At 3:40 p.m., the bridge of the USS Panama.

Seeing that Major Tors's landline hooked the rearmost blocking cable without danger, and almost stopped against the blocking net, Reeves breathed a sigh of relief, turned his head and ordered the herald: "Inform the deck, let Major Thors come to me immediately." ”

In a few moments, Major Thors, who was sweating profusely, appeared in front of Reeves panting, and asked, "When will the third attack wave depart?" ”

Reeves pouted at the front deck of the planes out the window: "All the ships are here—fighter planes, 8 torpedo planes, and 6 fighters and 9 torpedo planes on the Glory's side, all on the deck." A total of 29 aircraft, which took off in 20 minutes. ”

Thors wiped his sweat, his eyes full of hatred: "Colonel, I hope to continue to lead the attack. ”

Reeves nodded sympathetically: "Major, I know what you are thinking, in this battle, all the brothers who died bravely are our irreparable losses, and I also want to avenge them - we will definitely be able to avenge them." But you need to rest, I've arranged for Major Robert of the Glory to command the third attack wave - you go down for a coffee first, and give me a written briefing before dinner. ”

Thors took a step forward, and was about to make another request, when he was interrupted by a herald who hurried onto the bridge with a telegram in hand.

Reeves took the telegram and glanced at it, flickered it for a moment, and then carefully read it again, and then handed it to Thors solemnly: "Our prey has finally chosen to survive with its tail broken. ”

Thors quickly read the message and frowned, "And our hunter chose to be deceived. ”

Reeves sighed behind his back, "From the point of view of the field commander, this should be the safest option, and probably the most disregardful option - I must now reconsider whether to continue to fly the third wave." ”

Tors was anxious all of a sudden: "For what?" The second attack wave is fooled, and it should be saved by the third attack wave! ”

Reeves turned around and nodded at the chart: "From the known intelligence, at least 40 minutes ago, the enemy's main formation accelerated to 22 knots, when the distance between them and the Munda air base exceeded KC nautical miles. By 3 o'clock sharp, when our third attack wave began to take off, the distance between the enemy's main formation and the Munda base would be reduced to about 80 nautical miles, and by the time the planes of the third attack wave caught up with them, this distance might be less than 50 nautical miles. ”

Tors quickly came to his senses: "This means that all the fighters at the Munda base can be divided into two or three waves to take turns on duty, to hold up a much stronger air defense umbrella for their fleet than it is now, and we will inevitably suffer more serious losses than before." ”

Reeves nodded: "Not only that, if the third wave of air strikes pursues too far, in order to recover the returning aircraft, our task force will have to leave the ocean and go deep into the narrow trough sea, so that the fleet will have to face multiple threats from enemy shore-based aircraft, submarines, and even mines." If something goes wrong in the middle and we don't get out of the trough before dark, we may encounter the enemy's main formation in a night battle, and we may not even be as good as our prey, which is only a target for the battleship's cannons. ”

Toors glanced out the window reluctantly: his lone plane had been moved to the second elevator at the back of the flight deck, and the 14 planes belonging to the third attack wave of the ship, which had been concentrated at the front of the deck, began to be pulled towards the rear of the deck by ground crews in various vests.

"Colonel, if I'm not mistaken, Admiral Schroeder's battleship force should be right behind us, and we should be able to count on their protection at night."

Torles is reluctant to stop there, apparently wanting to put a bigger bet on the "top prize" he has unilaterally set.

Reeves shook his head and withdrew the newspaper from Tórse's hand.

"Major, how long have we known each other?"

Tors was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously touched his fingers: "Many years." ”

"Do you think I'm the kind of person who makes decisions easily, and when they do, they overturn easily?"

"No, you have always acted decisively and perseveringly."

Reeves smiled slightly, turned around with his back and said, "Don't forget, what is the fundamental mission of our voyage this time?" Not to destroy the enemy fleet at any cost, but to cover the safe unloading of the landing force as much as possible. This requires us to maintain high-intensity aviation operations for days on end and be prepared to endure unforeseen losses.

Reevston paused and then said in an aggravated tone: "The first two attacks have already cost us a lot of planes, and it is more difficult for experienced pilots to replenish than planes, and I need to preserve enough strength to deal with the next days, weeks, or even months of fighting." As for Admiral Schroeder, I can't ask him to risk the entire Pacific for the sake of my own exploits. ”

"So I decided: cancel the third attack wave, and the fleet will immediately turn southeast after recovering the second attack wave, move closer to Admiral Schroeder's 52nd task force, and continue to carry out the original mission."

Hearing this, Tors had to nod: "Yes, I understand······"

"Major, now you can go for coffee——- remember to hand in the briefing before dinner."

At about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the southeast sea of Munda was outside.

Yuan Feng, who had just soaked in the sea bath and enjoyed the light bathing, grabbed the rope thrown by the destroyer "Wenyang" with an expressionless face, shouted "take position", and four or five strong men on the side worked hard together, which pulled him from the life raft to the back deck.

Looking back at the sea full of sailors, rafts, oil stains and all kinds of debris, the lightning mine, which had eaten torpedoes in the NO minutes from 3 o'clock, had already sunk to the bottom of the unfamiliar trough sea, Yuan Feng knew that he should not be there - even if he once had the idea of tying himself to the clock platform of the bridge car.

"I'll be back."

After Yuan Feng finished speaking to the sea, he picked up the saber he had taken the risk of snatching from the cabin of the Thunderbolt, and walked towards the dark and narrow inner compartment of the destroyer Yīn with heavy steps...

At night, Běijīng Xinhua Palace, the first duty conference room of the base camp.

"The key is that the intelligence of the Reference Department is wrong!"

"Fart, it's simply the Navy's combat plan full of loopholes!"

"No matter how problematic the plan is, it will be approved by Chief of General Staff Gu, and we will not implement it if it is not approved by the General Staff."

"The approval of the General Staff is conditional, and whether this sortie meets the conditions of the General Staff must be investigated!"

"The navy has always been the commander on the ground who has always mastered the timing of the attack, and the situation at sea is changing rapidly, so how can it be possible to use rigid words to define specific commands?"

……