After the departure of the second group of bombers, Spruance gave the order again: the fleet course was adjusted to 35 degrees, the speed was maintained at 33 knots, and the speed was to be turned at the fastest speed of a single ship.

Many staff officers did not understand the commander's order, but they still carried it out quickly. Dozens of ships in Task Force 51 immediately pulled away and began to turn individually (which was much faster than the fleet turned en masse), and ten minutes later, the fleet was on a new course and continued to sail at a maximum speed of 33 knots.

"Now we've done our best." Spruance looked a little to himself, "Let all the fighters be concentrated in the southeast direction of the fleet, the air defense range is 30 nautical miles, when will the radar be activated?" ”

"There are already two radars in operation."

Spruance nodded and said, "Then, let the fleet sail in an anti-aircraft array, if it can survive these two hours, then we don't have to worry about anything." Remember to contact the bomber group and tell them about the new rendezvous area. ”

The fleet was speeding northeast, and Spruance came to the outside of the Commander's Bridge. His decision to pivot this time was made after careful consideration.

The Second Task Force is located 220 nautical miles to the southeast, which is too close, and Spruance will never believe that Lei Shaoqing did not send reconnaissance planes to the northwest, and if the Second Task Force has four aircraft carriers, then Lei Shaoqing can leave two bomber groups, and there are still surplus planes (seaplanes are also counted), and at least two batches of reconnaissance planes will be arranged, and there will never be a shortage of reconnaissance planes. And he will never ignore the threat from the northwest.

Even if he was initially likely to judge the direction of the enemy's attack to the north, after the first round of search did not find it, he would definitely send a reconnaissance plane to the northwest!

There is only one reason why the Tang Empire's ground reconnaissance planes were not able to find the 51st Task Force:

The reconnaissance range is not enough. The reconnaissance planes flew near Task Force 51, and they must have been very close. Prior to this, the radar in Task Force 51 was not activated, and the patrol radius of the air defense fighters was set to 20 nautical miles, so the two sides passed by and did not encounter.

Spruance counted the time.

If the Second Task Force had sent out reconnaissance planes around dawn, then at about 8 o'clock, Lei Shaoqing would have known that the reconnaissance planes heading north had not found anything, and he would then have sent a second batch of reconnaissance planes, and by half past nine, these reconnaissance planes would have almost reached the maximum patrol radius, and this is very likely to be 300 nautical miles, even if it is 350 nautical miles, it will already be 10:20 a.m., then these reconnaissance planes have already returned home. And it will not be more than 200 nautical miles from the second task force. In other words, if the 51st Task Force sailed to the northeast at this time, it appeared right behind the butt of the Tang Imperial reconnaissance plane!

Arguably. Spruance was very detail-oriented, and his order was actually gambling with the fleet. If the reconnaissance plane of the Tang Empire was still in the northwest direction of the fleet at this time, he would have collided head-on with him sailing to the northeast. Then it was discovered, and Lei Shaoqing had time to let the bomber group set off, and even the bomber group of the second task force had already set off, and now all that was needed was the exact coordinates of the enemy fleet. If his bet succeeds, then it will be impossible for the Tang Empire's ground bombers to find the 51st Task Force, and he can use two batches of bombers to kill the Second Task Force, and the Second Task Force does not even have the strength to fight back!

Spruance stood outside the Commander's Bridge for more than ten minutes, still thinking about it. Shortly after the first reconnaissance aircraft sent back a message, two more reconnaissance aircraft sent a message, only without reporting the location of the fleet, only saying that the fighters of the Don Empire had been spotted. That's enough. His two groups of bombers will soon be able to reach the sky above the Tang Imperial fleet, and he is very sure of killing his opponent, and now the question is, can he avoid the arrow fired by his opponent?

"General, General......"

