If the U.S. Navy is also superstitious, then the number "17" is certainly not an auspicious number. In the "Battle of the Philippines", the "Yorktown" of the 17th Task Force was severely damaged and was forced to return to the West Coast of the United States, where it lay in the dock for nearly three months (comparatively, the "Saratoga" aircraft carrier, which was originally planned to be repaired for at least four months, actually took only more than two months to repair) Then, in the "First Battle of the Marianas", the 17th Task Force was completely destroyed, and both aircraft carriers were completely destroyed.

When Rear Admiral Kincaid boarded the USS Enterprise, there was a not-so-good premonition that the fleet, which had been re-awarded the "17" designation, would still be as unlucky as before? It's not luck, it's determined by the task. When Kincaid knew that their mission was to "poke the hornet's nest", he also knew that Task Force 17 would never be much luckier.

Unlike Task Force 16 under Spruance's command, Task Force 17 had four battleships at its core, not aircraft carriers. Fundamentally, Kincaid preferred battleships, having spent more than half of his more than thirty years of service on battleships. But the problem is that the current naval warfare is no longer dominated by battleships, and aircraft carriers are the real maritime hegemon. The fleet has only one aircraft carrier, although this aircraft carrier carries 90 fighters (the "Enterprise" was incorporated into the 17th task force, and its aviation configuration has completely changed, in addition to 14 reconnaissance aircraft, there are only 90 F4U fighters, which do not carry bombers, and its task is fleet air defense) But how many are 90 fighters? Because of the limitation of the aircraft carrier's ability to carry aircraft, more than 30 fighters can take off at a time, and these fighters are not necessarily the opponents of the fighters of the Tang Empire!

After the departure of the fleet, Kincaid also received several pieces of information. The First Task Force of the Tang Empire had already appeared in the waters northeast of Saipan, and bombers had also been dispatched to provide fire support for the Tang Marines who landed on Saipan. The seaplane also sent information on the exact location of Task Force 1 (alas, because of bad weather. Moreover, the radar of the 1st Task Force was not turned on, so the US reconnaissance plane was not detected) Kincaid immediately ordered the fleet to speed up, and on the way to the battlefield, revised the ground battle plan formulated by the Pacific Fleet Command.

Before the storm, the fighters sent by the "Enterprise" shot down a reconnaissance plane of the Don Empire. Kincaid did not feel nervous, the fighter intercepted this long-range reconnaissance plane of the Tang Empire more than thirty nautical miles away, and the visibility above the sea at that time was less than five nautical miles, so it was impossible for this reconnaissance plane to detect the fleet. Kincaid did not change the course and speed of the fleet because of this. He's still on plan.

According to Kincaid's plan, the 17th Task Force will arrive at the sea area where the Tang Empire's First Task Force is active after dawn, and at this time, the Tang Empire's First Task Force must still be maintaining radio silence to avoid detection, and the storm has not completely passed, so it is impossible to find the battleship formation approaching at high speed. If the sneak attack was successful, then the powerful firepower on the four battleships would destroy the 1st Task Force of the Tang Empire within half an hour to an hour and win the naval battle. Next, the second task force of the Tang Empire will be forced out, and the ambushed Spruance will be able to deal with this task force with three aircraft carriers.

This plan is really good. Moreover, the characteristics of the 17th Task Force with battleships as the core were taken into account to the greatest extent. If the shelling is successful. Then it is not a problem whether the "Enterprise" carries a bomber or not. And when countering the strikes of the bombers of the Tang Empire, the "Enterprise" carrying ground fighters can play a greater role. But the problem is that Kincaid still ignores one issue. That is, the effect of the weather on both sides is actually the same, and since Task Force 1 does not take advantage of the weather, then Task Force 17 does not take advantage of the weather either!

