Tan Renhao received the news at about 4 p.m. that the search for the officers and men who had fallen into the water had ended, and in addition to the officers and men of the fleet in the First Task Force, more than 50 pilots had been found. The second group of bombers sent by the Fourth Task Force also made a forced landing next to the battleships of the First Task Force on their way back, and the pilots were all fished up and placed on the battleships. The general situation on the various battlefields was also sent at this time.

The battle, which lasted for half a day, was known as the "Battle of the Solomon Islands" on the American side, while the Tang Empire divided the battle into two parts, the battle at Kuah Island was called the "Battle of Lennell Island" (the battle was closer to Lennell Island), and the battle north of the Solomon Islands was called the "Battle of Dragonkador" (between the Roncador Reef position and the 1st and 4th Task Forces). No matter what the two sides call the battle that took place in the past 10 hours, this was the first large-scale battle between the two navies in the southwest Pacific since the United States entered the war, and it was also the largest battle fought by the two navies since the engagement, and it was the seventh head-on battle between the naval fleets of the two sides. This is also the first time that the navies of the two sides have dispatched aircraft carriers and battleships at the same time to conduct a decisive battle in a narrow sea area!

In the final stages of the battle, the bombers sent out by Task Force 4 flew 380 nautical miles to the southwest and still failed to find the small American carrier group (in fact, at the end of the day, the bombers were only 30 nautical miles away from the small American carrier group). In addition, the bombers sent by Task Force 4 to pursue Task Force 32 were unsuccessful, and were unable to catch up with the battleships that had fled to the southwest of Rennell Island. By about three o'clock in the afternoon, skirmishes between the aviation of both sides also stopped, and calm returned to the battlefield.

The tactical victory achieved by the naval forces of the Don Empire was very weak. The ratio of losses of aircraft carriers was 1 to 2, that of battleships was 2 to 2, that of heavy cruisers was 3 to 4, that of destroyers was 4 to 4, and of fighters was 157 to 228. The ratio of personnel killed was 2,100 to 3,200 - in addition, the losses in terms of damage to the battleship and serious injuries were similar. Obviously, even if the Tang Imperial Navy won a narrow tactical victory in this battle, in fact, it did not break the relative balance on the battlefield.

After this vicious battle, the Tang Imperial Navy still had two fleet aircraft carriers, while the US Navy had three smaller aircraft carriers (all completely repaired in a matter of days). Both sides lost their battleships. As for cruisers and destroyers, the comparison between the two sides is still not very different. In other words, the fierce battle still ended in heavy losses on both sides, and in the coming months, on the battlefield, the Tang Empire was still more than defended and underoffended, while the United States was still able to hold on to the defensive, waiting for the navy to regain strength and launch another counterattack.

The battle ended at this point, and Tan Renhao also felt extremely sorry. What makes him feel the most annoyed.

The bombers of the Fourth Task Force did not catch up with the small aircraft carrier formation of the US army. If only those three "Independence" class aircraft carriers (in fact, there are only two) can be taken out. Then the balance in the southwest Pacific will be broken, and the Tang Imperial Navy can use the remaining two aircraft carriers to seize sea supremacy and assist the marines in accelerating the capture of the Solomon Islands. But it is precisely because these three small aircraft carriers still have combat effectiveness. So now I have to defend myself, and I can't fully support the Marine Corps' attack.

Tan Renhao did not pay attention to the four American battleships that escaped. Judging from the telegrams sent by Wei Dongbei and the Third Task Force, these four battleships will definitely not be able to participate in the battle within a few months, even if they are not finished. At that time, the U.S. military port in Australia was not capable of repairing these battleships, and at most it could only be repaired simply and then sent back to Pearl Harbor, or San Francisco Harbor (the only port on the West Coast of the United States that could repair battleships, but did not have the ability to build battleships, and the American shipyards were almost all concentrated on the East Coast and the Great Lakes). And it would take more than twenty days just to return to Pearl Harbor. Even if you take 10,000 steps back, these four battleships still have combat effectiveness, Tan Renhao is not worried, in front of aircraft carriers, battleships have little resistance ability, at least the southwest Pacific is not the North Atlantic.

