Hyakutake Haruyoshi quickly reported this decision to Yamamoto Isoroku, who not only agreed to Hyakutake Haruyoshi's request, but also decided to personally command the battle.

Yamamoto did this partly because he saw the scale and significance of the battle, so he didn't want to make any mistakes.

On the other hand, it was because after the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese, including Isoroku Yamamoto, confused war with fighting, believing that as long as they won a key battle, the entire war would be considered victorious, and the United States would come to Japan for negotiations with their heads down and in a low voice.

However, this does not seem surprising, because the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War were, at least in the same situation, as the Japanese thought, and after a victory in a crucial battle, the defeated China and Russia sat down at the negotiating table and conceded defeat in the form of an unequal treaty.

But what the Japanese didn't know was that China at that time could be said to have basically no industry, and the vast majority of warships and equipment were bought from Germany and Britain, so if they were defeated, they were really defeated, and they had no ability to produce new warships to fight again, so it was a helpless choice to go to the negotiating table.

At the time of Russia's defeat, the domestic opposition was launching a revolution that turned Russia upside down, and the Chinese Far East was a secondary battlefield for Russia, so it was only after the defeat that it came to the negotiating table.

However, it was precisely because of these two fortuitous coincidences that everyone in Japan believed that war was such a model...... Victory in a crucial decisive battle will end the war, so since the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Japanese have been looking for an opportunity for this "decisive battle," and this time the Japanese have decided that Kuah Island is the stage for the "decisive battle" between Japan and the United States. So Isoroku Yamamoto, who had defeated the Americans at Pearl Harbor, personally put on the battle.

Yamamoto Fifty-six soon developed a plan in which he divided the entire fleet into six parts:

The first part is the advance group, the center of which is a seaplane aircraft carrier, supported by more than a dozen destroyers and cruisers.

It is clear that its task is to be responsible for reconnoitering the movements of the enemy fleet, although the combat capabilities of the seaplanes are not strong. However, its advantage is that it can land at any time and anywhere at sea, and it can also take off very conveniently, which is perfect for maritime reconnaissance missions. Another task of this group of ships is to use it as a decoy to guide the enemy fleet in the direction of the main force of the Japanese fleet when it is spotted, and to actively provide support and cover when the main force engages the enemy.

The second part is the diversion group, which consists of one light aircraft carrier, supplemented by a cruiser and two destroyers, and its task is to attract carrier-based aircraft of the US aircraft carriers and create conditions for the attack of the main force.

The third part is the fire group on the opposite shore. Four cruisers were organized to bombard the US airfield and positions on Kuah Island with naval artillery fire.

Yamamoto was very clever at this point, and he knew that at this time, he would bomb the Kuah Island airfield and paralyze it, otherwise, the carrier-based planes taking off from the US Navy aircraft carriers would be able to land on Kuah Island to replenish fuel before going into battle, thus making up for the shortcomings of the US fighters' short range.

The fourth part is the main battle group, which has a large lineup, consisting of two main aircraft carriers and 17 large and small warships. Its mission is to attract the US warships by the advance group, and when the diversion group attracts the fighters on the US aircraft carriers. launched an attack on the main force of the US Navy.

The fifth part was a reinforcement group, under the command of Rear Admiral Yorizo Tanaka, with 1 auxiliary cruiser and 4 fast transport ships converted from old destroyers, and the 2nd Mine Squadron escort was responsible for transporting supplies to Kuah Island.

The sixth part was the reserve group, which was personally carried by Yamamoto on the battleship "Yamato", covered by 1 escort aircraft carrier and more than 10 destroyers, in the waters north of the Solomon Islands. Implement comprehensive command, and when necessary, go south to cooperate with the main battle group to annihilate the US Navy.

It should be said that this battle plan is still very tight, luring the enemy, containing, suppressing, and so on to spread the battlefield very large.

But it made a mistake, that is, the strategic objective was not clear: was the Japanese navy's goal in this operation to annihilate the U.S. navy or to transport supplies to Kuah Island? Perhaps Yamamoto Isoroku had a good reason to do so...... Yamamoto Fifty-six listened to Maruyama Masao's report because of the lack of supplies. The Japanese soldiers on Kuah Island were all like hungry ghosts, and even Maruyama Masao's lunch box was stolen and had to go hungry.

On the other hand, it was Yamamoto Isoroku who believed that with such a lineup, he could deal with the fleet of the US Navy's three aircraft carriers, and that the Zero fighters would also be able to achieve all-round superiority in the air, so he wanted to transport some supplies urgently needed by the Second Division to Kuah Island when he gained sea and air superiority on Kuah Island.

But things on the battlefield are not all as smooth as Yamamoto Isoroku imagined, as long as one link goes wrong, this seemingly strict plan will collapse entirely.

The U.S. Navy soon received information that the Japanese Navy was moving south...... Although the Japanese fleet was divided into six parts, there were not a few ships in each part, and the US reconnaissance planes easily spotted them.

So the U.S. Navy immediately organized a group of ships to go north to meet the battle.

The formation of the US military is organized into three aircraft carrier battle groups around the three aircraft carriers, namely the 11th, 16th, and 18th groups.

Because of the shortage of escort warships, each aircraft carrier has only a pitiful number of seven, nine, or ten warships.

Comparing the US Navy with the Japanese Navy, it is easy to see that the formation of the Japanese Navy is much more complex than that of the US Navy...... However, things on the battlefield are often the simpler they are, the easier it is to win, because one person's command ability is limited after all, and complex formations often bring chaos rather than combat effectiveness.

At this time, the commander of the US Navy, Fletcher, even made a mistake that should not be made...... When the reconnaissance plane discovered the Japanese naval reinforcement group, he immediately dispatched dozens of fighters and bombers on the aircraft carrier to attack the target, but unexpectedly did not find any enemy warships in the target sea area, so the bombers could only drop bombs and torpedoes and return.

At this time, Fletcher easily came to the conclusion that he judged that the Japanese Navy had returned, and its large-scale southward movement was just for show, and there would be no large-scale battles in the next few days, so he ordered the 18th Group to return to the south to refuel, and the remaining two aircraft carrier battle groups continued to patrol the nearby waters.

The fact is that the Japanese Navy has rich combat experience, and after seeing a US reconnaissance plane, it changed course to avoid the attack of the US fighters, and after the US fighters flew away, it continued to move south.

As a result, the US Navy, which is already underwhelmed, is even more alone.

(To be continued.) )