The capital of the British New Hebrides, located in Port Vila on Efate Island in the middle of the archipelago, in the blue harbor, dozens of large and small ships are quietly moored, and the vigilance boats outside the harbor are constantly patrolling back and forth, and the island's airports and water engine berths are also frequently taking off and landing various planes painted with three-color concentric circle signs.

On the masttop of the 17,400-ton former dreadnought battleship "Edward VII", the commander of the 54th Task Force of the British-American-Australian Combined Fleet, George Bush was flying. Brian's lieutenant general's flag, far from the mainmast's command cabin, old Sir Brian leaned forward, holding a yellowed wine bottle in his hand, and was walking towards Will without hesitation? Lieutenant General Robinson, commander of the U.S. Army in the Southwest Pacific Theater, poured the finest Scotch whiskey with a soft wood-brown sheen into a glass with half of the ice.

"You're not welcome to be here, it's as casual as you're in your house."

Brian's enthusiasm made Robinson a little uncomfortable.

"You're so polite, I told me to do it myself...... There's a lot going on today, just a little bit, thank you. ”

"For the sake of Your Excellency the President."

Brian was the first to raise a glass.

"For His Majesty's Majesty, and for ...... The fleet of the Chinese, the timing of their appearance is too coincidental. ”

Robinson clearly didn't appreciate it.

Brian smiled wryly and took a sip of wine, holding his glass sideways, not knowing whether he was looking up at the harbor scenery outside the porthole, or looking down at the war zone charts on the table.

"I would have thought that they had appeared too early, a week before D-Day, and that the fleet would not have set sail until morrow, according to the plan—it would have been a coincidence if the enemy had suddenly appeared as the fleet was approaching Guadalcanal, but if that had happened, we should not have had the opportunity to discuss it so leisurely."

Robinson shook his glass gently, seemingly interested in the crisp sound of ice cubes hitting the walls of the glass.

"Are you trying to say that the other side is not actually aware of our army's intentions?"

Brian stretched out his hand and pressed one corner of the chart, and pressed the other corner with a wine glass: "The key instructions of this operation are all transmitted using the transoceanic submarine cables of our Entente camp in all corners of the world, which completely excludes the possibility of the radio code being deciphered, and the internal intelligence control is also very tight, and the possibility of leakage is very low." ”

As if to emphasize the certainty of the conclusion, Brian raised his hand again and flicked the drawing: "And as I said just now, if the other side accurately judges our intentions, the most likely countermeasure should be to try to ambush and launch a surprise attack when my landing fleet is close to the target, rather than exposing himself early and scaring the prey away." ”

Robinson's blue eyes spun in half a circle, and his gaze stayed in the center of the chart, where Guadalcanal Island was.

"So, is it another coincidence? Two vultures eyeing the same piece of meat? ”

Brian nodded behind his back: "Admiral Schroeder's fleet is still silent, and while I don't know for sure how he judged it, I'm sure he will try to prevent us from leaving the port if he decides that he has to abandon the battle, even at the risk of revealing the fleet's location." ”

"In any case, I must immediately suspend operations, and the landing day will be postponed indefinitely - I cannot take any risks until the situation is clear."

Robinson gulped down the whiskey in his glass, then took the ice cubes that had not melted into his mouth and chewed them "gurgling".

"I hope I can drink the best whisky in a different place next time, for example...... Rabaul. ”

……

"I can't take such a risk."

00-ton super-dreadnought battleship "Tennessee" bridge, Seadon? Lieutenant General Schroeder with a blank face rejected aviation staff officer Frank? Jack? Major Fletcher's proposal.

"You should know better than me that the mission of the 'Pearl Harbor' and 'Manila' is only to transport aircraft, and the army pilots on board have not received any landing training."

Fletcher's eyes flashed with almost stubborn determination: "I know better that they have all received full tactical training, and some have also experienced actual combat in France. ”

"Then we can't let them die in vain."

Schroeder stared intently out of the porthole, and at the end of his gaze was the caravan of the ships "Pearl Harbor" and "Manila".

The two ships are both "Pearl Harbor" class quasi-fleet aircraft carriers, which were converted from Atlantic luxury cruise ships of the same class, with a standard displacement of 18,000 tons, and the biggest feature is the inverted chimneys on both sides of the board and the simple sentry box-like bridge on the starboard side.

The mismatched steel beams scattered throughout the ship show the haste of the modification work, sparsely pulled on the outboard ear stands, a total of 4 single-mounted 4-inch (102 mm) anti-aircraft guns and 6 single-mounted 1-pounder (37 mm) machine guns, in addition, around the bridge and under the bow flight deck there are more than a dozen point-3-inch (mm) machine guns with water-cooled sleeves, even so, compared with the Royal Navy's regular fleet aircraft carriers in the Battle of the Bay of Bengal nine months earlier, the self-defense firepower is still more than double.

