In the dark night, the salty sea breeze blows, and the stars in the dark sky continue to shine, spreading their bright brilliance to the endless sea. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

On the rough seas, a large fleet pulled out a long queue and was silently moving forward. There was no light in the entire fleet except for the flickering of the lights and the signal contact, but the whole fleet sailed in a clear path and the queue was well organized. This is a well-trained fleet that strictly enforces the control of night navigation lights.

This is the U.S. Navy's Task Force 58, a fleet that is the last straw for the U.S. Navy at this moment.

During the day, Halsey commanded the 57th Task Force and launched a failed ambush raid on the 2nd and 3rd Air Fleets of the Ming Navy on the way back.

Although Halsey succeeded in inflicting heavy damage on the Second Air Fleet of the Ming Navy during the operation. However, it was almost completely wiped out in the ensuing powerful counterattack. He lost all his aircraft carriers and a large number of other warships.

When Fletcher's and Halsey's fleets were defeated, they were the last forces in the entire ocean that could still fight. The U.S. Admiralty has directly ordered Spruance to immediately turn the ship around and bring his fleet back to the United States. "America needs you." This is a telegram from the US Department of the Navy. They really need the four aircraft carriers in this fleet.

On the aircraft carrier USS Essex, the general flagship of Task Force 58, the eyes looked beyond the heavy flight deck to the expansive hangar, where hundreds of pilots gathered from various ships were listening to Spruance standing on the ammunition box. Everyone's expressions were very solemn.

"I won't say anything else." Spruance clasped his hands on his waist, his eyes swept over the large number of US officers and soldiers at the scene, and said in a deep voice, "The US Navy has suffered the worst blow in history. We came out of the West Coast with three large task forces and dozens of large fleet carriers. But now only the four that can be used are our own. And our enemy, the Ming Navy, has several times more aircraft carriers in the hands than ours! ”

After a pause, Spruance continued, "We're in a very bad situation right now. The Admiralty ordered us to retreat immediately and return to the West Coast to defend the United States. However, even if we returned, we would not be able to resist the attack of the powerful Ming army with the surviving strength in our hands. Once they have finished resting and replenishing, they will inevitably head towards the west coast. At that time, the entire West Coast will be reduced to a battlefield. Our homeland will be turned into purgatory scorched earth by the bombs of the Ming army! ”

"Sir! What do you want us to do? "Many of the U.S. military here have their homes on the West Coast, and the thought of the war going to their homes makes everyone's faces change dramatically. No one would be indifferent at such a time. It's their home.

"My idea is simple." Spruance pursed the corners of his lips and was silent for a moment, then looked up and shouted, "Retreat is a must." Because tomorrow the main force of the Ming Navy will inevitably come to search, encircle and suppress us. Once we are also wiped out, then it will all be over. So we must retreat. However, to retreat now would only be to prolong the complete defeat for a while. So, I am not ordering you now as a fleet commander, but as an American soldier, an American. ”

After a pause, Spruance said with a complicated expression, "I ask you to die heroically for the sake of America!" ”

Spruance's idea was simple. He knew that after Halsey was wiped out, the Ming fleet would not be in a hurry to return to Hawaii. They must have turned the bow of the ship to destroy themselves, so as to completely end the fighting in the entire Pacific theater in World War I.

Through the telegram from Halsey during the day, Spruance knew where the Ming fleet had been a few hours ago. After careful measurements and calculations, he was already able to guess the approximate position of the Ming naval fleet that would appear tomorrow morning.

However, although he knew the approximate location of the Ming army, Spruance knew very well that with the current strength in his hands, he could not defeat the Ming navy, which had a clear advantage in strength, in a regular confrontation.

And if adventurous tactics are used, the Ming Navy, which has already suffered a lot in the previous naval battles, will inevitably be extremely vigilant. If they could be fooled again at such a time, they would have been defeated long ago.

In this case, in order to maintain the strategic balance of power as much as possible and to buy time for the US Navy to recover its strength as soon as possible. Spruance thought of his ally, the kamikaze tactics adopted by the Japanese Navy in the late stages of the campaign against the Ming Navy.

With no hope of frontal combat, Spruance wanted to use kamikaze tactics to launch reconnaissance planes piloted by valiant pilots before dawn and never return, to conduct ultra-long-range reconnaissance operations beyond the combat radius.

Wait until they have passed on the exact location of the Ming fleet. The pilots who volunteered to carry out the attack mission flew attack aircraft groups to attack the Ming warships at a distance beyond the attack radius of the Ming fighters. Of course, this distance is also beyond the combat radius of the US fighters, which means that these sortie fighters will not be able to return home.

