At night, in the face of the empty pilot's dormitory, all the American pilots and ground crews cried loudly, and Doolittle cried so much that he fainted after learning the bad news.

In the third counterattack, all the remaining attack groups of our army were put into a desperate fight against the Japanese fleet, and the overall results were brilliant, sinking 6-7 aircraft carriers, including 2-3 fleet aircraft carriers, and the Japanese army still has 10-11 aircraft carriers, including 3-4 fleet aircraft carriers (in fact, all of them are counted exactly 10 and 3 fleet aircraft carriers);

sank 3 light and heavy cruisers, damaged 1-2 ships, and at present its remaining cruisers 5-6 (actual 5);

sank 10-12 destroyers of various types, the damage is unknown, and it is estimated that 20-22 destroyers remain (23 in fact);

6-8 frigates and auxiliary warships were sunk, and the remaining is estimated to be around 32 (the actual US military sank 4 and the remaining 28). Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In addition, more than 250 Japanese planes were shot down or destroyed, and it is estimated that there are about 180-200 enemy planes left.

Ingram knew that Halsey was going to make contact with the Japanese fleet the day after tomorrow, so in the third battle report, he tried to make the results look more encouraging, and on the other hand, he racked his brains to tell Halsey about the relatively correct troop estimates - any exaggeration or reduction would lead to the end of the TF50.

The results of the third battle report are still on the high side, but the intelligence projections and troop analysis are quite objective; Ingram is not God after all, and he cannot see the difference between escort aircraft carriers and escort aircraft carriers based on the photographs alone, and he can estimate that the identification experts, the pilots of the reconnaissance planes who are desperately shooting, and the staff officers who are working hard to calculate have worked very hard -- the accuracy rate of the current estimate has reached more than 80 percent.

At 19:45, in the anticipation of countless people, the latest battle report that had been brewed repeatedly was finally sent to Washington and Halsey, and they were greatly relieved to see the statistics of the results of the battle and the analysis of the remaining strength of the Japanese army, believing that Pearl Harbor had finally been saved, and although the Japanese army had caused great damage and caused heavy losses to their own side, they had also paid a high price. Truman came to the conclusion in his mind: it was a crushing victory, but Hawaii was finally defended! Although the fire has not yet been extinguished, it is at least under control, which is good news!

As soon as the atmosphere of the early morning catastrophe was changed, the mood of the joint staff changed to optimism, and Truman even had a little smile on his face, thinking that if the Halsey fleet could make up for it again, the battle situation would be better! While using hot dogs or sandwiches in the conference room, the high-level officials watched with great interest as the staff officers laid out the strength of the TF50 fleet and the analysis of the enemy situation as counted by Ingram, and after some deduction, they concluded that the Halsey fleet had a full advantage over the Horiyoshi fleet: the Japanese had only 10-11 aircraft carriers, while Halsey had 14; The Japanese did not have battleships, Halsey had 2; The Japanese had only about 200 aircraft, and Halsey had 550; The Japanese pilots were exhausted and scarred after a day of fierce fighting, and Halsey's fleet was at least recuperating.

Nimitz was afraid of the one-sided mood of the meeting, and hurriedly emphasized the possible threat posed by another Japanese fleet (the Tsunoda fleet), and Truman and Dewey expressed their understanding, but judging from the operation on the map, even with the addition of the Tsunoda fleet, the Halsey fleet still had the advantage, or at least was evenly matched. The numbers and intelligence back this up: the combined forces of the two Japanese fleets were only 12-13 aircraft carriers, 2 battleships and 350-400 aircraft, maybe there would be a few more Japanese cruisers, and the super-battleships would be a little more troublesome, but that was not the deciding factor - the TF50 had more aircraft!

Regardless of whether they understood the navy or not, they unanimously agreed that Halsey had a considerable degree of initiative -- that the two fleets of the Japanese army were still in a state of disposition, and that he could completely break the enemy separately before the enemy forces converged!

Dewey scolded the Army Airlines for their dereliction of duty in the morning, and now praised them at the meeting, saying that they "did a good job, did their best, and inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese army with fearless self-sacrifice, and then it will be up to the navy to annihilate the Japanese army." As long as this fleet is eaten, Pearl Harbor and Seattle suffer some losses are nothing, and we can account for it to the people......"

Everyone else congratulated Arnold, but the latter cried loudly, crying that Lu Hang had suffered heavy losses, and fainted while crying, and everyone hurriedly called an ambulance to send him to the hospital, and Truman and Dewey personally sent them, and the doctor said that there were many problems: irregular heartbeat, neurasthenia, intestinal dysfunction...... It is recommended to leave the post to recuperate. Marshall, who was also in the hospital, also rushed to hear the news, and while comforting Arnold, they also told him to be hospitalized and recuperate with peace of mind, anyway, the next battle was the navy, let him rest in the hospital for a while.

