Despite the loss of two aircraft carriers and the current situation of the American fleet, Spruance decided to continue the fight because he knew that the United States could not accept a defeat now, and he had to win it all the way to stabilize the congressional impeachment of his backers Nimitz and Roosevelt.

So according to this idea, he naturally ruled out the humiliating idea of keeping the fleet and withdrawing. What he was thinking about now was how to turn this naval battle into a victory, a great victory for the U.S. Navy.

"Okay! Okay! I see! Thank you for everything you've done for the United States!" an adjutant put down the phone in his hand, walked briskly to Spruance's side, and reported to him: "General! Just got back from a seaplane, they found the Japanese naval fleet on the west side, and the coordinates were almost the same as you had guessed. ”

"Take off the attack planes immediately! Counterattack along the path of the Japanese Navy's carrier-based aircraft! I want to make sure that these Japanese aircraft carriers are sunk!" Got it?" Spruance said as he glanced at the air liaison officer behind him, gritting his teeth.

"Yes, sir!" the officer saluted, and hastened to give the order to attack. The quality of the carrier-based aircraft of the US Navy was not much better than that of the Japanese, but they did outwhelm their opponents in numbers. Even if the two aircraft carriers were catching fire and slowly sinking, the number of carrier-based aircraft in the US Navy was still much higher than that of the Japanese army.

This wave of Japanese attack aircraft has about 40 aircraft, which is almost half of the entire aviation force of the Japanese Navy, in other words, Japan can maintain this intensity in the next attack, but it will not be able to fight again after that. As long as it withstands these two waves of Japanese attacks, then the US Navy will survive the most dangerous time period.

Thinking of this, Spruance found that he still had a chance to live, as long as this wave of carrier-based aircraft that counterattacked the Nagumo fleet could complete the combat mission, then he could even counterkill the entire Japanese naval fleet and sink all of Yamamoto's "combined fleet" in Solomon.

But soon another news came, a staff officer reported to General Spruance that the two battleships of the US Navy, the USS Washington and the USS North Carolina, had been blocked by a Japanese battleship that had gone and returned: "Now the two sides are shelling, the Japanese Navy is very strong in shelling, and now the battle is very fierce. ”

The "......" Japanese warship went and returned so desperately that the senior officials of the US Navy were very shocked, and they had all heard that many Japanese soldiers were not afraid of death, but today they could be regarded as seeing real madness. Who can guarantee that when he finally escapes from the ghost gate, he can still make the decision to resolutely kill again?

"Send a telegram to Halsey! Let him keep the speed of his return and sink that Japanese battleship!" Spruance said at this time, also showing his fierce side as a soldier, clenching his fists and saying in a vicious tone.

He thought very simply, that is, since his battle plan had been disrupted, he now had a combat purpose, which was to pull more Japanese warships into the water -- if he could sink one, he would sink as many Japanese warships as possible, and this was his tactic.

"Let the battleships Colorado and Mississippi continue to move east, and be sure to stop the Japanese battleships from approaching the fleet!" Spruance continued to adjust the already chaotic formation of the American fleet. He tried hard to complete his original plan, even if the two new battleships could not return to the defensive position on time, then he would have to distance himself from the two battleships in Yamamoto's hands.

The battleship Colorado had already been seriously damaged by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and if it was peacetime, such serious damage might not even be repaired within two years. However, the U.S. military tried their best to finally let the battleship catch up with the battle of the Solomon Islands. But what exactly this battleship will play, only God knows.

The battleship was now barely able to fire, and its main guns could not fire a salvo, believing that that would disintegrate the temporarily held internal support structure. And it can only travel at a speed of 15 knots, which is not much faster than the transports behind it - the main reason why it has been allowed to follow all the way is so that it can be used as a turret to support the landing of American troops in the Solomon Islands.

But after all, the U.S. Navy and the Japanese Navy kicked off the Battle of the Solomon Islands without warning, and half of the fixed battery that was originally intended to be used to support the landing of the Marines was now used as a decisive battleship, on the outermost part of the entire fleet.

To say that this Colorado is actually really related to the Japanese Nagato-class battleships, because they were called "big7" because of the same caliber of their main guns, so if they were allowed to fight a decisive battle under the same conditions, it was really possible to be evenly matched.