Hearing the shouts of the staff officer, and the sound of hurried footsteps, Spruance immediately turned around, "Spotted enemy reconnaissance planes, about 30 nautical miles southeast of the fleet, and the fighters have already passed." ”

"What?" Spruance was startled and immediately rushed into the commander's bridge, "Stop that fighter immediately, damn it, who ordered the interception?" ”

It was too late, and when the pilots of the two fighters received the call, the navigator in the back seat of the reconnaissance plane, which was heading back to the southeast, had already spotted the approaching fighter, and the reconnaissance plane had already begun to dive to evade, and then circled at a low altitude, and the navigator sent the information back as soon as possible.

"The reconnaissance plane has already emitted radio waves......"

Spruance gritted his teeth, he nodded, and did not stop the fighter from shooting down the reconnaissance plane again. In fact, he can't blame anyone, the task of the air defense fighter is to shoot down any enemy aircraft that is close to the fleet, and the first thing the fleet air defense commander does after discovering the enemy aircraft is to let the fighter go to intercept it, and only then report the situation. Spruance never imagined that the fleet would reveal its position in such a way!

The "waterfowl" was quickly shot down, but the situation about the sea area where the enemy fleet, to be precise, the enemy fighters appeared, was already sent.

When Lei Shaoqing received this news, he and Zheng Guanhua were a little surprised. Spruance's fleet is within the reconnaissance sector of reconnaissance aircraft, why was it not detected before? There's no time for the two of them to go into the nitty-gritty.

"It takes about an hour for our bomber group to fly over." The aviation operations staff quickly determined the relative position of the bomber group to the enemy fleet.

"It is possible for the US fleet to sail in any direction, and the speed is definitely 33 knots, while the patrol radius of US air defense fighters is up to 35 nautical miles, that is, it is possible for the US fleet to appear within a circle with a radius of 70 nautical miles." Zheng Guanhua marked the absolute area of the US fleet on the chart, "It is very difficult to search this sea area. ”

"They're definitely here. Our bombers have enough fuel, dammit. It's so close! Lei Shaoqing sighed, "Contact the bomber group and let the escort fighters go out to reconnoitre." Be sure to find the enemy fleet, in addition. Don't be soft and strike the enemy fleet to the standard of three aircraft carriers! ”

Although there was no explicit combat mission, the pilots of the 2nd Air Wing knew very well how to get the most out of the bombing against a group of three carriers and a powerful escort of warships.

And in this batch of bombers. There were 24 "Falcons" (this batch of fighters was the one that took off before the bomber group), 72 "Shooting Birds", as well as 72 "Sea Eagles". This was all the bombers that Lei Shaoqing was able to arrange in the first batch of bombers at that time.

When the aviation operations staff officer contacted Deng Zichao, the team leader, and asked them to change course, Lei Shaoqing gave the order to let the second group of bombers take off. At this time, it was already 10:35 a.m., and the US bombers could arrive at any time, so this group of planes led by Zhang Naiding would not form a formation over the fleet, but would set off in a squad after takeoff. They met one after another on the voyage and finally formed a large formation. The first reconnaissance planes were refueled and bombed.

The second group consisted of a total of 24 Hayabusa fighters. Consisting of 60 "Waterfowl" bombers (36 of which were reconnaissance models), there were no torpedo bombers. The first bomber took off at 10:40. However, there is not so much time left.

At 10:50, the bombers on the four aircraft carriers had not yet finished taking off. The air defense sirens sounded, and the radar on the cruiser, located in the northwest direction of the fleet, detected a large group of aircraft in rapid approach, at a distance of 55 nautical miles!

"How many bombers have not yet departed?"

"There are probably about six bombers on each aircraft carrier that have not taken off."

"Let them speed up." Lei Shaoqing looked at the staff officer in charge of air defense operations, "Let the fighters go up first, after the bombers take off, the aircraft carrier will immediately turn into formation, and the nearby warships will come up first!" ”

In addition to the 48 escort fighters sent out, the fleet at this time also had about 72 air defense fighters, all of which were over the fleet. And about four of them were concentrated in the direction of the US bomber group, and the other three squads were also patrolling not far away.

