"To sum up, I advocate retreating and preserving the vitality of the current campaign countermeasures; In the retreat, it is impossible to guarantee the retreat of all warships and all personnel, and only the most important part can be selected to retreat......"

As for what is the most important part, Turner succinctly arranges the order:

Extremely high priority: pilots, officers of major and above;

Higher priority: officers and soldiers of the core posts of each warship and other officers;

Next highest priority: 4 capital ships;

General priority: the rest of the officers and soldiers;

Other: various fast warships;

And finally: escort aircraft carriers. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Seeing such a ranking, everyone gasped, but they didn't know how to evaluate it: Turner not only divided the personnel into ranks, but also put the important position of the four capital ships above the ordinary officers and men -- this is a great "political incorrectness." No wonder Nimitz, Spruance and the others must summon Turner back and let Turner say this.

"Normally, personnel must be given priority over warships, but this time the situation is special, and the two Essex classes are of extraordinary significance - without these two warships, the Pacific Fleet will not be able to fight even if it is fully staffed, unless we will soon negotiate peace with Germany, and then replenish this group of personnel to the Atlantic Fleet and then bypass through Cape Horn, it will take two months to take effect, even if we agree to an armistice with Germany tomorrow, the congressional process will not be completed within one month, so it will take three months. I'm afraid Hawaii is over for 3 months......"

Everyone's faces turned bitter for a while: not to mention the stalemate in the armistice with Germany, the German army has been mobilized in a big way, and then everyone is tense and tense.

But Turner's tactics and strategy are well understood, and in short, Turner is betting:

First, bet that the Japanese will not attack in a big way before sunset today, or even if they do, it will not threaten the survival of the four capital ships - the staff officers believe that there is a 70% chance of success;

Second, the Japanese army could not find the main fleet at night, or even if it did, it would not cause irreparable damage -- as long as the engines were not destroyed and the speed was not reduced, it didn't matter if the deck was bombed, and these could be repaired on the west coast, wouldn't the Wasp come back to life?

Third, it is a bet that the Japanese army will not be able to continue its large-scale offensive after dawn tomorrow due to losses, rest, etc., and the core fleet will rely on land-based aviation to protect it and tide over the difficulties.

If you don't gamble like this, then you can only choose to fight hard, this is the way to die, and you can only have a reputation.

If Truman was to be elected, he would have chosen this, at least politically, and he could explain it - the Pacific Fleet fought to the last moment, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy and then gloriously annihilating.

But Dewey couldn't choose this, Truman patted his ass and walked away in two months, and in addition to getting a little political capital for Truman before he stepped down, it would greatly overdraw Dewey's political credibility -- without the Pacific Fleet, it was only a matter of time before Hawaii fell, and it was also a matter of degree that the West Coast would be harassed every day, and all the dissatisfaction and pressure would be on the Dewey administration at that time, so he couldn't let Halsey fight to pull him down, and this time he agreed with Turner that he wanted to preserve his vitality no matter what.

And Dewey knew very well that Turner's ideas and choices were what the Navy family really wanted, otherwise they would go to great lengths to tweet what Turner was doing, and it was very simple to want Halsey to go desperately, as long as Nimitz gave an order, the other party would scream and pounce, and it would be troublesome for him to endure the humiliation and escape with his burden.

After discussing for a long time, no one had a foolproof plan, everyone was poor in donkey skills, and Lehi, who had been silent, regretted it at this time, he had known that this was the case, and it was better to let Halsey obediently protect the convoy and return to Hawaii according to Spruance's opinion, but now it is good, tens of thousands of people are involved in life and death, in case of an accident, I don't know how many people will hate him in the future.

So he was the first to come out and express his support: "I think so, General Turner's plan will be evaluated and discussed in detail, at least the TF50 will retreat to the west coast in a group first, and how fast it can be driven, first see if the Japanese can fight or not, and only if they don't fight will there be a second and third step." In addition, I would like to emphasize that only by retreating in a group can morale be maintained now, and if the fast troops leave the slow escort carriers and go alone, I am afraid that in the future the officers and men will mutiny. ”

Everyone was stunned: Lehi's words were very explicit, but they pointed out the problem: if the capital ships of the navy always left the slow escort aircraft carriers behind when they fled for their lives, and the armored forces always left the slow infantry behind when the army fled for their lives, who would be allowed to board the slow warships in the future? Who to let be infantry? If you don't mutiny, you will have a ghost.

