When Spruance hesitated, Admiral Ridley, who was in charge of directly directing the defense of Cuba, was also very hesitant. By 1 August, the signs of an attack by the Tang Empire were becoming more and more apparent, especially after learning that the Tang Empire's landing fleet had gathered in Kingston, Bradley immediately reported to Marshall, and judged that the Tang Empire Marines would land in Cuba on any day before 5 August.

At that time, a major problem faced by the U.S. military was that it was difficult to accurately determine the landing location of the adversary. Just as Luo Yunchong and Tan Renhao analyzed before, San Diego and Cienfuegos were the most likely landing sites, and the campaign deception work was in full swing at that time, and in the face of a large amount of battlefield intelligence, it was difficult for the intelligence personnel of the US military and decision-makers to judge where the Tang Imperial Marines would land.

On the same day, Marshall sent a telegram to Bradley, asking Bradley to keep as strong a mobile reserve as possible, and to reduce the number of troops on the coastal line. This is a last resort means of defense, that is, not to fight with the enemy for beach positions, but, having determined the direction of the opponent's landing, quickly throw in a large number of reserves to drive the enemy's landing force into the sea, thereby defeating the enemy's landing operation.

Bradley had no choice but to do so, but there was one problem he couldn't solve, and that was the distance between Santiago and Cienfuegos. The distance between the two ports is only 530 miles in a straight line, but the actual road journey is more than 850 miles, and any ground force can move 250 to 300 miles a day at most. Even if the mobile troops are deployed in the middle of the road, it will take a day and a half to reach the battlefield, while the enemy's landing force can completely consolidate the beachhead in a day and a half, and even begin to advance to the depths. And if you take into account the air superiority of the opposing side. It would be impossible for any mobile force to launch a counterattack in a timely manner, nor would it be possible to crush the enemy before the opponent could expand the depth of the landing field.

In addition to being limited by the actual conditions in the theater of operations, the US troops deployed in Cuba at that time were mainly infantry, and did not have a decent armored unit, and most of the US armored units were sent to the Mexican battlefield. Before, not many people thought that armored forces were needed on the island of Cuba. As a result, the size of the mobile reserve that Bradley was able to organize was also quite limited. All of this determines the fact that the mobile reserve will not solve the problem at all, and may even not play any role.

Then. What worries Bradley the most is the superior aviation of the Tang Empire. On the battlefield in Australia, Bradley suffered a lot, and he escaped by luck. At that time, it was the Tang Empire's naval ground aviation that allowed his troops to be routed halfway, and as a result, they did not have time to reach Sydney at all, and did not even pose much threat to the landing force of the Tang Empire. Although the Cuban battlefield was much smaller, the strength of the naval aviation of the Tang Empire also increased considerably. Forward bases were also obtained, which made it possible to deploy a large number of shore-based aviation. In this case, even if he had a sufficiently mobile force and the distance between the two defensive points was not too far, he was still not sure that he would be able to defeat the enemy's landing force with a counterattack.

In desperation, Bradley had to choose one of the main defensive battlefields, and at the same time had to use another as a secondary defensive direction. There is no doubt that before August 1, Bradley's focus was on San Diego, and his judgment was quite accurate. Then. The U.S. military has 10,000 ground troops deployed within a radius of 100,150 miles centered on San Diego, with another 5 troops deployed nearby. This accounts for more than 60 percent of the total number of troops in Cuba. In addition, the U.S. military has built several lines of defense, and Bradley is not inferior to others, at least in terms of deploying defensive operations.

On the evening of August 1, after Marshall had sent him a telegram, Bradley had received two pieces of information that he had begun to wonder if he had made the right defensive arrangements. The intelligence of the U.S. military made a judgment at the time that there was less than a fifty percent chance that the Tang Empire Marines would attack San Diego. And the probability of attacking Cienfuegos is more than fifty percent.

If you don't think about seizing the airport as soon as possible, but take Cuba as soon as possible. Cienfuegos is indeed an ideal landing spot. As long as the Tang Imperial Marines successfully landed here, they could use the port to quickly replenish troops and war materials, and divide the troops into two routes to quickly sweep away the American troops in Cuba. With sufficient troops, the attack on Cuba would be shortened by more than a third compared to the departure from Santiago.

At that time, Bradley did not know that the adversary's goal was to occupy the airfield, deploy strategic bombers as soon as possible, and carry out strategic bombing of the US mainland, but believed that the adversary would first occupy the whole of Cuba and then use Cuba as a springboard to land on the US mainland. In fact, this was exactly what most of the American generals thought at that time, and thus became the key defense direction of the US military. In this case, Bradley will have to consider how he will adjust his defense if his opponent lands in Cienfuegos.

And the second piece of information was the news that the landing fleet of the Tang Empire had left Kingston. The U.S. reconnaissance planes spotted the landing fleet leaving Kingston during the night and then returned, so they did not know that the landing fleet had returned to Kingston a few hours later. Based on this information, Bradley made a new judgment that if the landing fleet appeared off the coast of San Diego on the night of August 2, then the Don Marines would land in San Diego. If, on the other hand, it does not appear off the coast of Santiago, but off the coast of Cienfuegos, then the opponent's landing site will be in Cienfuegos. He immediately made a new deployment based on this judgment, ordering the three U.S. infantry divisions deployed in San Diego to be ready to go to Cienfuegos at any time.

In fact, this was what campaign deception needed to achieve at that time. Although the landing fleet did not appear off Cienfuegos on August 2, but only reached the sea southeast of the Cannareos Islands south of Cienfuegos on the night of August 3, the impact was not great, and Bradley finally ordered the three infantry divisions to leave Santiago and rush to Cienfuegos based on this discovery, resulting in a serious shortage of defense forces in the Santiago area, after the lack of three divisions and more than 5 troops,

It's hard to defeat the landed Imperial Marines.

