthen the fleet's training efforts. However, in the evening of the same day, Admiral King sent a telegram demanding that Spruance must immediately lead the fleet and leave Norfolk Military Harbor no later than noon on the 29th.

That night, Spruance gave the order for the fleet to prepare for departure, but instead of deliberately speeding up the preparations for departure, he asked the officers and men to replenish the ships with fuel and ammunition according to normal regulations, and sent people to contact the aviation units transferred to the naval air station on the shore, and asked them to return to the fleet the next afternoon. That is, Spruance had already decided at that time to delay the time to the deadline and lead the fleet to set off at noon on the 29th.

On the morning of the 29th, just as Spruance was preparing to go to the flagship, King. An officer delivers a secret battle order to Spruance. The order was given directly by the president, that is, the Atlantic Fleet must do everything possible to prevent the Tang Imperial Navy from attacking Cuba. At the same time, with the assistance of other forces, it defeated the main fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy and regained sea supremacy. In addition to this battle order, which had little practical significance, there was a handwritten letter from Admiral King, which explained Spruance's confusion and was what Spruance needed most at the time.

Back in early July. That is, when Tan Renhao returned to Zhoushan, Luo Yunchong had not yet arrived in Central America, and Han Shaofeng's Marines were still fighting the US army on the island of Jamaica, the US military made a judgment that if Jamaica fell quickly, then the Tang Imperial Navy would attack Cuba in July, or August at the latest. It was also at this time that the President of the United States entrusted Marshall, Chief of the Army General Staff, with the task of drawing up an operational plan for the defense of Cuba, and at the same time putting General King in charge of assisting Marshall. At that time, Marshall proposed. In defensive operations, the Atlantic Fleet had to be dispatched, and its main task was to deal with the main fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy and win the opportunity for other defensive forces to defeat the enemy's landing force.

To Marshall's proposal, Admiral King did not object, mainly with the exception of the Atlantic Fleet. There were no other troops that could effectively deal with the main fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy. But the problem is that Admiral Kim did not think that the Atlantic Fleet was capable of defeating the two main fleets of the Tang Imperial Navy. Therefore, it was suggested that Marshall revise the plan by replacing the word "defeat" with "delay". That is, to use the Atlantic Fleet to drag the main fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy, distract the opponent's forces, and thus hold Cuba. Marshall adopted Admiral King's suggestion, but the problem is that this does not mean that the President of the United States will agree.

By the end of July, the U.S. intelligence department had received information about the reorganization of the Tang Empire's theater command, and thus judged that the Tang Empire would attack Cuba in the near future. Then. The President of the United States wanted to send the Atlantic Fleet to attack, but Admiral King refused on the grounds that the Atlantic Fleet had not completely repaired the damaged warships. By the 27th, when Tan Renhao sent bombers to attack the US airfield in southeastern Cuba, the US president again demanded that the Atlantic Fleet leave immediately, but Admiral King insisted that the Atlantic Fleet leave Norfolk Military Port only after the last two aircraft carriers had arrived and were ready. The president had to agree with Admiral King, and at the same time set the departure time for noon on the 2nd, that is, 24 hours after the last two aircraft carriers arrived in Norfolk.

As for that battle order, it was not drafted by Admiral Kim. It was drafted by a team of staff under the president. It can be said that this is a combat order that does not correspond to the reality of the situation at all. With the strength of the Atlantic Fleet, let alone defeating the main fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy, even if it is a bit difficult to deal with the landing fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy, how can it still have the ability to regain sea supremacy?

After reading Admiral King's letter, Spruance also knew it in his heart. In reality, this is just a "counterattack" that the president needs, and what the president needs is not victory, but proof that the U.S. Navy is still on the move, so that the government's propaganda department has a chance to preach victory. As for how the propagandists would draft the propaganda documents, Spruance didn't care, he cared about whether the Atlantic Fleet would be attacked, whether there would be huge losses, whether it would be wiped out because of this operation.

With this in mind, Spruance naturally did not get too positive. After leaving the Chesapeake Bay, the fleet first wandered in the open sea until dark, and Spruance's reason was that the route to the south was not determined. After dark, the fleet slowly sailed south, cruising at only 12 knots, and performing anti-submarine evasion maneuvers every hour, with an average speed of less than 10. That is, by dawn on the 30th, the fleet was still off the coast of South Carolina, and the archipelago was still 300 nautical miles!

By the evening of the 30th, Spruance still did not order the fleet to accelerate, and the .:. team turned and headed for the northeastern waters of the Bahamas. The staff officer of the fleet command had already drawn up a not-so-detailed battle plan at this time, and Spruance did not examine it carefully, or even read it, because he already had a clear idea, and it was certainly completely different from the battle plan drawn up by the staff officers who aspired to meritorious service on the battlefield and then receive medals and promotions.

On the shore, Spruance would obey orders from his superiors, but at sea, he would rarely obey orders from above. In Spruance's view, as the supreme commander of the fleet, there was no need for him to obey anyone's orders while the fleet was fighting, especially those that would lead to defeat, heavy losses to the fleet, or even total annihilation. This is what sets Spruance apart from other U.S. admirals, and it is for this reason that he was in the first place

The post of commander of the Fifth Fleet, left the Fifth Fleet ahead of schedule.