Although the six chimneys arranged on both sides can be lowered by hinges, they still inevitably squeeze the area of the amidship flight deck and hangar, coupled with the limitation of single-storey hangars, the number of aircraft on board of this class is only 33 - including 24 single-seat fighters and 9 two-seat torpedo planes, and in order to increase the capacity of the hangar, one of the two elevators is designed to only transport small single-seater aircraft in a short "ten" shape, which inevitably limits the actual combat use of ships of this class.

The maximum speed of 24 knots once won the "Blue Ribbon Award", which represents the speed record of a passenger ship crossing the Atlantic, but as a modified aircraft carrier with weak armament and near-zero protection, it is not enough to escape the pursuit of the enemy's main cruisers, battle cruisers, and even new high-speed battleships.

It is precisely because of this that the main task of the two ships since their commissioning, in addition to training pilots, is only the transport aircraft - for the front-line island bases that lack good harbor facilities, the aircraft take off from the offshore aircraft carriers and go directly to the island airfields, without wasting time on barges, beachheads, and bad roads, and can be put into operation after landing, which is obviously the most convenient and safest way to transport.

Before sailing from Suva Harbor in Fiji, the two ships carried 36 single-seat fighters and 12 two-seat torpedo bombers each to complement and reinforce the "toucano" air force on San Cristobal Island, and as Vice Admiral Schroeder had emphasized, most of the army pilots who were scheduled to fly these planes from aircraft carriers to Kirakira airfield were inexperienced aircraft carrier landings.

"There's no need to land," Fletcher looked at firmly, "and you can land at Kirakira Airfield when the battle is over." ”

Schroeder's face was even more gloomy: "Landing nearby?" Are you going to keep these two 'flopons' off the coast of San Cristobal in broad daylight to target enemy planes and submarines? ”

Fletcher bowed his head and luckily: "No, it's not just the 'Pearl Harbor' and the 'Manila', I mean, to let the entire Task Force 52 go out to the position close to the Kirakira airfield, the purpose is to let the other side discover us as soon as possible." ”

Schroeder sneered in his nose and tilted his head and sneered: "Jack, you are crazy." ”

Fletcher seemed to have no reaction to this level of blow, and continued to his own thoughts: "With the experience of naval battles in the Bay of Bengal, the other side will inevitably gather all its forces to launch an air attack on our troops first, so that Rear Admiral Witson's Task Force 51 and the 'Tucano' Air Force on the island will have the opportunity to take advantage of the situation and surprise the enemy aircraft carrier task force." ”

"You want my main force to be a decoy? Did you know that every dreadnought here is invaluable? Schroeder raised his voice, as if the ship under his feet was not made of steel but cast in gold.

"If you can't suppress the opposing aircraft carrier task force, any dreadnought here is useless, and you can only obediently flee back to the anchorage - or even the mainland." Fletcher reminded without any emotion.

"Cruising in the waters near the airport, our unit can not only use the fighters carried by the 'Pearl Harbor' and 'Manila' to cover the fleet, but also get rapid and effective reinforcements from the base air force, and the anti-aircraft firepower of the entire formation is far stronger than that of the 51 st Task Force, which is weak."

"If the 51 st Task Force is used to confront the enemy's aircraft carrier task force head-on, the 'Panama,' which has a small number of carrier-based aircraft and zero actual combat experience among its crews, is estimated to have less than half of the actual combat strength of the British'.

Fletcher's fluent analysis did not dispel the chief's doubts, but was choked by Schroeder: "So I didn't say it?" There is no need to take this risk, we can only avoid the enemy's edge for the time being, and wait for the follow-up forces to be fully assembled before making plans, and now we have only one thing to do: send a telegram to Task Force 51 and Port Vila - the operation is suspended, and the whole army is withdrawn. ”

Fletcher straightened his chest and was not overbearing: "If we turn around and go back today, then one day in the future, the 'glory' of surrendering the most rearly stronghold in the Solomon Islands to the Chinese, and abandoning the 'toucano' air force in the form of young eagles and tens of thousands of officers and soldiers defending the island to be slaughtered by the enemy will definitely be recorded in the name of the general." ”

"What did you say!"

Schroeder slapped the armrest and stood up angrily, his tall body instantly covering Fletcher's small head.

"Report, Kirakira is calling!"

The intelligence staff officer who staggered in with the telegram in his hand ended the indecent state of staring at the two of them in time, Schroeder snorted in his nose, turned around and sat back in his high chair, and raised his chin coldly: "Read." ”

"At 11:20, 30 to 40 large enemy planes flew over the airfield, and our troops fought back, shooting down and damaging many enemy planes, and our losses were reported in another way......