As Bradley adjusted its defenses, Spruance's Atlantic Fleet was heading south at a cruising speed of 16 knots in the eastern waters of the Bahamas. At that time, Spruance had already ordered the fleet to be put into combat readiness and strengthened anti-submarine patrols. In addition, more than a dozen long-range anti-submarine patrol aircraft stationed in the Bahamas patrol around the fleet, providing anti-submarine cover for the fleet.

Spruance had already reported his intentions to Admiral King, and although Admiral King did not directly affirm, he did not object. In addition, Admiral Kim sent a telegram to Spruance every few hours, so that Spruance could grasp the changes on the battlefield and understand the situation in other directions, so as to make accurate judgments.

At this point, Spruance had to wait patiently, and it would take another day for the fleet to reach the waters north of Costa Rica, which meant that he had to wait more than a day. Unbeknownst to Spruance, however, that not far ahead of the route he had chosen, a submarine that had been sailing with a snorkel half an hour earlier had just retracted its snorkel and avoided the anti-submarine patrol planes that flew by.

This submarine is the same boat that has just been transferred to the Atlantic Ocean under the command of Colonel Wen Haomao, and this is also the fourth submarine under the command of Colonel Wen Haomao.

As early as half a year ago, when the battle in the Pacific Ocean was about to end, Wen Haomao's submarine group was given a chance to take a collective vacation. At that time, submarine forces already had few targets in the Pacific Ocean to strike. In addition, most of the submarines were out of service and needed to be overhauled, so three of the five submarine groups operating in the Pacific Ocean at that time were given the opportunity to take a collective vacation.

Taking advantage of this vacation, Wen Haomao went home to get married, and his wife grew up with his childhood sweetheart. The wedding was not a luxury, the only pity was that Wen Haomao's most respected eldest brother was sent to Europe to conduct submarine tactical exchanges with Germany at that time, and he was not able to come back to attend his wedding. Other than that, everything was going well, and Wen Haomao also went on a trip with his new wife. By the time he received the order to return to the fleet, his wife was pregnant, and many experienced midwives said they were pregnant with a boy.

After returning to the army, Wen Haomao was excited about becoming a father. The rest of the energy was put into the troops. It was at this time that Wen Haomao obtained his fourth submarine, the 558 submarine, which was the fourth submarine he had commanded, and the latest submarine built by the Imperial Navy at that time.

558 belongs to the submarine of the "C" modification, the basis of which is the submarine of the "C" class. The main improvements are for the special features that are required when fighting in the Atlantic. This was also a little gain from the exchange of submarines between the Reich Navy and the German Navy. It can be said that the "C" class submarines continued to retain most of the performance characteristics of the German Navy's XXI submarines. There have been changes in other areas. For example, for the first time, a sonar system that can be accurately positioned was installed on the submarine, which is to put it simply, several loudspeakers located in different positions of the submarine are integrated, so as to use the angle of the sound signal received by several sonars and combine the triangulation algorithm to determine the position of the sound source. In addition, the endurance of the submarine was reduced, but the capacity of the battery on the submarine was increased, only it was not possible to install a more powerful electric motor. Therefore, the maximum underwater speed of the submarine has not changed, but the diving time has been extended, and when sailing at maximum speed, it can run 54 nautical miles in one go, which is a little farther than the previous 48 nautical miles.

Comparatively speaking, the "C" reclassification has improved its tactical performance in important areas to a rather limited extent, but it is more suitable for fighting in the Atlantic region. Wen Haomao is no stranger to this new submarine, and most of the equipment in the submarine is the same as his previous "C" class submarine, and the officers and men can skillfully operate and use it. As for the new tactics that the new submarines bring. Wen Haomao would not be in a hurry to think about it, he couldn't be a little farther away because of the submarine's diving distance. Let's take the plunge.

From January to March, Wen Haomao's submarine was constantly training, during which he refused... The arrangement of the detachment commander was mainly because he didn't want to leave his submarine, and he knew that his eldest brother Wen Jiaqian also refused the arrangement of being promoted to deputy captain of the submarine brigade not long ago, and continued to stay in the front-line troops.

At the beginning of the 4th, Wen Haomao received an order, and immediately led his submarine out of the port of Naha, passing through the port of Apra and Pearl Harbor, and then arrived in Panama City, and then entered the Caribbean Sea and came to the Atlantic theater. At that time, about one-third of the submarines took the Pacific route, and the other two-thirds took the route from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. The new base of Wen Haomao is the port of Colón at the other end of the Panama Canal.

After arriving in Cologne, the 558 submarine did not immediately begin its first combat patrol, and the task was to familiarize themselves with the local situation within a month and give the crew the opportunity to adapt to the new environment. Therefore, before the end of June, the officers and men on the 558 submarine were basically active on the shore, and they also organized several outings, in addition to learning about the local cultural situation, and also took this opportunity to give the officers and men the opportunity to adjust.

On June 28, the 558 submarine left the port of Cologne with 24 torpedoes and 450 diesel, enough to consume three months' worth of fresh water, food, and other supplies, and entered the Caribbean Sea in the dark of night, officially starting its first combat patrol in the Atlantic. The area of 558's patrol this time is not in the Caribbean Sea, but will go to the waters of the Bahamas, where it will wait for planes to hunt down American transport ships.

For any submarine captain, it is definitely the best luck to be able to hunt down the enemy's main battleship while on combat patrol, and Wen Haomao once seized such an opportunity and took out an American aircraft carrier. And he could not have imagined that his luck would be so good, that the first combat patrol in the Atlantic allowed him to crash into an American aircraft carrier, and not just one, but as many as six!