It is a pity that the Japanese Navy gritted its teeth in 1937 to modernize the two battleships, the Nagato and the Mutsu, respectively, while the U.S. Navy did not have a large-scale modification of the Colorado-class battleships due to the impact of the financial crisis - so the gap between them is now a bit big.

And the Colorado has very serious internal injuries, it is completely a shelf, as long as you know the inside story, it is very clear that the current battleship Colorado is not even a crispy battlecruiser, it can only be said to be a "large cruiser".

"No way! Now we can only assign the task like this! Until the battleships Washington and North Carolina return, Japan's eastern fleet will have to rely on the old battleships and ourselves. Spruance stared at the charts, ignoring the threat from the east for a moment. He must now calm down and concentrate on completing the pinnacle showdown between the U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier fleet and Nagumo's Tadaichi Air Fleet.

Excluding the threat from the flanks, what the US fleet now needs to face is a dignified confrontation of carrier-based aircraft. Just now, the US carrier-based planes had already set off in formation and killed Nagumo Tadaichi's aircraft carrier fleet, and after a round of calling, the US Navy now has the upper hand for the time being.

Most of the 40 carrier-based planes of the Japanese army were shot down by superior American planes and anti-aircraft artillery units, so although the Japanese Navy achieved the record of sinking two aircraft carriers of the US Navy in this round of engagement, it also suffered considerable losses.

In the command bridge of the USS Akagi, a Japanese officer walked up behind Nagumo Tadaichi, respectfully handed out a piece of paper in his hand, bowed his head and said: "Your Excellency, the first wave of 41 carrier-based aircraft taken off by our army sank two US aircraft carriers, and the remaining 4 carrier-based planes are returning home. ”

"Yo Xi! Very well done! They deserve to be the loyal soul of our Imperial Japanese Navy!" Nagumo Tadashi's eyes lit up at once after hearing the news that he had sunk two US aircraft carriers. Yamamoto's plan now seems to have been at least more than half successful, and as long as this main American fleet is completely annihilated, then it is only a matter of time before the Japanese navy turns around.

However, as a general who has been commanding the navy's carrier-based aircraft for a long time, Nagumo Tadaichi is also aware of his current situation -- he has now used up the chips in his hands, and what kind of outcome this war will eventually lead to is no longer under his personal control.

Yamamoto's whole plan, to put it bluntly, was to exchange for an opportunity for the Japanese naval aviation to attack first, and Yamamoto hoped that this wave of attacks could kill the whole thing with one blow, and Nagumo also planned to do so. But who would have thought that the U.S. Navy would resist his first wave of attacks, and now that the positions of the three Japanese fleets have been exposed, the two sides have finally "met frankly."

"Immediately take off more fighters! Prepare to meet the US attack aircraft group! Let the fleet be upgraded from a second-level anti-aircraft alert state to a first-class anti-aircraft alert state!" Nagumo Zhong immediately gave the combat order.

At this time, he could not run, because turning around and escaping would be tantamount to losing the entire Japanese battleship fleet to the Americans, so he could only continue the attack with a hard head, and after the first wave of attacks by the United States under the defense, he would attack the American fleet again. As the commander of this air fleet, he was confident that he would lead his fleet and withstand the attacks of the US Navy.

"Uh......h Woo......!" The anti-aircraft guns that had been flat began to point at the sky, and Nagumo Tadaichi stared at the sky and saw the group of American planes rushing out of the clouds on the horizon.

Above his head, the hovering Japanese Zero fighter roared up to meet him, and in the distant sky, the two aircraft formations were so intertwined, drawing white lines one after another in the blue sky. The formation of the US planes was disrupted, and the Japanese planes and the US planes became chaotic and began to fight each other.

An American plane was shot down, the pilot opened his parachute in the sky, the plane lost the pilot's control, dragged the smoke and crashed headlong into the Pacific Ocean, the explosion set off a fire, Nagumo Tadaichi standing on the bridge could see clearly, he also saw an American fighter chasing a Japanese Zero fighter firing, he also saw his own destroyer, shot down another American plane.

"The number of American planes has been reduced, so their advantage in terms of total numbers cannot be brought into play!" Nagumo Zhongyi sneered, pressed the command knife on his waist with his hand, and said to the people around him: "As long as my fleet can withstand this wave of American carrier-based aircraft attack, we will win!"