Spruance was well aware that this trip south was almost no different from sending him to his death. Regardless of the strength of both sides for the time being, the Tang Imperial Navy is determined to attack Cuba, so will its main fleet stand idly by? Intelligence from all quarters confirmed that the two main fleets of the Tang Imperial Navy were operating in the waters near Cuba and that they could advance to the southern waters of the Bahamas at any time to block the Atlantic Fleet. In addition, the commander of the fleet of the Don Empire would certainly have given priority to the annihilation of the Atlantic Fleet, taking into account the threat of the Atlantic Fleet. In this case, if the Atlantic Fleet actively goes south, what is the difference between it and sending it to death?

That is, by the time he left Norfolk, Spruance was ready not to fight. At the time, he didn't even think about the consequences of doing so, and it wasn't until the 30th that Spruance realized that he couldn't do nothing and do whatever the president's bullshit ordered. In other words, the Atlantic Fleet has to go south, but it cannot actively participate in combat operations, as long as it reaches the battlefield, it is enough, and as for whether or not it can hold Cuba, it is not the task of the Atlantic Fleet, but the task of the ground forces and shore-based aviation.

With this idea, you have to find a way to achieve this goal. Therefore, on the night of the 30th, Spruance ordered the fleet to turn. At that time, he judged that the main fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy would not take the initiative to go out to intercept the Atlantic Fleet, but would stay near the landing battlefield and try to block the Atlantic Fleet. Other words. It is relatively safe in the northern waters of the Bahamas. But what's next? It is impossible to stay in the northern waters of the Bahamas forever, he must be close to the battlefield, so how can he get close to the battlefield?

I thought about it all night. Spruance made the bold decision to avoid a decisive battle with his opponent by going back to the side of the battlefield and avoiding the most dangerous seas.

At that time, the most dangerous sea area was definitely the Florida Strait. If the Atlantic Fleet was to cover Cuba, it would have to enter the Florida Strait, so the Don Imperial Fleet would mainly monitor the Florida Strait, and as long as the Atlantic Fleet appeared there, it would be hit. In order to achieve this goal. Then the fleet of the Tang Empire will be deployed in the southern waters of Cuba, and it is very likely that a fleet will be deployed in the southwestern waters of the Windward Strait.

Then, to avoid the main fleet of the Tang Empire, it must not enter directly from the north, let alone enter the Florida Strait. Apart from these two routes, the only option is to take a detour in the direction of Dominica. Reach the Mona Strait between Dominica and Puerto Rico, which appears east of the main fleet of the Tang Empire. Using the forces deployed in Haiti and Dominica as cover, and with the support of limited shore-based aviation on the Puerto Rican side, they managed to find the opponent's main fleet, launch a sneak attack, and then quickly withdraw from the battlefield to avoid a retaliatory attack.

According to this set of ideas, the fleet will avoid the most dangerous seas, and at the same time, as long as the sneak attack is successful, or rather, it is unsuccessful. As long as he was able to launch a sneak attack, he had enough reason to explain to the president that the fleet had done its best, but it was only inferior to its opponent in strength, and in the end it was impossible to defeat the opponent, and this responsibility was not on him.

There is only one loophole in this plan, that is, the time when the fleet arrives at the operational sea area is the night of 2 August, that is, the fleet can only send reconnaissance planes on 3 August. If you're lucky, you'll be able to launch a sneak attack on August 3. Spruance did not realize the seriousness of the problem at the time, in his opinion. The Tang Empire's naval attack on Cuba may not have been until mid-August, but in the end, it was precisely because of this that his sneak attack failed.

In fact, by this time, Spruance's command was completely out of order, and there was not even much plausibility to speak of.

First of all, the fleet did not have a reasonable battle plan before it set off, and did not make any campaign preparations, which resulted in having to draw up an battle plan on the way south, and it was completed in a hurry, and Spruance did not adopt this battle plan at all.

Secondly, Spruance was completely out of touch with his local staff, the staff officer did not formulate the battle plan according to his intentions, and Spruance did not tell the staff officer his true purpose, so the fleet command did not play its due role at all, and Spruance became the sole commander of the fleet operation, obviously, this is extremely serious, no matter how strong anyone's ability is, it is impossible to command a large fleet operation.

Third, Spruance's campaign intentions were vague and he didn't make decisive decisions, which led to the missed best opportunity.

It can be said that these three points prove that not only Spruance himself was extremely confused in his thinking, but also the situation in the entire Atlantic Fleet. Moreover, the root cause of these phenomena cannot be blamed entirely on Spruance, but to a large extent by the reckless audacity of the President of the United States. At the same time, it is also because the development of the entire war situation has become extremely unfavorable to the United States that there is so much chaos in the command system of the US military.

For example, if the U.S. military wanted to stop the Tang Empire's offensive outside Cuba, it should have asked Spruance to start drawing up a battle plan in early July, and because no one was sure when the Atlantic Fleet would be able to regain combat effectiveness, no one asked Spruance to start preparing, which eventually led to the Atlantic Fleet rushing into battle. In addition, after the US president gave the order, he did not give Spruance any time to prepare, and the Atlantic Fleet had to blindly join the combat operation, in which case it was naturally impossible to have much effect.

It can be said that as the Tang Imperial army approached the US mainland step by step, and the offensive strength increased a lot, the pressure on the US military also increased a lot. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that there will be serious chaos within the US military. This is true not only in the Navy, but also in the Caribbean, as well as in Mexico. And this is also a symptom of the eventual defeat of the United States, one of the major turning points in the loss of this war.