"Sir, the Admiralty has sent a telegram ordering us to immediately go to the Los Angeles area to support the ground forces in the operation. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info "The communications staff officer came to the bridge of the USS Essex, the flagship of the Pacific Fleet, and handed over a telegram from the US Department of the Navy to Admiral Spruance" Admiral Nimitz, the commander of the Pacific Fleet, also sent a telegram asking where we were. ”

"Hmm. Got it. As with the telegrams before, Spruance put them aside after reading them, and did not comment on the order.

"Sir, are we going to Los Angeles?" The chief of staff of the fleet on the side couldn't help but ask, "The headquarters has given orders several times. ”

"What are we going to do over there?" Spruance sat in a chair, turned his head to look at the vast sea outside the bridge, and whispered with a complicated expression, "Did you go over and die?" ”

Spruance's fleet had been wandering the waters off Panama for several days, and after receiving the order for the Ming army to land in the Los Angeles area, Spruance immediately gave the order for the entire fleet to go into radio silence after sending a telegram. During this time, he had been thinking about how to resist the Ming army's offensive. I had an idea, but I didn't put it into action.

When Halsey, under the orders of the Admiralty, led part of his fleet through the Panama Canal to the Atlantic, Spruance knew that he was no longer capable of confronting the Ming Navy on a frontal battlefield. Because he does not have enough strength in his hands. The Navy is a purely technical service, and no matter how high your morale and training are, you won't be able to use a bunch of sail warships against the task force.

Although the U.S. military has not yet reached the point of sailing fleet, it is simply impossible to find fighters that can make a breakthrough when quality and quantity are completely inferior. Because the Ming Navy only needs not to make irreparable mistakes by itself, then they can completely rely on the advantages of quantity and quality to consume the last strength of the US Navy little by little.

The U.S. Navy, or rather he Spruance, doesn't have many options at the moment.

Spruance, who held the last naval force of the U.S. Navy in his hands, was very cautious, and he could not follow the orders of the Admiralty and expend all the strength in his hands in meaningless resistance. He now wants to help the situation of the war, and the fleet in his hand cannot be destroyed by anything. As long as the fleet is still there, the Ming army must always divide its forces to be vigilant against his attacks. This kind of diversion has a very strong supporting significance for ground operations.

But once the fleet is lost, the Ming navy, which has lost its restraint, will completely seal off the coast of the Americas.

"Where has Halsey's fleet arrived?" After a moment of silence, Spruance turned to his chief of staff and asked.

When the Ming army raided and bombed the Panama Canal, Spruance immediately realized that the Ming army wanted to prevent Halsey from returning for reinforcements. So he sent a telegram to Halsey before ordering the fleet-wide radio silence, suggesting that Halsey should no longer heed the Admiralty's orders for him to go to the East Coast, and instead choose to come to his aid quickly.

Spruance said in a telegram that the war could only be continued if it held out in the Pacific theater, and that if this side was defeated, the entire war would be over.

Halsey replied with only two words: 'Yes.' Since then, the Halsey fleet has not sent any telegrams.

"No telegrams have been received about the Halsey fleet." The words of the communications staff officer made Spruance nod slightly, no news is good news. Although the Ming army destroyed the Panama Canal and paralyzed the shortcut to Halsey's direct confluence. But Halsey's fleet had been operating in the Caribbean before, and if they had been on the line since the telegram had been on display, they might have been close to Argentine waters by now.

"Let's go." Spruance finally gave the order to attack, "Task Force 99 goes north to the waters near California, don't fight the Ming Navy, just show your existence." The main forces of the fleet are attacking, we go to Hawaii! ”

Spruance's plan was a great success. When a long-range anti-submarine plane patrolling the waters about 750 nautical miles southeast of the Hawaiian Islands discovered the traces of the main force of the Spruance fleet, the transport fleet of the fourth landing force of the Ming Army, which had just set sail for less than a day after refueling the Hawaiian Islands, had to return quickly.

And not only this wave of transport fleets, but also several other waves of transport fleets have gone to the nearby Ming naval base to wait for further orders. The reinforcement of the Ming army to the landing area was forced to be postponed.

There were three waves of Ming troops landing on the American mainland, with a total strength of about 1.5 million men, but because of the threat of Spruance, the subsequent Ming landing fleet could not sail. Faced with increasing pressure from the US military, the forward command urgently demanded that the Navy eliminate this huge threat.