Arnold said that he was no longer qualified for the post of commander-in-chief of the army aviation regardless of physical strength, energy or ability, and wanted to resign, but Dewey disagreed, took his hand and encouraged: "You have a good rest, let General Spatz take care of your work for a few days, and I also look forward to you becoming the first commander-in-chief of the independent air force!" ”

Everyone flocked to see Arnold, but Spruance stayed in the command room to weigh it repeatedly, and he now frowned after encouraging Halsey to fight back in the morning, thinking that the next battle would be very difficult to fight: before the Ingram battle report arrived, Halsey sent a telegram saying that his reconnaissance plane had not discovered the enemy fleet, but that an enemy reconnaissance plane had discovered his own fleet, and he judged that this reconnaissance plane had been sent by another Japanese fleet. Although the sun went down and there were no Japanese attack planes to attack, at least it showed that the two sides were not far away and were very dangerous.

This caused Spruance to be extremely vigilant, he is also the commander of the aircraft carrier force, and knows that numerical superiority in aircraft carrier operations is crucial, but having numerical superiority does not mean that you can crush the opponent, and it is often more important to detect the enemy in advance - when your plane is still at a loss and the enemy has already killed the worst of all? In the Battle of Midway, the aircraft carriers and planes of the side did not have an advantage in numbers, and in the end, didn't they win neatly? So he was not optimistic about the situation and thought that Halsey was dangerous.

Now the situation was completely reversed, and in the morning the crowd was not optimistic about the situation, but Spruance insisted on fighting, which made him a minority, and only reluctantly accepted his proposal because of political considerations; Now everyone has a very optimistic hope for the situation, but he thinks that the Halsey fleet should be taken back, and take the opportunity to arm the transport fleet to Pearl Harbor, which has been opposed by many people, and the reaction of the army aviation side is even stronger - in the morning you asked me to weaken the Japanese fleet to create an opportunity for the navy, and I did it desperately, and now you tell me that the navy is not going, and you are going to escort the transport fleet, what do you think of the army aviation? Or can't you believe the results of the Army Airlines?

It's impossible to believe, the results and analysis were reported by Ingram, if even Ingram wants to pit Halsey, then what way does the navy have to survive? Spruance thought that Ingram's intelligence was mostly good, and that in fact the strength of Horikiyoshi's fleet was weaker than the intelligence estimated, but he did not dare to say this analysis - now this comparison of strength is clamoring for the annihilation of the Japanese fleet, and if it is weaker, wouldn't it be even more screaming and rushing over?

Not to mention that Arnold, Spatz, and others could not accept it, and even MacArthur, Lehi, and others also expressed their opposition -- the independent air force belongs to the independent air force, at least for the time being, the army is still a part of the army, and the army cannot be driven by the navy. Besides, the situation in the Pacific could not be reversed without destroying this part of the Japanese fleet, so there was unanimous opposition to Spruance's proposal.

Nimitz understood his concerns and understood that there was a great deal of uncertainty, but now sitting in the position of chief of naval operations, no decision could be made solely on the basis of personal likes and dislikes and "military views", otherwise the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the coordination of the services would not be able to maintain, and he could only compromise as much as possible:

"After the Japanese fleet discovered our fleet, it must be speculated that our army was going to pursue the Japanese fleet that had been heavily damaged north of Pearl Harbor, since the enemy first detected our fleet, then it was necessary to deal with it, and effectively use the cover of tonight's night to adjust the course and conceal the position, I suggest that we should not only limit the target of attack to this Japanese fleet, all Japanese fleets can become our army's combat targets, in order to achieve a better victory, we should be patient. As for the on-the-spot command, it is suggested that General Halsey make a specific decision, and the Joint Staff Committee will only give suggestions and directional hints, and should not interfere too much with how he fights. ”

Everyone accepted this revised point of view: the navy can fight anyway, and let the navy judge for itself how and when to fight!

Spruance's idea of "protecting the convoy to Pearl Harbor" was categorically rejected, and he sighed, was silent, praying in his heart that Halsey would have better luck.

In the middle of the night, the nerves of the whole day decided to break up and rest, Nimitz knew that he was in a bad mood, and enlightened: "I don't agree with escorting the transport troops, there is still a Japanese fleet in the direction of Mexico, and it is impossible for us to quietly transport things to Pearl Harbor under the nose of the enemy." ”

"But Pearl Harbor is short of fuel and the number of planes has been reduced to a very dangerous level, and if I don't replenish it, I'm afraid I won't be able to sustain the next Japanese attack."

"Tomorrow the transports will send a batch of supplies first, and the fleet will have to wait a little longer to see what happens in Halsey."

"How much can it be transported?"

"1,000 tons of aviation fuel, 40 P-51 fighter parts and a batch of medicines, and then send the wounded back."

"1000 tons of fuel?" Spruance shook his head, "400 planes made 2-3 sorties and there were no more." ”

"But what can I do?" Nimitz was also helpless, "I asked the troops to find a way urgently, and they said that the Little Shark-class submarine gave up its armament and concentrated on transporting 400 tons of fuel at a time; In addition, the Fletcher-class destroyer can be converted into a high-speed oil tanker, and it can deliver 500 tons of fuel at a risk—all the learning from the Japanese! ”

Spruance was silent, of course he knew what it was: Japan had invented the Tokyo Express two years ago to supply supplies to the Kuah Army, and now the United States is following a similar path.

He sighed: "Maybe there will be a Los Angeles or San Francisco express in the future!" ”