Because it was daytime, it was impossible for Mikawa Junichi's troops to escape the eyes of the US Navy reconnaissance planes when they sailed to Kuah Island.

Mikawa Gunichi's method was to arrange well-trained lookouts on the warship, and if the lookouts saw a little shadow of enemy planes in the sky from afar, they would immediately report to Mikawa Gunichi, and then Mikawa Gunichi ordered the fleet to change course...... When the enemy plane flew without a trace, it adjusted its course and continued to sail towards Kuah Island.

This method is not clever, because as long as several reconnaissance in a row, combined with the coordinates of this fleet, it is easy to conclude that the direction of the Japanese fleet is Kuah Island.

However, a series of errors in judgment and command loopholes in the US Navy's reconnaissance enabled the Japanese fleet to miraculously reach the waters off Kuah Island under the nose of the huge US Navy without anyone noticing.

The first to detect this Japanese fleet was a submarine of the US Navy, but because this Japanese fleet was still far away from Kuah Island at this time, this information did not attract anyone's attention.

Then a U.S. bomber spotted the fleet, again not paying attention to it because of the distance......

In fact, the reason why the US Navy did not take it to heart was not because of its long distance, but because they did not believe that such a fleet would dare to challenge the US fleet without the cover of air forces and aircraft carriers, which was simply suicidal.

The third time the Japanese fleet was spotted was an Australian reconnaissance plane, which was close enough to be alarmed. But the pilot was also unimpressed when he saw this fleet, he did not report it to the base immediately, and even almost forgot this information, until he flew back to the base for afternoon tea before he suddenly remembered and reported to his superiors, and worse, he also reported the Japanese fleet to two seaplane carriers, three cruisers and three destroyers.

Post-mortem analysis. The reason why the Australian pilot reported this was most likely because he saw a carrier-based reconnaissance plane on a Japanese heavy cruiser...... This reconnaissance aircraft is indeed a seaplane, it takes off from a heavy cruiser by catapulting, and after completing the reconnaissance mission, it lands on the water and recovers.

As for why the pilot regarded two light cruisers and one destroyer as three destroyers, it was that the pilot was not familiar with the Japanese warships, and he judged the type of enemy ship by its size.

When the U.S. Navy received this information. I thought it was impossible for this to be a Japanese fleet that would come for a naval battle...... Just a few days ago, the 2nd Marine Regiment captured Tulagi Island and destroyed two Japanese seaplane bases, so the US Navy assumed that the purpose of the Japanese fleet was to establish another seaplane base.

This allowed the troops of the Mikawa Army to sail all the way to Kuah Island unimpeded.

At 16 o'clock, Mikawa ordered five heavy cruisers to eject and take off a seaplane each, and flew to the vicinity of Kuah Island in several directions to conduct a comprehensive reconnaissance of the US Navy and the terrain of Kuah Island, and to understand the presence of US military forces and the location of US warships.

At this time, Mikawa reconnoitred three aircraft carriers of the US military.

Mikawa knew that if the attack was launched during the day, then the eight warships in his hands would not be the match of the US aircraft carriers at all. So it was decided to sneak attack at night.

In fact...... This information was a great luck in misfortune for the US Navy, because Mikawa always thought that the US military had three aircraft carriers near Kuah Island, so the tactic adopted was to fight a quick battle, that is, to withdraw from the war zone immediately after a successful sneak attack in only one battle, and to withdraw the fleet to the range that his fighters could cover as quickly as possible.

What Mikawa didn't know was that shortly after he completed his first reconnaissance, Vice Admiral Fletcher, who was in charge of commanding the aircraft carrier battle group, demanded that the carrier-based aircraft be evacuated from the waters of Kuah Island because of the excessive losses of carrier-based aircraft and the lack of fuel...... This is actually Lieutenant General Fletcher's excuse. From the beginning, Vice Admiral Fletcher was reluctant to place the carrier battle group in the waters off Kuah Island, which was on the edge of the coverage area of the Japanese Rabaul shore-based fighters and bombers.

Lieutenant General Fletcher was worried. If the Japanese knew the location of their carrier battle group, mobilized Rabaul's shore-based fighters and bombers, and the carrier-based aircraft of the Japanese aircraft carriers, it would be a nightmare for the American aircraft carriers.

Therefore, Vice Admiral Fletcher openly opposed the aircraft carrier battle group's five-day stay in the waters off Kuah Island from the very beginning, and he stressed that the aircraft carrier could only stay for two days at most.

Now two days have passed. Moreover, it was still two days after the nerves were constantly on guard against the Japanese fighters coming to bomb the aircraft carrier, so Fletcher couldn't wait to sail the aircraft carrier battle group out of the sea area that might be bombed by the Japanese army.

In this way, in other words, the US warships in the waters off Kuah Island have actually lost the protection of aircraft carriers, and Mikawa's sneak attack fleet can actually bomb indiscriminately until they have finished their shells and torpedoes. If this is the case, it is not known how many more American warships and transports can be sunk.

But because he knew that the US military had three aircraft carriers nearby in his previous intelligence collection, Mikawa did not dare to do so...... This cannot but be said to be Sanchuan's regret.

At 6 p.m., Mikawa dispatched a carrier-based reconnaissance plane for the second time to determine the location of the US Navy's warships.

At the same time, Mikawa ordered to throw all flammable materials on the deck into the sea for the final inspection and rearmament of ammunition.

At 10 p.m., when it was already completely dark, Mikawa once again dispatched a carrier-based reconnaissance plane to reconnoiter and ascertain the changes in the positions of the US warships at night.

It was precisely because of such repeated reconnaissance that Mikawa knew the situation of the US military well, and he even used light signals to assign targets to each ship, and worked out the retreat route and plan in advance.

At 24 o'clock, Mikawa's fleet had already entered the waters off Kuah Island.

Mikawa ordered all warships to raise the white identification flag on the mast, accelerate to 28 knots, and swoop down on the American fleet with murderous violation.

At this time, the U.S. Navy was still squabbling over the withdrawal of Fletcher's aircraft carrier group from the waters of Kuah Island...... However, objectively speaking, this cannot be blamed on them, as mentioned before, the most important air supremacy in naval warfare, if there is no cover of the aircraft carrier formation, then the US Navy's transport ships and other warships will lose their air cover and be completely exposed to the bombing of Japanese fighters.

As a result, other U.S. Navy transport ships and other warships also demanded to withdraw from the waters of Kuah Island, but at this time, a quarter of the supplies to Kuah Island had not been delivered, and Brigadier General William, as the commander of the Marine Corps, certainly did not want this situation.

And just when the meeting ended unhappily, the cannon sound of Sanchuan's sneak attack on the fleet began. (To be continued.) )