In addition, Tan Renhao also regretted the sinking of the "Yangtze River" aircraft carrier. He had commanded several key battles on this aircraft carrier, and it was his previous flagship. After reading the battle report sent by Huang Xiaotian, he also thought that the decision made by Huang Xiaotian and Jiang Zhongmin at that time was not wrong. The aircraft carrier "Xuanzong" was farther away from the US bombers. If the "Xuanzong" is allowed to come closer, then the two aircraft carriers will equally share the blows of the US bombers, and the "Xuanzong" will have a weaker ability to withstand the blows, and perhaps the result will be that the "Xuanzong" will sink and the "Yangtze River" will suffer heavy damage, or both aircraft carriers will be sunk and both aircraft carriers will be severely damaged. Huang Xiaotian let the "Yangtze River"

Although it lost one aircraft carrier in the end, it saved another aircraft carrier, at least from the perspective of the current battle situation, the "Xuanzong" aircraft carrier that can continue to fight is the most helpful to the battle situation. If Tan Renhao was in the position of Huang Xiaotian at that time, he would have made this decision (he didn't know that this decision was actually made by Jiang Zhongmin).

After the sinking of the "Daihai," the "Xingkaihu" was the only aircraft carrier of the First Task Force, and during the maintenance of this aircraft carrier, the First Task Force became an artillery strike formation and lost its aviation combat capability. According to Tan Renhao's point of view, the First Task Force has basically lost its combat effectiveness, and now the Fourth Task Force and the Second Task Force have aircraft carriers, in other words, the First Task Force has fallen from the position of the number one task force in the Imperial Navy.

Many results made Tan Renhao feel very sad, this was by no means the result he hoped for, and it was much worse than the goal he set. Even though the two U.S. fleet carriers had sunk into the sea, he still didn't think it was a huge victory, it was just a small victory at a painful price. When the fleet returned, Tan Renhao asked Hao Dongjue to arrange relevant work, and he returned to the temporary cabin. He hadn't closed his eyes for more than thirty hours, and the fierce battles, intense command work drained his energy. Lying on the iron plate bed less than a meter wide, Tan Renhao couldn't sleep. He pondered over and over again every key point in this combat operation, hoping to find some experience and lessons. After thinking about it, Tan Renhao finally believed that the biggest factor that led to the loss of control of the battle was not the problem in the command link, but the negative impact of the weather. Although the bad weather has had a negative impact on both sides. But Tan Renhao is more convinced that if the weather is not so bad, then he will get more victories!

The door was knocked on the wall a few times, and then Hao Dongjue pushed the door open and walked in.

"The telegram we just received, we have one more success." Hao Dongjue said as he threw a telegram onto Tan Renhao's chest.

Tan Renhao hesitated, picked up the message and sat up, he didn't rush to read it. Instead, he asked, "What time is it?" ”

"It's half past seven, let's go to dinner later, or I'll bring you a box lunch."

"No, let's go to the restaurant later." Tan Renhao patted his forehead, he had been lying down for more than three hours. Then he quickly skimmed through the message, and then opened his mouth wide in surprise. "It's not going to be a joke, is it?"

"Of course not, do you know who the captain of that submarine is?" Hao Dongjue laughed, "It's your brother-in-law, that kid's luck is extremely good." There were not even a few destroyers in the U.S. fleet. As a result, he seized the opportunity, and six torpedoes solved a big target, which was the largest battleship sunk by an Imperial submarine! ”

Tan Renhao read the telegram again. The telegram was signed by Colonel Liao Hongpeng. The No. 211 submarine under the command of Liao Hongpeng has been operating in the Coral Sea. The main mission was to attack the US transport ships bound for the Solomon Islands, and the secondary task was to gather intelligence on the activities of the US fleet. Last night, Liao Hongpeng let the submarine surface to recharge, and at the same time received a lot of telegrams, and many of them were about the US 32nd Task Force. Submarine No. 211 was not able to meet Kincaid when Task Force 32 was heading north, and Liao Hongpeng would not miss his last chance. He speculated that Task Force 32 would most likely return to Brisbane after heavy damage, so during the night he ventured into the submarine approach Indispenseb Reef and ambushed the reef about 45 nautical miles southwest of the reef, waiting for the U.S. task force to return.

