At 10 o'clock in the morning, the first to enter the field of vision of the US military was the Japanese "shooting group on the opposite shore."

The fleet was spotted by U.S. seaplanes on reconnaissance missions, but when the pilots reported the situation to Fletcher, Fletcher did not believe it...... The reason is that it was daytime, and Fletcher couldn't believe that the four Japanese cruisers would enter the waters of Kuah Island without the cover of aircraft carriers and fighters, which was almost no different from looking for death.

So Fletcher thought it might be a false alarm from the pilot, and he didn't take action.

It wasn't until the four cruisers bombarded the Kuah airfield with shells that Fletcher had to believe it.

Fletcher was cautious, and instead of immediately sending warplanes to attack the four cruisers, he ordered two seaplanes to continue to reconnoiter the surrounding seashore, believing that the Japanese would never make such a low-level mistake.

Sure enough, seaplanes soon reported the discovery of Japanese fighters and bombers flying to Kuah Island......

After receiving this information, Fletcher couldn't help but be overjoyed, because he concluded that it was a carrier-based aircraft flying from a Japanese aircraft carrier, which meant that he had found the direction of the main force of the Japanese aircraft carrier.

Looking at the map, Fletcher immediately sent a telegram to Kuah Island, ordering Clifton to immediately let the fighters and bombers hidden on Kuah Island take off and search for Japanese aircraft carriers in the direction from which the Japanese fighters flew.

This order quickly reached Zhang Chi's hands, Zhang Chi couldn't help frowning, all this seemed to come too easily, the Japanese exposed the direction of their aircraft carrier so easily, and their purpose was just to bomb the Kuah Island airfield?!

Sensing that something was wrong, Zhang Chi suppressed the phone that Clifton was about to pull out.

"How?" Clifton looked at Zhang Chi with some confusion.

"This could be a trap for the Japanese!" Zhang Chi said.

"But it's an order!" Clifton said.

"Do you execute orders even if you know they're wrong?" Zhang Chi asked rhetorically: "Even if it is possible to pay the price of the pilot's life for this?" ”

"But...... What if you're wrong? Clifton said, "We risk missing a chance!" You know, if there are really Japanese aircraft carriers in that direction and their carrier-based aircraft fly here, then we can catch them by surprise! ”

Clifton's words make sense, and this is one of the reasons why Fletcher ordered the Kuah fighter to take off...... The hidden fighters on Kuah Island were unknown to the Japanese army. It is likely that fighters and bombers flying from here will suddenly appear over the Japanese Navy's aircraft carrier completely unprepared.

But Zhang Chi finally shook his head and said, "The Japanese are not as simple as you think!" ”

Clifton couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this, and then nodded silently and said, "Okay, I choose to trust you...... But don't think it's because of my personal relationship with you, but Admiral Nimitz told me to follow your advice as much as I could! ”

Zhang Chi nodded, Americans have a characteristic of distinguishing between public and private. The same is true of Clifton.

So Fletcher soon got a call back: "Because the situation is unknown, the cactus refuses to carry out the order!" ”

"What?" Seeing this telegram, Fletcher couldn't help but be angry: "Refuse to carry out the order?!" Whose idea was this...... I'm going to take him to court-martial! ”

Then the correspondent sent another telegram, also from Kuah: "This may be a conspiracy of the Japanese, the cactus reminds the general to be careful!" ”

"Go ******!" Fletcher was so angry that he tore the telegram to shreds, and then immediately ordered: "Order the carrier-based aircraft to take off and go to the target area to search for enemy carriers!" ”

"Yes!" The staff officer answered and passed on the order.

Fletcher didn't want to miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

As a result, 30 bombers and 8 torpedo planes on board the "Saratoga" flew overwhelmingly toward the waters north of Kuah Island under the escort of 12 fighters.

It is obvious that Fletcher has hit the trick, and the more than ten Japanese planes that flew to Kuah Island to bomb did take off from the aircraft carrier, but that was from the diversion group, that is, a light aircraft carrier "Longxiang", whose mission is to lure the US Navy to attack...... Dozens of carrier-based aircraft of the US Navy were dispatched. It was a black area in the air, so the Japanese submarines and water flights all over the nearby waters soon discovered this group of aircraft, and according to their direction and time, they could know where the US aircraft carriers were.

In fact, after more than half an hour, Fletcher sensed that something was wrong.

Because the seaplanes in charge of reconnaissance by the US military soon discovered a Japanese seaplane carrier in waters 60 nautical miles away in the other direction...... It was the advance group of the Japanese army, and Fletcher was an aircraft carrier expert, and he knew very well that seaplanes were used to reconnoiter the surrounding seas and would not be too far from the main force.

That is to say, the "main force of the Japanese army" attacked by the group was not the main force of the Japanese army at all.

The information that followed quickly confirmed his suspicions. A reconnaissance plane taking off from the Enterprise spotted the Japanese Grand Fleet, which was dominated by two aircraft carriers, which was obviously the main fleet of the Japanese army.

Fletcher immediately ordered the fighters and bombers that had gone to attack the Japanese pinning group to turn around and attack the Japanese capital group. However, due to poor communication, the group did not receive this order, so the group still carried out the original order and flew to the direction of the Japanese army to contain the group.

That's when Fletcher panicked.

As the commander of the aircraft carrier, he was well aware of the characteristics of the Japanese Zero, although he had already known the weaknesses of the Zero from the test unit, and the pilots had also summed up the combat tactics against the Zero. However, these tactics emphasize not fighting with Zero, and diving to escape.

To put it simply, it is these tactics that may be useful in breaking through the interception air defense belt formed by the zero battle. They can use high-speed dives to smoothly throw off the Zero to bomb the Japanese aircraft carriers, but now it is possible that the Zero is in an offensive posture and the US military is defending, which forces the US Navy's Wildcat fighters to fight with the Zero and not dive and escape...... Otherwise, the Japanese bombers would follow closely and break in and bomb the US aircraft carriers.

At this time, Fletcher remembered the fighter plane hidden on Kuah Island, so another telegram was sent to Kuah Island.

When Clifton got the telegram, he said to Zhang Chi with his mouth half-open, "God, you are right! It was a trap set by the Japanese. It's just that unfortunately, General Fletcher was still fooled, and he had already sent carrier-based aircraft. Now order us to take off immediately and attack the main group of Japanese aircraft carriers! ”

(To be continued.) )