When the fleet sailed in a north-westerly direction, the impact of the weather was enormous. The southeastern winds of the storm were north-easterly, almost blowing in the direction of the fleet. The four aging battleships were barely able to reach speeds of 20 knots, and the "Enterprise" was more unlucky, and the storm almost completely disabled the newly repaired aircraft carrier. The original planned speed of the fleet was 21 knots (the maximum speed) but in fact it was barely 20 knots, in other words, the fleet arrived at the predetermined sea area more than an hour later than planned!

The sudden change in the direction of the storm's center of motion was also unexpected by Kincaid. The center of the storm shifted eastward. In fact, by the time Task Force 17 arrives at the predetermined sea, the weather will improve about an hour earlier. The impact was even greater, because Kincaid was well aware that the better weather would help the Don Empire's fleet even more. In bad weather, the battleship could also open fire, and the aircraft carrier could not let the bomber take off. In addition, if the weather improves and the visibility at sea improves a lot, then it is possible for the Tang Imperial fleet to spot the 17th task force at a relatively long distance. Do not give Task Force 17 a chance to get close.

The storm covered Task Force 17 and disrupted Kincaid's plans. At half past eight on the morning of the 5th (the agreed arrival was between half past six and seven o'clock), Kincaid led the 17th Task Force to the sea where the 1st Task Force had been discovered the day before. At this time, the wind and waves on the sea have decreased a lot, and the weather is rapidly improving, but the problem is that there is no shadow of the First Task Force here!

There were many worse situations, both catapults on the "Enterprise" had problems, and the flight deck was smashed by a fallen aircraft crane, and it took several hours to repair them, so the "Enterprise" could not send reconnaissance aircraft. The four battleships, as well as the seaplanes on the other cruisers, remained on Wake Island (because the weather turned bad, and these vulnerable seaplanes could not follow the fleet) and could not carry out reconnaissance and search missions by water planes. Two radars in the fleet were also blown away by the gale. In other words, Task Force 17 had no other means of reconnaissance than eyes.

In desperation, Kincaid could only let the destroyers and light cruisers in the fleet that could still sail at maximum speed scatter and search, and report immediately after discovering the enemy fleet. At the same time, he also ordered the flight deck and catapults of the "Enterprise" to be repaired as soon as possible, and the fighters and reconnaissance planes were lifted into the air as soon as possible.

The search lasted until half past ten, and Kincaid couldn't help himself. Although he has not yet been in contact with Spruance, he knows that Spruance is not far away. Now the 17th Task Force is operating under the noses of the Don Army. There is a possibility of being discovered at any time, and if the fleet is exposed, then the swarming Tang Empire shore-based bombers can turn the 17th Task Force into a "diving" fleet!

By 10:50 a.m., the weather had improved considerably, and if the aircraft carrier was repaired, the fighters could be lifted into the air, but the problem was that the repair work on the "Enterprise" site would continue at least until 12 o'clock. Or even half past twelve. Kincaid couldn't help it, he sent a telegram at this time, asking the 16th Task Force to help them search for the First Task Force of the Tang Empire, and try to provide air defense cover!

This is the radio signal intercepted by the Tang Army, and it is also the telegram received by Spruance. The location of the 17th task force was exposed, and even more sadly, the restoration of the aircraft carrier "Enterprise" remained unfinished. By twelve o'clock, the flight deck had been repaired, and one catapult had been repaired, and the repair of the other catapult would take at least several hours (there were spare catapult parts on the carrier. But it can't be too much. In particular, some of the more important parts are impossible to prepare two copies, and the damage to the catapult is relatively few failures) twelve points. The first reconnaissance aircraft left the flight deck of the "Enterprise". Kincaid first lifted the reconnaissance plane into the air, not the fighter into the air. Unbeknownst to him, Task Force 1 had already spotted them, and the bomber group was already on its way. If Kincaid had let the fighters rise into the air first, the Enterprise would have been able to release at least a dozen more fighters before the bomber group arrived, and the role of this in the air defense operations of the fleet should not be underestimated.

At 12:15, after twelve reconnaissance planes had risen one after another, the fighters left the flight deck of the "Enterprise" one after another, and at this time. The first dive bombers, led by Lieutenant Colonel Chogenbo, were less than 40 nautical miles away from Task Force 17!