At 10:53, the last bomber left the aircraft carrier. The escort warships had already approached, the aircraft carriers had begun to turn in the opposite direction, and the fleet's air defense operations had already begun at this time, and the first batch of fighters to meet them had already rushed into the enemy bomber group and were engaged with the enemy escort fighters.

Lei Shaoqing glanced at Zheng Guanhua, the two of them were helpless now, the enemy's bomber group was large enough, and the primary target of the attack was the two fleet aircraft carriers. Now, the only thing they could count on was that those fighters would be able to take out a few more bombers, and the anti-aircraft guns on the air defense battleships would be sharp enough.

On the periphery of the fleet, air battles were raging. This time, some of the fighter pilots of the US Navy's carrier-based aviation participated in previous battles, and Spruance left all the pilots who survived the last battle in the Fifth Fleet. The newly recruited pilots have also undergone more than half a year of training in the aviation school, of which the last two months are confrontation training. Although these pilots had no real combat experience, after the rigors of confrontation training (more than 5 percent of pilots were killed or injured in accidents), most of the pilots were not as good as the old pilots. The only difference between the battlefield and the training base is that on the battlefield they have to face enemy fighters, while at the training base they face fighters piloted by senior instructors.

The U.S. bomber group was divided into three groups when it was about 20 nautical miles away from the fleet, and apparently the U.S. pilots knew that the second task force had three carrier formations. The largest of them still flew directly towards the core of the fleet, while the other two came around from the left and right. The air defense fighters of the fleet had to disperse, moreover, it was simply impossible to intercept all the bombers in three directions at once. The tactics of the American forces were very effective, and the time wasted by the anti-aircraft fighters on the pursuit alone was enough for them to enter the anti-aircraft fire network of the fleet.

"General, you should move to the cruiser."

"No, wait a little longer!" Lei Shaoqing asked the officer of the Marine Corps to step aside.

When the anti-aircraft guns in the fleet rang out, he, the commander of the fleet, was no longer of much use. At this time, the combat operations of the fleet were carried out by the commanders of the aircraft carrier battle groups (directly from the aircraft carrier commanders, who were still a temporary position), and the fleet commanders were not responsible for directing air defense operations. After Lei Shaoqing, Tan Renhao, and others were wounded several times, the navy also clearly stipulated that after the start of the fleet's air defense operations, the fleet commander, chief of staff, and senior officers of the headquarters should be quickly transferred to the cruiser. But in reality, not many people are willing to do this, for the simple reason that it is very difficult to move between warships traveling at high speeds.

"Here it is, port direction, torpedo bombers!" A staff officer next to him shouted.

Lei Shaoqing and Zheng Guanhua immediately looked in that direction, and several torpedo bombers were approaching rapidly at a height close to the sea surface, as if the belly of the plane was about to rub against the sea.

"Overhead, dive bombers!"

A shrill whistling sound was heard, and the American bomber pilots also learned to attack in coordination. It's just that their coordinated attack is different from the coordinated attack of the Tang Imperial Air Force, the US military focuses on dive bombers, while the Tang Imperial Air Force will not clearly distinguish the key points, and whoever has more opportunities will be responsible for taking out the enemy ships.

The aircraft carrier made a quick turn, and the anti-aircraft guns were also struggling to pour shells. The network of fire organized by hundreds of anti-aircraft guns on the aircraft carrier is very powerful, and there are several escort warships nearby (there will be at least two air defense cruisers), and the power of hundreds of anti-aircraft guns cannot be underestimated.

Lei Shaoqing grabbed the handrail next to him, and the aircraft carrier was making a left turn, trying to align its bow at the torpedo bomber's channel, and the battleship tilted nearly ten degrees to the left. Lei Shaoqing steadied his footing, and then looked out of the porthole on the left, and the cruiser "Xuanwu" was also quickly turning to the left, trying to intercept the torpedo bombers before the aircraft carrier, but no warship could intercept the dive bombers above the aircraft carrier's head.

When the sound of the bomb fell, Lei Shaoqing looked at Zheng Guanhua, and then several Marine officers rushed up and pressed the two generals to the floor, and the bomb also fell at this time......