The problem faced by Spruance was far from being as simple as he imagined, and if nothing else, the quality of the officers and men of the fleet, as well as the pilots of the carrier-based aviation units, was enough for Spruance to reassess the combat effectiveness of the Fifth Fleet. What's more, these problems are impossible to solve in the short term, or even through time or even training. The vast majority of the abilities of the officers and men were acquired in battle, and what the newly formed Fifth Fleet lacked was actual combat experience.

The courage and stubborn will to fight, and even the lofty military spirit displayed by the US military in the war are worthy of recognition. In addition, the United States is a relatively open and developed country, so there are not many problems in terms of military resources.

Before the war, the domestic aviation industry in the United States was already very developed, not only with a large number of aviation factories, but also a large number of civilian aviation enthusiasts, the Wright brothers in the United States only completed the first flight in American history only a few months later than the "father of the airplane" Feng Ru of the empire, and its 11 Aviator aircraft was still the most advanced aircraft at that time. In the decades that followed, the United States saw a large number of flying enthusiasts and flying explorers. For example, the first Link to cross the Atlantic was an American, and American flyers have set many world records. In addition, the United States was the first country to use aircraft for commercial flights, and the world's first agricultural aircraft were born in the United States, and the route from Los Angeles to New York was the world's first commercial route.

It can be said that the United States does not lack flying talents, and after the outbreak of the war, the United States was able to recruit pilots in large numbers because the United States has a large reserve of aviation talents. Similarly, there is no shortage of excellent aircraft designers and aircraft manufacturers in the United States. Unlike the Tang Empire, aircraft factories in the United States were basically private, such as Grumman, Douglas, and General Motors at that time. Republic Aircraft Company, North American Aircraft Company, these companies all built a large number of excellent fighters. In terms of scale, none of these companies can compare with the aircraft factories in the Tang Empire, which were directly controlled by the military, but their production capacity. The ability to innovate was not under the aircraft factories of the Tang Empire.

These companies build a large number of advanced fighters. For example, the F4U in the Pacific Ocean was supplied with a large number of P-51 series fighters to the European allies, and B-17 and B-24 series bombers were deployed on a large scale against Germany. The B25 series of bombers fighting in the Pacific Ocean, as well as transport aircraft such as the C-46, C-47, and C-54. These are all very good, advanced combat aircraft that are comparable to the ground aircraft of the Tang Empire.

Similarly, there is no shortage of seafarers in the United States. The United States was originally a country founded by immigrants, and the first immigrants to reach the United States were disembarked on sailboats. From the founding of the United States. There is no shortage of seafarers in the United States. It can be said that before the United States, the Tang Empire and the British Navy were able to control the world's oceans, to a large extent. It is because the Tang Empire and Britain did not lack excellent sailors. And the United States has this foundation. Before the outbreak of the war, there were more than 500,000 sailors registered with the U.S. government, while during the same period, there were only 600,000 sailors in the Tang Empire and 300,000 in the British. These sailors are the "reserves" of the naval fleet and the basis of the Navy.

The United States does not lack the ability to build world-class warships, its huge industrial base is the fundamental manifestation of its shipbuilding capabilities, and the American ship designers are also among the world's top in the world. The U.S. Navy was the first to come up with the doctrine of "point-of-care" protection, which was a major criterion for battleship design after World War I. Other than that. The United States also transformed the world's first aircraft carrier, first of all to put forward the doctrine of naval aviation operations. And in terms of practical application. The Yorktown-class aircraft carrier was the world's finest fleet aircraft carrier before the outbreak of the war. The ground performance of the "Essex" class aircraft carrier is not below the "Lake" class. And the combat effectiveness of the battleships of the "Iowa" class surpassed the first batch of the "New Provincial Capital" class, and it was not much different from the improved "New Provincial Capital" class. The combat effectiveness of the heavy cruisers of the "Baltimore" class surpassed that of the "Solar Terms" class, and was even comparable to the "River" class. And the large cruisers of the "Alaska" class are unique in the world. It can be said that these are important manifestations of the design and construction capabilities of US ships, and they are also important weights for the US Navy to dare to challenge the Tang Imperial Navy.