Just when Kincaid pinned his hopes on those reconnaissance planes and hoped that the reconnaissance planes would be able to detect the Tang Imperial fleet in time, the US military radio monitoring station on Saipan received a signal from the depths of the ocean. After analyzing this signal by the US military's code analysts, it was immediately concluded that it was a radio signal sent by the "Yangtze River" aircraft carrier, the flagship of the Tang Empire's First Task Force (the signal of each radio station is different, and the "Yangtze River" has been on combat missions before, and the US military has long been familiar with the signal characteristics of this aircraft carrier's radio station) This signal is actually a telegram sent by Tan Renhao to Liao Hanxiang and Lei Shaoqing!

This extremely important piece of information was sent out at around 12:25 p.m. after it was quickly processed. Kincaid saw the contents of the telegram two minutes later. But it was too late at this time, and the air defense alarm of the 17th task force sounded two minutes ago, and the destroyers on the perimeter alert mission first spotted the Tang Empire bomber group flying from the northeast. This time, the officers and men on the US destroyer did not regard the Tang Imperial fighters with typical gull-like wings as their fighters (in fact, the 'Kingfisher', 'Osprey', and "Falcon" are still relatively similar in appearance to the American F4U). At the forefront of the bomber group of the Don Empire will never be bombers, but escort fighters that will come out of the front. The twelve "Falcons" led by Major Ellsler never flew slower than those bulky bombers. Less than three minutes after the air defense alarm of the American fleet sounded, these fighters of the Tang Empire swooped down into the air and killed the "pirates" who were still climbing.

The air battle was not tragic, and there was no suspense in the air battle between the fighters of the two sides compared to the bombing that followed. Among the twelve pilots in Ellsle, there are already eight aces, and Ellsle's own downing record has reached 32, ranking in the top ten ace pilots of the Tang Imperial Naval Aviation, and the total downfall record of these twelve pilots is close to 100, and among the twelve American pilots, only four have participated in actual combat, and the other eight are novices, and their total downfall record is less than 5!

Twenty-four dive bombers led by Qiu Gengbo arrived five minutes later. When they saw the aircraft carrier on the surface of the sea and the four battleships surrounding it, they were immediately stunned, what a huge fleet this is, there are actually five large targets! Then, 24 pilots who were already hot-headed were killed, and the navigators behind them were constantly beckoning the other bombers to coordinate their attacks.

The 22 "Ospreys" led by Zhang Zhitao also arrived and launched an attack when the "Kingfisher" overhead began to attack the aircraft carrier located in the center of the fleet. Zhang Zhitao: Their target is not the aircraft carrier at the core of the fleet, but the battleship on the outside of the aircraft carrier. The anti-aircraft fire on these battleships was so fierce that several "Kingfishers" were hit when they broke through, and if these battleships were not killed, then all the bombers would not want to break through smoothly!

Qiu Gengbo also quickly discovered this, and the anti-aircraft fire on the American battleships was even more powerful than they expected. As early as the war against Japan, the pilots of the Tang Empire found that battleships were the most difficult to deal with. The Japanese battleships had a large number of anti-aircraft guns, which were not only thick-skinned, but also hedgehog-like. If you don't just take out those battleships, you can't take out the aircraft carriers in the middle.

As soon as the two madman pilots met, they immediately attacked hand in hand, and Qiu Gengbo took three other "Kingfishers" to kill the battleship on the far right side of the DPRK-US fleet, and Zhang Zhitao also immediately called for several "Ospreys" to come over from an ultra-low altitude. As soon as the two of them were high, the disaster of the battleship "Idaho", which was located on the left side of the formation, arrived.

When the "Falcon" drove the "pirates" out of the skies over the American fleet, torpedo bombers and dive bombers that took off from the "Xuanzong" also joined the battle. At this time, not only Kincaid thought he was finished, but the other American sailors must have thought the same way. Sea Soul Volume 7 Turning the Tide Section 80 The number of bad luck