Cranke didn't know that his broken fleet had gone to the Ghost Gate two days ago, and in order to block and eliminate him, all the main forces of the Atlantic Fleet were dispatched, and 7 aircraft carriers and 5 battleships were all coming to the South Atlantic. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

All the German officers and men, including him, were completely ignorant of this, not only did they not know that Nimitz led the fleet to the north of Puerto Rico, but they did not know that the Spruance fleet had actually followed the South Atlantic, and even waited for the Germans to wait on the way back to Buenos Aires.

Cranke still attacked Brazil first according to the usual rhythm, and wandered around the periphery of Guyana, finding that there was no oil and water to fish, and did not dare to go to the depths of the Caribbean Sea, so he returned south, preparing to return home with the loaded convoy. In order to avoid the detection of aircraft off the coast of Brazil, he chose a clear vertical line closer to the coast of Africa. At this time, Spruance's return route to Cape Town was a diagonal line similar to that connecting Buenos Aires and Cape Town, with a clear intersection between the two.

This intersection point is in the theoretical sense, not only is there a considerable distance from the two fleets, but there is also a great uncertainty in practice, and the Cranker fleet will turn to the southwest before reaching the intersection point, if both are traditional battleship formations, no matter how they will not intersect but pass by, but now they are both aircraft carrier formations, and the situation has changed significantly.

Although he did not know that the British and American fleets were hiding on the side and preparing to shoot their own black guns, Crank, who had broken diplomatic relations for many years and had achieved a lot of results, was very cautious, and released a reconnaissance plane early in the morning of April 5, first, to check whether there was any enemy, and second, to check whether there was oil and water, and by 11 o'clock at noon, no special findings were reported in the rest of the directions, except for the No. 4 plane, which sent a report: "A plane was found in the reconnaissance, and it is suspected that there is a British and American fleet, but the specific location of the other party cannot be found, and the search is ready to continue." ”

The plane spotted by No. 4 was a reconnaissance plane sent by Spruance, who was also very cautious and paid close attention to the search even when he returned to South Africa, the only difference was that his pilot did not find the German plane. By this time, Cranke did not know that this was the Anglo-American fleet preparing to attack him, thinking that it was just an Allied transport convoy returning from South Africa, which was probably a reconnaissance plane released by an escort aircraft carrier. He happily thought that he had caught another fat fish, and while ordering the fleet to speed up and return south, he let the reconnaissance planes continue to expand the range - anyway, the Ar-352 could reach a maximum range of 5,000 kilometers.

Since yesterday night, the distance between the two fleets has been decreasing at a rate of 20 kilometers per hour, and by noon when Cranke ordered the fleet to accelerate, the speed of the relative distance between them has become 25 kilometers per hour. By evening, the actual distance between the two sides had shrunk rapidly from more than 1,400 kilometers at the beginning to less than 1,000 kilometers.

Although the day's reconnaissance did not end up with a positive conclusion, Cranke insisted that the pilot's report deserved a high degree of attention. Because all 3 people on this Ar-352 confirmed that they saw the plane, and the probability of mistake is extremely small. In this area and in this position, there are either no planes, and there are only British and American carrier-based aircraft, so he firmly believes that there must be a British and American fleet, perhaps the scale is not very large, or perhaps it is hiding for many reasons, so he decided to release all the reconnaissance planes early the next morning and focus on strengthening the reconnaissance in the south.

On April 6, just after dawn, 12 Ar-352 took off to conduct a southward search, each aircraft was responsible for a 15-degree fan-shaped search surface, and more than 20 minutes later, the second batch of Ar-372 water reconnaissance was also released, they were also responsible for the 15-degree fan-shaped plane, but it happened to be 5 degrees staggered from the previous wave, forming a cross double search.

Spruance didn't know that Cranke was determined to find him, and he continued to return to Cape Town at his usual pace...... At 9 o'clock in the morning, he was discussing with Roddick how to carry out the next battle in the Indian Ocean, when suddenly the announcement was loud: "Sir, we have found a German reconnaissance plane, they should have discovered the fleet......"

"What?" The two were taken aback and hurriedly ran to the deck to see.

When he said this, the four F6Fs on the task of protection had already rushed over to take out this bold reconnaissance plane, and the German pilots did not hide, relying on the courage of their masters, swaggering over the US fleet to reconnoitre, while quickly sending a report: "The enemy's large fleet was discovered, including 2 fleet aircraft carriers, 1 medium aircraft carrier, 1 light aircraft carrier, 1 battleship, and more than 20 light ships, with a speed of 18 knots and a route of about 105 degrees, suspected of going to Cape Town, South Africa. The current approximate location is 550 km south-southwest of St. Helena......"

"Sir, I have detected that the enemy plane is sending a telegram, and it is estimated that it is informing the direction."

