Halsey had hoped that the Army would come forward to strike at the Japanese again, but Ingram sent a telegram to report that there were few heavy bombers left in Hawaii that could fly 4,000 kilometers, and that forcing the attack was only to send him to death. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

At 6 p.m., the Japanese and US sides again conducted a second round of reconnaissance, and neither side dared to act rashly until the results were out, and still acted according to the predetermined plan and route, and the Japanese reconnaissance planes again ascertained the position of the Halsey fleet at 6 p.m. -- the distance between it and the Tsunoda fleet was 980 kilometers away and that there was no division of troops, and Halsey also reconfirmed the position and course of the Horiyokichi fleet through the Hawaiian Army Air reconnaissance plane.

Although the day was uneventful, everyone knew that it was just an illusion, and that the storm was coming soon.

What puzzled Halsey was that Hori Yoshiaki knew that the routes of the two armies intersected, and he also learned his own position, and Ingram also reported that the other party's strength was inferior to his own, so why didn't he break away from the evasion and continue to maintain the course?

He asked McCain: "What the Japanese are doing is wrong, they know where we are, and they also know that our army is not weak, why are they still going like this?" What are his plans? Don't you want to get out of it? Or was there something on this route that he had to go? ”

"I suspect there may be another Japanese fleet on the extension of this route, and the two may be in a hurry to converge."

"But if that's the case, he should hide his intentions instead of going straight to the ground – no recent Navy commander would make such a low-level mistake."

McCain pondered about this question for a while, and after a long time, he tried to explain: "The Japanese army may indeed want to leave the battlefield and confuse us, but we must not ignore our army's reconnaissance capabilities. Wait until tonight to adjust and circumvent ...... Tomorrow we have to find him, and it will be much more difficult to beat him. ”

The nautical staff officer reminded that the Japanese fleet will be more than 1,600 kilometers away from Pearl Harbor at the farthest tomorrow morning, and it will still be more than 1,500 kilometers away from our troops, so it will be difficult for aircraft to detect.

Halsey scratched his head, he wanted to change course but didn't know what to do, he decided to wait a little longer to see if there would be more information during the night - Nimitz had mobilized a group of submarines to assemble in the direction of Hawaii, and so far he had not received strong intelligence support.

"This huge fleet can actually touch Pearl Harbor without knowing it, is it Yamamoto Isoroku leading the team?"

"I don't think so, this assault on the fuel depot is more like Horikichi's style, this is an extremely terrible opponent, either not moving, moving vigorously, ruthlessly, and daring to risk his life, much more powerful than Yamamoto. I heard that more than half a year ago, he staged a coup d'état in Japan, purged and executed the imperial family in charge of the navy, and now the entire navy is bowing to him, and he is the only one who looks to him, and Yamamoto can't do this. ”

"How do you know so well? Have you dealt with him? ”

"No, I didn't, that's what General Spruance told me...... He liked to study the combat style of enemy commanders and did everything possible to gather all kinds of information. I still learned from him that Nagumo Tadaichi, who lost the Battle of Midway, committed suicide in a coup d'état, and he thought it was 'suicide'......"

"He didn't talk to me that much."

"During that time, you were busy with pilot training, and I didn't go to the hospital every day to see him, sometimes I sat all afternoon, by the way, you criticized me for not doing my job properly......"

"You're still holding a grudge, I'm just joking."

"Jokes? William, your expression was very serious...... I don't believe you asked General Nimitz or anyone else to testify! ”

"What else does he know about the enemy?"

'It's a very scary opponent, there are very few flaws, and if you play against him, you have to be very careful, any negligence or fluke can be devastating. Moreover, Japan's system is different from ours, and we sometimes have to worry about Washington and the constraints of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and he can have the final say on his own, and in the navy, he has unparalleled prestige and appeal, and can even make the Japanese willingly die for him...... The Battle of Tarawa proved this, just because of his words, 5,000 Japanese soldiers fought with us, and none of them surrendered! Our general has such a appeal? ”

Halsey accepted the explanation, and after a long silence decided to change the subject, asking, "What is the situation at Pearl Harbor now?" ”

Of course, the situation at Pearl Harbor was not ideal, and at dawn, except for a few areas that were still burning, the overall fire was initially brought under control; in addition to the losses caused by the fire, the losses caused by the Japanese air raids were much more serious than those caused by the first bombing of Pearl Harbor, especially the explosion of the central fuel depot, which directly "washed" the 2-kilometer radius, which was unbearable to see.

Under Chennault's dispatch, the Army Airlines dispatched more than 300 C-69 and C-54 transport planes to provide emergency supplies to Hawaii in the early morning, and in order to shorten the distance, all the planes took off from San Francisco, even so, the straight-line distance still reached more than 4,000 kilometers, and only more than 1,000 tons of fuel were net transported after deducting the return fuel, 40 fighter spare parts and a batch of medicines. The crew had to spend a full 10 hours on the plane to complete a transport.

