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Halsey kept his promise, and immediately after he returned to the command, he began to promise Zhang Chi two things.

The first thing was relatively simple, Halsey only needed to collect a few merchant ships from Odaliado, and some of these merchant ships did not even need to be escorted by destroyers, because the Japanese submarines still did not attack merchant ships as always...... According to the orders of the Japanese Navy, Japanese submarines could fire a torpedo at a merchant ship, but in fact the Japanese submarines were reluctant to waste even a torpedo, because they were carried away by the results achieved by the "I-19" and "I-26" in the past, especially the "I-29," which sank an aircraft carrier and a warship of the US military with only five torpedoes, and this became an example for the Japanese submarines to learn.

And Hyakutake Haruyoshi not only did not stop this trend, but praised and encouraged it.

This practice of the Japanese is also understandable, although they were also sunk by the US military in the process of five submarines, but this is obviously insignificant compared with the results of sinking one enemy and damaging one aircraft carrier; if this continues, when the last US aircraft carrier is also sunk by Japanese submarines, then the US Navy will completely lose the protection of the aircraft carrier and fall into a complete passivity.

Therefore, Hyakutake Haruyoshi even held a competition in the Japanese submarine force to pursue the last submarine of the US army, and set up a huge prize for it.

As a result, Japanese submarines were not willing to waste even a torpedo on a merchant ship...... What about destroying the merchant ships of the American ghosts, they say? The American ghost animals have supplies, and they still have an airport on Kuah Island, even if they destroy their merchant ship, they can still use transport planes to transport materials to Kuah Island.

If a sailor asks to attack a merchant ship, he will be scolded by the captain: "What are you doing?" Don't you know that there are only 14 torpedoes on our submarines? Attacking merchant ships with such a precious torpedo? What if we run into an enemy aircraft carrier and there are not enough torpedoes ?! ”

Halsey actually knew about this kind of game of the Japanese as well. So he grasped their psychology and made a series of actions.

The first is that the merchant ships requisitioned from Austria for the transportation of supplies to Kuah Island are small and medium-sized, but the number and total tonnage of transport can meet the needs.

The reason for this was to capture the Japanese reluctance to waste torpedoes on merchant ships...... If it was a large merchant ship or oil tanker, then the Japanese army might not be able to resist the temptation to shoot a torpedo, but if it was a small merchant ship, then the Japanese submarine would not be eye-catching at all.

Moreover, the use of a larger number of small and medium-tonnage merchant ships meant that Japanese submarines had to fire more torpedoes to destroy merchant ships of the same tonnage.

Secondly, from time to time, Halsey let the aircraft carrier "Hornet", which is currently the only one that can be used, go out for a circle.

On the one hand, the purpose of going around was to attract the attention of the Japanese army and make it easier for the merchant ships to transport supplies to Kuah Island, and on the other hand, the purpose was to trap and kill the Japanese submarines...... The bait is the aircraft carrier. Every time the aircraft carrier goes out in circles, it will always send destroyers to patrol covertly on the route that the aircraft carrier will pass, so that the safety of the aircraft carrier can be guaranteed as much as possible. On the other hand, the aircraft carrier always maintains a speed of 10 knots.

The maximum speed of Japanese submarines under water is 7 knots, and the maximum speed on the surface is 17 knots...... Give up and be reluctant, don't give up in the sea and can't catch up.

But there was always a part of the Japanese submarines that were unwilling to follow behind, and it would not be long before they would find out that they were wrong...... Because in the middle of the way, a dozen destroyers would suddenly appear and drop a large area of depth charges in the back.

The second thing is a bit more difficult, but it's not that hard.

One of the most difficult things to do is when the "right time" is.

At first, Halsey wasn't sure. But three days later, after receiving that the Japanese reinforcement fleet had arrived in Rabaul, Halsey hung up a phone call to Zhang China.

"Colonel!" Halsey said, "The right time has come!" ”

"Understood, General!" Zhang Chi replied.

The conversation is simple, but the meaning is understood by both parties...... The Japanese reinforcement fleet reached Rabaul. This means that the Japanese sea power and air power once again occupy an all-round advantage.

So...... In order to avoid long nights, the Japanese will definitely hope that the sooner they start the attack, the better, because if the Americans are late, it is very likely that the aircraft carriers will be repaired or reinforced, which means that it is time for the "Cactus" air force to withdraw.

Halsey's method is basically to invert Zhang Chi to get the fighter plane on the island...... At the beginning, Zhang Chi was bombing the Japanese army on Kuah Island for a while, and from time to time mixed a few fighter planes to go to Kuah Island. The current Halsey is to withdraw a few fighters from time to time after bombing the Japanese army.

Truth be told, it's easier to get out than to get in. Because those withdrawn fighters only took off for a few seconds under the observation range of the Japanese army, and it was very likely that they were bombing together with other fighters, and the Japanese had no way of knowing when they would fly out of the island to the Japanese.

Sometimes you don't even need to do it at all...... The fighters on Kuah Island take off every day during the day to patrol the waters north of Kuah Island, as long as there are a few more planes when they take off, and a few fewer planes when they fly back, the Japanese certainly do not count the sorties that these planes fly in and out, and even if they feel that the number of sorties is less, they will think that it is a loss of a few planes in the battle with the Japanese Navy, which is very normal in wartime.

It was the "Cactus" air squadron that behaved a little reluctant when it withdrew.

Although these pilots didn't have much contact with Zhang Chi, they didn't even meet a few times...... Zhang Chi spent most of his time commanding at the headquarters, and the pilots were either at the base or flying in the sky, and the battle was fierce, so there was basically no contact between them except for radio contact.

But before the pilots left, almost without exception, they would come to meet Zhang Chi.

Here's what they say:

"It's an honor to fight with you, sir!"

"I hope we will have a chance to fight together in the future, sir!"

……

When Smith and Manrum were about to withdraw, Smith sighed and shook Zhang Chi's hand and said, "Colonel, you don't know how reluctant I was to come to this broken island when I left the aircraft carrier, but now...... I found that I couldn't do without this broken island! ”

"Me too, Colonel!" "If you need pilots in the future, remember us!" Manrum said! We're always ready! ”

[It's about to be 515, I hope to continue to hit the 515 red envelope list, and the red envelope rain will be able to give back to readers and promotional works on May 15. A piece is also love, and it must be better! (To be continued.) )