That's more than ten hours. It wasn't until about six o'clock that the 32nd Task Force on the return passed nearby, and it was the four battleships that Liao Hongpeng collided with. At this time, around the four battleships of the "South Dakota" class, only four destroyers were escorting, and all four destroyers were traumatized to varying degrees. Liao Hongpeng's luck was almost extremely good, if it was in the past, even if he collided with the battleship formation of the US army, he would not dare to attack because of the large number of destroyers in the enemy fleet. He wouldn't let those four battleships go this time.

By half-past six, the No. 211 submarine maneuvered into position, stretched out its periscope about three nautical miles from the "Indiana," and then fired all six torpedoes in the bow of the ship.

The submarine then quickly descended to the maximum depth. Four minutes later, a muffled explosion was heard, and four of the six torpedoes hit the battleship "Indiana" with a speed of only 12 knots, and this was the most seriously injured battleship in the American fleet, and the charge of these four submarine-launched heavy torpedoes was more than 350 kilograms, and the four torpedoes completely kept the battleship.

Submarine Project 211 remained dormant until about 7:20. After making sure that the U.S. fleet was not staying, was still sailing south, and had already left, Liao Hongpeng let the submarine rise to the periscope depth, and after raising the periscope, he first determined the situation in the surrounding waters, and after finding that there was no destroyer activity, he saw the battleship that had been cocked. Then, the submarine quickly surfaced, sent the telegram, and then dived to the bottom of the sea, fleeing the battlefield at a speed of 4 knots.

After receiving the telegram from the No. 211 submarine, Yan Guozhong immediately forwarded it to Tan Renhao. The Indiana also became the last battleship to sink in this naval battle. The speed at which the battleship sank was too fast, and at that time, many officers and men were rushing to repair the damaged parts of the battleship, and there were quite a few officers and men in several boiler rooms, with the result that more than 500 people did not escape at all, and sank to the bottom of the sea at a depth of more than 2,000 meters with the battleship.

"Your brother-in-law has made great achievements now, and with the battleship he sank, he will get a gold medal when he goes back!" Hao Dongjue had already lit a cigarette, "Let's go, go to dinner, you're hungry too, right?" ”

Tan Renhao's mood was a little better, and the sinking of the "Indiana" may not have much impact on the battle situation, but this is finally a major result.

The two of them hurriedly ate something in the officers' cafeteria, mainly because if they were here, the other officers were embarrassed to stay and eat, so they all bought a boxed lunch and left. Tan Renhao and Hao Dongjue didn't want to delay the meal time of other officers, so they quickly went to the command cabin. Shortly after the two arrived at the command module, a new telegram arrived.

"Let you go back now?" Hao Dongjue read the telegram first.

"It seems that Task Force 1 will not be able to go back to rest for the time being." Tan Renhao sighed and put the telegram on the chart table, "After arriving on Bougainville Island, I will go ashore and return to the naval headquarters on a transport plane. You lead the fleet to Lae and get in touch with General Gan Quoc Chung to help the Marines as much as possible. ”

Hao Dongjue shrugged his shoulders, he knew that there would definitely be no good thing after Tan Renhao went back.

"Now the third task force has lost its combat effectiveness, and almost all warships need to be repaired. After arriving in Lae, let all the ships that can fight on the Wei Northeast side come back, under your unified command, you can temporarily let Wei Dongbei be your deputy, he has much more experience in artillery battles than you. Tan Renhao quickly made arrangements, "Maybe I'll be back in a few days, and then we'll discuss how to fight the next battle." Try to ensure the safety of the fleet and don't make unnecessary sacrifices. ”

"Don't worry, we're all here, I don't want to be ruined!" Hao Dongjue stuck out his tongue, and he also thought of asking Wei Dongbei to cooperate with him.

Tan Renhao smiled and nodded, and didn't say anything more about Hao Dongjue, at least Hao Dongjue still needs to exercise now, and letting him command the fleet alone is to give him a chance to exercise.