"Finally, I put forward an idea in my personal name, even if the capital ships are saved, most of the officers and men will return safely, the situation in the Pacific Ocean will be troublesome, Hawaii may fall, there will be more variables in the direction of Australia and New Zealand, and from the fundamental interests of the United States, I hope to seek decent armistice conditions." Turner bowed to Dewey, "I apologize to Mr. Dewey for the fact that I've said a lot of radical things before...... In fact, the soldiers are not afraid of death, but in order to alleviate the sacrifices of the country, the people, and the vast number of officers and soldiers, sometimes they can only endure humiliation and bear heavy burdens. ”

Dewey was stunned for a moment, then immediately reacted, and hurriedly said: "Where, General Turner is serious, everyone is for the country...... In the past few years of war, the army and navy have fought very hard, and the people will understand. ”

Let Dewey apologize in public, Nimitz does not have such great energy, only Admiral King can speak. Although Admiral King is not optimistic about Dewey, after all, he is about to leave and become president, even if he can only serve one term, the impact will not be small, and letting Turner continue to fight with Dewey is not only bad for Turner himself, but also bad for the interests of the Navy, so he wants Turner to make a statement in public, admit his mistakes, and give Dewey a step. Now that these generals are always losing, what if Dewey puts all the black pots on the heads of the army and navy in the future?

Admiral Kim arranged it this way, Nimitz and Spruance both thought that what he said was extremely true and calculating, so Turner could only do it whether he wanted to do it or not, and sure enough, Admiral King guessed well, and Dewey, who was about to take office, generously expressed his understanding with Turner for the sake of political demeanor and popularity, which was to take the opportunity to tell everyone: I am very angry, you can rest assured, Turner who has jumped out against me repeatedly can forgive, what do you have to worry about? me off.

An imperceptible sneer appeared on Truman's face: Politics...... Politics! This batch of wall grass in the Navy!

Only Lehi seemed embarrassed and stunned, because he was completely unaware, but he knew his own affairs, he had no deep roots in the Navy, and it was all thanks to Roosevelt's authority and Truman's continuation that he maintained his current role, and now it seemed that his retirement was about to enter the countdown.

After half an hour, everyone could not come up with a better way, and finally decided to implement the first phase of the plan according to Nimitz's orders, and at the same time step up the deployment of army and navy air forces, and send fighter planes out tomorrow to cover it.

At 11:28 p.m., Halsey received an official telegram from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, telling him to maintain the highest speed and retreat the whole army, and at the same time all the fighters to cover the fleet, and to desperately keep the four capital ships, and to see the results of the afternoon before deciding the decision after nightfall. As a sign of relief, Spruance said he was mobilizing his air forces and preparing to cover him tomorrow.

He held his head and thought for a while, but he really couldn't think of a better trick, so he implemented them one by one, and waited for the judgment of fate with anxiety.

At 12:07, the information that the U.S. fleet had been retreating at a speed of 18 knots was sent to Horiyoshi, who at this time had narrowed the distance to 870 kilometers and was still closing at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour.

"Attack aircraft pilots rest, fighters are ready for combat readiness, ready for night battles!"

At 12:19, Ryunosuke Kusaka sent a telegram saying that the battleship formation and the aircraft carrier formation of the Tsukahara fleet had fully converged and were currently pursuing at a speed of 25 knots, and that they were currently about 780 kilometers away from the U.S. fleet, preparing to press within 600 kilometers and preparing for a night attack, and that they were not preparing to attack before that.

Horikichi showed a satisfied smile: "Tsukahara-kun's thoughts are the same as mine, chase!" But don't take it lightly, we'll have a better position to attack in the night fight, and it's still too far to strike. ”

As for the issue of sortie distance, everyone agrees that the aircraft owned by Japan has the shortest range with the Meteor: 1,800 kilometers with auxiliary fuel tanks when fully loaded with ammunition. Generally speaking, in order to leave room (including route errors, and the waiting stage for take-off and landing), a sortie radius of up to 800 kilometers can only be arranged, and this is still necessary to respond to the situation in the return stage -- just like the current aircraft is released at an 800-kilometer position, and the warship itself can advance 200 kilometers when it flies back, which is virtually equivalent to only flying 1,400 kilometers, leaving a margin of 400 kilometers.

But this kind of leeway is very unsafe, because the US military has a large number of fighters, once they go forward to intercept, as long as they are entangled for a few minutes, even if they are not shot down, they can make the meteor lose a lot of fuel in the maneuver, and in the end it must be thrown back in a hurry, and the accuracy is difficult to guarantee, so Hori Yoshicai said that the distance should be shortened.

As for the distance is close to the US military sending planes to counterattack, everyone is not too worried, this is something that cannot be desired, because the range of SBD\TBF\F6F is not too far, unless they don't want to go back, otherwise a 700-kilometer sortie and the fleet going east (which means that you need to go farther to return home) is suicide.

Time passed minute by minute, and now all three fleets were advancing strangely on the sea: Halsey's course was 90 degrees, Tsukahara's course was 75 degrees, and Horiyoshi's course was 120 degrees, and in the process of shortening the distance with the American fleet, the latter two were constantly shortening their distances due to the angle of the route, and it was expected that by dawn on the 31st, the distance between the Japanese army and the north and south clusters would be shortened to about 900 kilometers.

1 point ...... 2 o'clock ...... 3 o'clock ...... 4 o'clock ...... 5 o'clock ......

Except for knowing that the Japanese fleet behind him was constantly closing the distance, Halsey did not wait for a possible attack, although there was still an hour and a half before dark, but his intuition told him that the first bet was likely to win, and the next was to see Turner's second and third......