In the early days of the United States' entry into the war, the combat effectiveness of the US Navy was thoroughly manifested. The battle of the ambush of Task Force 1 was evident, and the three subsequent naval battles around the Mariana Islands, as well as the naval battles that broke out in the waters near Wake Island, and those naval battles between the islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, were enough to prove that in the early stage of the war, as well as in the stalemate stage, the US Navy did not have problems with the quality of its personnel, and the US Navy was a strong fighting force, an army that could be feared by the navy of any country, even the Tang Imperial Navy.

Things are always moving and changing, and it can't stay the same all the time. The quality of the officers and men of the US Navy also changed with the development of the war, but contrary to the Tang Imperial Navy, the quality of the officers and men of the US Navy did not improve, but decreased. The fundamental reason for this phenomenon is that the combat casualties of the US Navy are much higher than those of the Tang Imperial Navy, especially in the stalemate stage of the war, the US Navy advocated strategic counterattacks, so several major naval battles were carried out within the control of the Tang Imperial Navy, and as a result, most of the US Navy officers and men were not able to return after avoiding casualties, but became prisoners. For the US Navy, its losses even exceeded the fleet itself.

This can be seen from a statistical report of the US Navy in 26 years. By the beginning of 26, at the end of the "Battle of Necker Island", the proportion of veterans in the U.S. Navy who had served for more than two years had dropped to about 20%. In addition, the number of veterans who served before the outbreak of the war and who are still serving in the US Navy has fallen to less than one percent. In other words, of the nearly 200,000 officers and men of the U.S. Navy fleet before the outbreak of the war, by the beginning of the 26th, less than 20,000 continued to serve in the naval fleet, and the rest were either killed, wounded and disabled, or taken prisoner. Even if the officers and men of the Navy who served in the early 24 years are counted, at this time, there are less than 100,000 veterans among the officers and men of the US Navy fleet!

At the same time, there was a similar investigation report in the Tang Imperial Navy. By the beginning of 26, among the officers and men of the fleet of the Imperial Navy. More than 80,000 officers and men served before the outbreak of the war, 220,000 officers and men served in the Navy before the United States entered the war, and more than 350,000 officers and men served before the beginning of the 24th year, accounting for more than 60% of the officers and men of the entire naval fleet! Moreover, officers and men who have served for more than one year account for more than eighty percent of the officers and men of the entire fleet (including the fleet air force). The proportion of recruits is less than 20%. And according to the same standard. The proportion of recruits in the US Navy fleet is more than sixty percent.

From these comparative figures, we can see how serious the problem of the quality of the US Navy's soldiers was at that time. Although each country trains its naval officers and men differently, the navy is not an army. For the Army, recruits only need to master how to use rifles before they can be sent to the front (which is an extreme case), while Navy recruits have to spend a lot of time training, mastering how to operate warships, how to conduct combat operations at sea, and so on. At that time, the Tang Empire's naval recruits needed at least half a year of training. And as the situation eased, the training was extended to a year to allow the recruits to master more abilities before they hit the ship, and they could work in at least two different positions. In this way, the combat effectiveness of the fleet can be enhanced in disguise. And it takes at least half a year for the US Navy to train a recruit, and it is not too much for a recruit to become familiar with his post.

Training alone takes six months to a year, and recruits need to be familiar with life on a warship, familiar with the work on a warship, and familiar with naval and ground combat operations. A lot of experience that can't be gained through training. No matter how intense and realistic the training is, it is impossible to replace combat experience, which can only be obtained on the battlefield!