Because the smoke caused by the burning of heavy oil could not quickly subside for a while, the group would land far away from Pearl Harbor, and then prepare to unload and repair the cargo the next day, and then fly back to the West Coast in the early morning of the third day, focusing on transporting more than 1,500 seriously wounded to major hospitals on the West Coast.

The 4,000-kilometer Pearl Harbor-San Francisco route was a huge test for the pilots and ground crew, but the pilots had experience flying long distances -- all of them were composed of crews flying over the Hump route (including the Chinese Pioneer of American Aid Airlines), with Chennault as the commander-in-chief. His initial plan was to maintain a supplementary scale of 500 planes in the short term, that is, to divide it into two echelons of about 250 planes, and to adopt the method of taking off at the same time in the early morning: that is, Pearl Harbor would take off to transport the sick and wounded to the West Coast, and at the same time, San Francisco would also take off to transport supplies and equipment to Pearl Harbor, so as to achieve the transportation volume three times a week as much as possible.

Since the scale of transporting only more than 1,000 tons of fuel at a time was too small, Chennault hoped to send more planes, but he was soon disappointed: first, the army aviation did not have so many large four-engine heavy transport planes, and after the Boeing factory was blown up, all other factories were making every effort to ensure the production of bombers, and the transport planes were really unable to squeeze out the production of bombers; Second, there is a lack of enough skilled crews, and the route of more than 10 hours and 4,000 kilometers in a single trip is not just a casual flight that can be found to fly, and there are not so many crews at present, and 500 planes are already Chennault's division of skilled crews into two, and the old and the new are barely operating.

For the sake of the crew, Chennault proposed to introduce the Soviet crew after returning to the United States, and Arnold of course agreed, and the State Department sent a note to the Soviet authorities, but Stalin's father politely refused after careful consideration: It was not that he could not show people, but that the Kwantung Army was conducting exercises every day, and the armored units were numbered more and more, and the equipment was getting better and better, and even a large number of train guns were showing their faces, and he really did not want to take the risk -- now de jure Japan and the Soviet Union were neutral countries, and what if the Soviet crew was captured by Japan and the other side used that excuse to go to war? Although Japan will certainly find an excuse to go to war, it will ultimately provoke its opponents a little less.

After listening to McCain's explanation, Halsey was taken aback: "There are so many wounded and sick at Pearl Harbor now? How many people have we really lost? ”

"The exact number is not clear now, I estimate that the total number of dead and injured is definitely more than 20,000, and the wounded and sick are estimated to be about the same for 2-3 times, and now because of the fires, a large number of communities have been destroyed, and the temporary resettlement sites are overcrowded, I guess the government may have to send them to the West Coast for resettlement, and at the same time, this can also reduce the consumption of materials in Hawaii and reduce the pressure of public opinion."

Just now, several staff officers listened to the radio and learned that President Truman delivered a national address in which he reported on the "victory" in the defense of Pearl Harbor, emphasized that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had been "repelled" through the arduous defense of the war, and called on the whole country to unite to help Hawaii.

Although he didn't see it with his own eyes, Halsey could imagine the tragedy of Pearl Harbor, because the last time he was out there with a fleet - damn it, you will fight Pearl Harbor when the fleet is outside!

In particular, when he heard that the six escort aircraft carriers remaining in the harbor had all been sunk and that more than 200 novice pilots had lost nearly 70 crews without fighting a battle, he hated it even more, and while staring at the charts, he suddenly squeezed out a sentence to the staff officers: "You help me calculate, assuming that the enemy is driving at a speed of 15 knots for 24 hours according to the current course, and our army is advancing at full speed, how much distance can theoretically be shortened?"

The staff officers immediately began to work on the map, and two minutes later, the nautical staff officers reported: "If our fleet takes a 282-degree course and advances at a constant speed of 18 knots, the minimum theoretical distance after 24 hours will be 970 kilometers." ”

"Hey, it still doesn't work!" Halsey sighed.

"You want to fight this Japanese fleet?"

"Yes, but 970 kilometers is too far, even 900 kilometers will not work, and it will be dark when you return home, and the plane will not be able to find its way back."

"Then wait another night, continue to rush at night, shorten the distance, and plan to see if we can hit the enemy after the results of the reconnaissance come out early tomorrow morning."

"There is too much uncertainty, and the enemy may turn around at night. No, there is! Halsey suddenly high-fived excitedly, "The enemy's speed is not moving, you can calculate the speed of our army according to 30 knots......"

"But sir." The nautical staff officer was embarrassed and said, "The Casablanca class can't drive so fast!" ”

"I know they can't drive fast, can't I let 2 Essex-class and 2 South Dakota-class rush forward?"

The other party was helpless, and recalculated the result: theoretically, according to the newly adjusted speed, the gap between each other will be narrowed to about 450 kilometers after 24 hours, if the attack range is calculated according to 650 kilometers, it can enter the effective attack range in about 19 hours, that is, around 3:30 pm tomorrow......