On 4 November, the Ming Navy finally completed its deployment of troops. Several large task forces pulled out a long battle line, searching the vast Pacific Ocean for traces of the American fleet. The intention of the Ming Navy was obvious, that is, to force the Americans to fight a decisive battle with them. Even if it comes at a high price.

At the same time, the Atlantic Fleet led by Halsey, the Americans' follower, was discovered by Ming spies stationed in Chile when they rushed through the Drake Strait to support Spruance in the Pacific theater.

Several U.S. transport ships frantically collected all the fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, milk and other items they could find, loaded them onto the ships, and then hurried out to sea. This unusual situation attracted the attention of the Ming army spies.

The local Ming army spies spent a lot of money to bribe an important local official, and the local official, who was not optimistic about the future of the allies, told the Ming army spies that they had received orders to prepare all kinds of supplies to supply an unknown fleet to the open sea.

This important piece of information was quickly sent to the Admiralty. After analysis, the Admiralty staff believed that the reliability of this information was very high, and at this moment there was only one fleet that could pass through the Drake Strait and still have to carry out large-scale replenishment, and that was the Halsey Fleet, which had previously passed through the Panama Canal to the east coast of the United States.

The front-line commanders of the Ming army were vigilant after receiving this important telegram, at least not to be raided under unknown circumstances.

Spruance has been constantly revealing his tracks, attracting the Ming navy to chase him all the way south. Two days later, Spruance joined Task Force 99, which had returned from the waters off Los Angeles, about 700 nautical miles southwest of the Galapagos Islands, before continuing south across the equator.

Spruance sent long-range seaplanes to the Galapagos Islands and used the island's radio station to send his own telegram to Halsey's fleet. Halsey, after receiving Spruance's telegram, also sent a seaplane to the Chilean island of Wellington to send a telegram back. The reason for such caution is that neither Spruance nor Halsey believes that their plans have not been exposed.

Spruance's plan was very simple, to pull the main fleet of the Ming Navy around the vast South Pacific, and pull away several Ming task forces as much as possible. Then he used himself as a decoy to fight fiercely with the Ming fleet, and then Halsey suddenly killed and hit the Ming army by surprise.

In reality, this plan can be called the last hope of the US Navy. Because in the event of a naval and air war, a surprise attack by a powerful carrier-based aircraft force can even quickly destroy a powerful fleet. They only need to destroy the aircraft carriers of the Ming fleet on the vast sea, and then they can use carrier-based aircraft to destroy all the remaining Ming warships again and again. It's like the Ming Navy has done many times before.

The US military is not worried about the loss of carrier-based aircraft, nor about the loss of pilots. Whether it is carrier-based aircraft or pilots, there are a lot of them. What the US Navy lacks now is warships.

Several large-scale naval battles led to significant losses of surface ships of the US Navy. Although the shipyards are lined with ships that are being built at a rapid pace, and new warships are launched to join the naval sequence almost every week. However, the long cycle of building warships was too difficult for the US military.

At this time, when Daming has landed on the mainland of the United States on a large scale, the day when the warships in those shipyards are not officially put into service has become a suspense.

The only way to stop the Ming army's landing operation was to cut off their follow-up landing force. In other words, the US Navy wants to seize sea supremacy in the Pacific Ocean. And the only way to seize sea supremacy in the hands of the powerful Ming Navy is to defeat them.

At this moment, the only chance for Spruance was to split the Ming army's several large task forces and use surprise attacks to defeat them.

This battle plan was risky, as it was premised on the fact that the Ming army had no knowledge of a possible surprise attack by the U.S. Navy. Not to mention that the Ming spies have already noticed the movements of the US Navy, which of these front-line commanders of the Ming army who emerged after several years of naval warfare is a fool? They could be raided in the event of an advantage?

Although there was a great deal of uncertainty about this plan, Spruance had no choice but to have enough power in his hands at this time.

In addition to the necessary support and escort forces, the Ming Navy organized the main fleet in its hands into four large-scale task forces commanded by Lin Luo, Tong Haifeng, Li Ru and Han Dongwen. Each fleet is huge, and it's definitely not too far from each other.

These task forces pulled out a long battle line and kept chasing Spruance's fleet. They were not worried about their position being exposed, but instead expected Spruance to take the initiative to attack. As long as it is bitten to the death, then the US Navy fleet will not want to successfully escape! (To be continued.) )