"I see!" Spruance's face was pale, and now he could see clearly through the binoculars, facing the formation of his own fighters on all sides, the plane unhurriedly turned its head and flew in the southwest direction, and the four F6F fighters behind him were closely in pursuit. However, after chasing each other at maximum speed for more than 10 minutes until they disappeared from the sight of the telescope, the distance between the two sides did not seem to have been significantly shortened -- the pilots had been right in their complaints, the enemy reconnaissance planes were so fast that they could not even catch up with the fighters!

Of course, the performance of Caiyun's change is impeccable, and it is faster after changing to a German engine, and the German pilots who can now act as reconnaissance planes are all veterans, familiar with the performance of enemy and enemy aircraft, and would rather see some clearly than leave after a hasty probe. Even when leaving, the pilot did not forget to play a little trick and deliberately ran in the southwest direction, trying to lure the other party to make a mistake and think that he was coming from the southwest. In fact, after getting out of the other party's reconnaissance circle and getting rid of the pursuit of the F6Fs, he will turn around and fly back to the correct position of the mothership - the 5,000-kilometer range is used for this!

"It seems that they have been discovered by the enemy, but have the Germans slipped back to Argentina without knowing it?" Roddick was very confused about this, they had been waiting for the rabbit in that area for the past few days, and it was reasonable that there was a small chance that the other party would slip away.

Spruance shook his head, his intuition told him that the opposing fleet had not yet returned, and that it was still in the north at the moment, and as for the reconnaissance plane that occasionally collided with it running southwest, it might just be a panicked behavior when fleeing just now.

"Release another wave of our reconnaissance planes and carefully search for where the enemy ships are!"

Roddick immediately ordered the Unicorn and San Jacinto to quickly break away from the formation and release the reconnaissance aircraft into the wind, and 24 SBDs took off into the air.

"Sir, do you want to take off fighter jets for cover immediately?"

Spruance shook his head lightly: "Not for the time being, the reconnaissance in the morning judged that there are no enemy ships around, which means that the other party is a little far away from us, assuming that the enemy will take off the attack aircraft group to attack now, it will be at least an hour later." Tell the lads to get ready, maybe there's going to be a tough fight today. ”

After the reconnaissance plane was released, the TF44 fleet still maintained a 100-degree course, but Roddick knew that this was an expedient measure, and the commander would definitely make targeted adjustments in the face of the facts exposed by his side. Now is the time to truly test the skill of a commander, and every judgment and order of Spruance will determine the survival of the entire fleet.

"Until there is a clear counter-that I am still inclined to the enemy fleet to ...... north," Spruance mused, "the course is adjusted to 140 degrees, and the overall acceleration is 23 knots, and we will wait for the results of the reconnaissance." ”

"Sir! Found the enemy fleet, about 600 kilometers away from us......" The confidential staff officer excitedly handed the telegram to Crank, "but a big fish, there are 4 aircraft carriers!" ”

Hearing that there was a fleet of 4 aircraft carriers, Cranke was also taken aback, when did the Americans drive the main aircraft carrier formation to South Africa? However, the reconnaissance situation was obviously correct, and he could not help muttering: It is a good opportunity for the enemy to discover first, but this advantage can only ensure that until the sun sets today, as long as it is dark, the positions of the two fleets will be exchanged again, and tomorrow they will be in a situation where their eyes are blackened. And judging from the enemy's situation, the enemy has twice as many aircraft carriers as this side, this is an opponent with superior forces, if you don't strike first, I'm afraid that tomorrow the opponent will eat even the scum left!

This is Crank's independent leadership of the aircraft carrier combat formation, and now there is no Ozawa who can ask for advice nearby, he is a little nervous, so he said: "The carrier-based aircraft are ready to attack, and the fleet continues to the south, and the speed is increased to 26 knots!" ”

The captain of the Ise, Yasujiro Aoki, immediately ordered the engine to speed up - Aoki, who lost the Aquila in the Battle of Newfoundland, was not criticized in any way, but continued to serve as captain of the Ise, and by the way gave him the rank of rear admiral, for which the latter was very grateful. The modified Ise has a flight deck length of 228 meters and a beveled part of 160 meters, but the ship is older, and the German side can only make it reach a maximum speed of 26 knots after careful maintenance and replacement of the boilers.

The Ise carried only 8 Ar-352s, 26 Do-412s and 36 Ju-198s with hangars and decks, and the other Savoy was a combined aircraft carrier converted from a cruise ship, with no regular hangars and fewer aircraft, only 4 Ar-352s, 18 Do-412s and 24 Ju-198s. The Americans' use of SBDs as reconnaissance planes has certainly weakened the reconnaissance performance, but at least they have retained their attack power, and now the combined attack force of the two German ships is only 104 aircraft, and they still have to retain part of the defensive force, which is only a little more than one Essex-class at best......

The atmosphere in the bridge was tense, and Crake paced back and forth, thinking about it for a few minutes, and then resolutely decided: "We have few ships and few planes, and we must attack first today anyway, otherwise we will be in a disadvantageous situation tomorrow!" ”