After releasing all the fighters, Spruance would take his fleet and immediately turn around and flee before entering the combat radius of the Ming carrier-based aircraft. All the way to the west coast of the United States retreated at high speed. For the US Navy at this time, they have no shortage of fighters and no shortage of pilots. What is missing is precisely the fleet aircraft carrier, which has a very critical construction cycle!

When Spruance uttered his battle plan and insisted that the pilots were asked to volunteer to carry it out, the huge hangar fell silent.

Anyone who is a soldier knows that after going to the battlefield, life and death are the destiny of life, that is to say, God makes the decision. But the kind of fighting to die in battle is completely different from the current battle of taking the initiative to join and surely die.

Many pilots thought of their Japanese allies who had conducted similar combat operations in the later stages of resisting the Ming naval attack. This tactic of risking one's life was called kamikaze by Japanese pilots at the time.

As time passed, an eerie atmosphere began to flow among the pilots. Spruance, who saw where things were going, raised his hand to cover his mouth and coughed, shouting, "This operation is very dangerous, so I won't force everyone to carry it out." To go or not to go is a personal decision. ”

Spruance's words left many U.S. pilots pondered and embarrassed. There will be no shortage of truly brave officers and soldiers in the armies of any country. These officers and soldiers who serve various purposes, mainly to defend their own country, are very heroic on the battlefield, and there are not a few officers and soldiers who are willing to fight to the death for their country.

They can also feel the crisis that the U.S. Navy is facing now, and they also understand Spruance's thoughts. After a difficult inner struggle, in the end, many US pilots chose to take the initiative to join this combat operation with no return. Regardless of their position, these people are heroes of their respective countries.

In the early hours of November 11, 1941. Hundreds of nautical miles southeast of the Hawaiian Islands, four aircraft carriers of Task Force 58 were sailing at full speed into the wind, sending one reconnaissance plane after another into the darkness of the night.

Not far away, the warships carrying large seaplanes were also constantly ejecting their own seaplanes. These reconnaissance planes will fly to the distant sea areas where the Ming Navy may appear as demarcated by Spruance to conduct reconnaissance operations and provide intelligence support for subsequent attacks.

Needless to say, the risk of taking off at night was not to be mentioned, and nearly a tenth of the dozens of reconnaissance planes sent out by Spruance failed to take off successfully. But at this time, these losses can no longer be taken care of.

At 9:27 a.m., a long-range reconnaissance plane of the US military, which had already used up enough fuel to return home, finally discovered the traces of the Daming Navy, and then quickly sent this valuable information before it was shot down.

"What's going on?" Lin Luo looked at the US military reconnaissance plane in the sky in surprise and fell into the sea from the sky with thick smoke, and asked with doubt, "Where did they come from?" ”

Lin Luo had already sent his own reconnaissance plane before dawn, but after several hours of searching, nothing was found. At this moment, the first batch of reconnaissance planes had already returned home, and the second group of reconnaissance planes that replaced them were also constantly flying back and forth in search of the extreme position of the flight radius, but they did not find any trace of the US fleet.

Lin Luo, who had been worried that Spruance would run away early, suddenly felt that something was wrong. The reconnaissance he sent out was so strong that it was impossible to miss anything. But its own reconnaissance plane did not discover the Americans, but the Americans discovered themselves first. This really made Lin Luo puzzled.

"Hasn't the reconnaissance unit discovered it yet?" Lin Luo, who was uneasy, asked out loud.

"Nope." The chief of staff responded: "All the reconnaissance aircraft units have reported that no trace of the US fleet has been found. ”

At first, the Ming army was surprised and rejoiced that Spruance took the initiative to meet the battle, but the delay in finding the other party made everyone's hearts instinctively uneasy.

Lin Luo, who was alarmed, was silent for a moment, and then gave an order: "Order all the reconnaissance plane units to pay attention to searching for those returning US reconnaissance planes, and it is best to be able to quietly follow them and find the location of the Americans." In addition, the radio silence was lifted and the various departments were contacted and the current situation was reported. The whole fleet was ordered to enter the state of air defense operations, and all the air defense fighters were raised into the air to prepare for battle. ”

As an excellent commander of an aircraft carrier formation, Lin Luo has done well enough. After being deceived by the Americans one after another, the commanders of the Ming army were real fools if they did not cheer up.

But he never thought that he had always been learning from the Ming Dynasty for the purpose of learning from the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty was a nobleman, they were the nouveau riche Americans, and this time they actually adopted the desperate tactics of the poor Japanese ghosts!

Every war is not simple. (To be continued.) )