As the commander of the fleet, Spruance was well aware of the impact of the quality of officers and men in battle. He had a personal feeling on the battlefield, and it can be said that he fought several times because of the quality of the officers and men of the fleet, especially the aviation unit, which eventually led to defeat, and the Tang Imperial fleet was able to become more and more courageous the more it fought, to a large extent, because of the excellent officers and men.

In the Battle of Neck, Spruance seized the opportunity twice, but failed to defeat Task Force 1 on both occasions. At that time, he knew that the quality of the pilots of the Fifth Fleet, as well as the pilots of the Marine Corps Aviation deployed on the nearby islands, was already a big problem. Then, two rounds of attacks by Task Force 1 knocked the Fifth Fleet to the ground, much to Spruance's chagrin. The opponent has a crack aviation, and he has some rookies in his hands. Hundreds of bombers failed to defeat the First Task Force, and the First Task Force almost completely wiped out the Fifth Fleet with more than 100 bombers in two rounds of bombing.

This was the main reason why Spruance was strenuously opposed to a hasty counterattack, he did not want more pilots to be sent to their deaths, nor did he want the fleet to suffer another loss. However, the problem is that it is impossible to bring about a qualitative change in the quality of pilots through training alone.

At that time, Spruance had adopted a full-scale approach to confrontation training, and he didn't care how high the losses were, he wanted the best pilots, not a group of pilots destined to die. High-intensity confrontation training is the most effective way to quickly improve the ability of pilots in addition to actual combat. But the consequences are severe. In less than a month of training, there were more than 100 training casualties, and more than 40 pilots were sent back to their homeland in coffins covered with Stars and Stripes before they could go to war. More than 50 pilots were wounded, more than 20 of whom were destined to never fly. The proportion of training casualties is more than 10%, that is, more than 10% of pilots will not be able to complete training at all, and will be eliminated before they go to war!

The training tasks of the officers and men of the fleet are also quite arduous, and the focus of the training is the air defense of the fleet. In order to improve the air defense combat capability of the officers and men of the fleet, Spruance even organized the fleet to conduct more than 10 confrontation exercises with shore-based air forces, allowing transport planes to tow gliders to act as enemy bombers, and providing training for the antiaircraft gunners on the warships. Spruance even directly asked shore-based bombers to "attack" the fleet, so that the officers and men of the fleet could experience the atmosphere on the "battlefield."

No amount of training can truly replace brutal combat on the battlefield. Training is only to lay the foundation so that officers and men can master basic skills, and whether they can display them on the battlefield can only be known after they arrive on the battlefield. But Spruance was well aware that the better the preparations were done now, the better the fleet would perform on the battlefield. Training may not fundamentally improve the combat effectiveness of the fleet, but it can reduce the casualty rate, and as long as those officers and men who have gone through the test of battle survive, then the next time they set foot on the battlefield, they will be "veterans" with actual combat experience.

From this point of view, Spruance was undoubtedly an excellent fleet commander, and nothing should be overestimated about him. And in fact, the US Navy has not been short of good commanders. In addition to Spruance, there are now a number of generals such as Turner and Mitchell who have superb command skills. The problem was that the U.S. Navy lacked a fleet strong enough for these commanders to win on the battlefield.

This is also the most serious problem faced by the US Navy, in terms of ability, Spruance and Tan Renhao are half a pound and two, and they have their own wins and losses in the confrontation between the two, and the ability of Turner, Mitchell and others will not be much worse. According to the general law of development of warfare, after the army of any country has been fighting on the battlefield for several years, a large number of outstanding generals and outstanding officers and men will surely emerge. However, the situation of the US Navy is a bit abnormal, and this is the biggest problem that has arisen in the US Navy in the past two years or so of war.

War does not depend on anyone's will, and Spruance is well aware that sooner or later the Fifth Fleet will embark on its journey, and he must be ready to go on it. While making the officers and men of the fleet and the officers and men of the carrier-based aviation unit seize all the time for training, he is also planning counterattack operations with the other two generals, which is another essential job of his.