The situation on Lei Shaoqing's side is far less ideal than Tan Renhao expected. If in this combat mission, Task Force 1 was the flower used to attract bees, then Task Force 2 was the big spider that hid behind the flower and spread its webs!

In accordance with operational requirements, the Second Task Force must try to avoid premature exposure, and to be precise, it must ensure that it cannot expose itself before the appearance of the main aircraft carrier fleet of the United States, that is, the 16th Task Force. The U.S. military had several radio listening posts on the islands south of the Mariana Islands, so Task Force 2 maintained radio silence after leaving the Iwo Jima anchorage, receiving only signals and not firing signals. If there is any need to communicate with the outside world, send planes to the nearby islands and use the radio stations on the islands to communicate with the rear. Although this method was cumbersome, there was no better solution at the time.

All the problems were caused by that sudden storm, which had a negative impact on all four fleets operating in the theater of operations at that time. After the second task force entered the theater of operations, the communication antennas on the flagship were damaged, and the antennas on the other two aircraft carriers also had problems. Of course, this is especially true of fragile external electronic devices such as radar. To make matters worse, an extremely important part of the No. 2 catapult of the aircraft carrier "Pearl River" (on the right, on the left, on the left) was not fixed and went wrong during the violent shaking of the aircraft carrier. To repair the catapult, it was necessary to have spare parts, which were not available on the aircraft carrier at that time, only the Iwo Jima anchorage had reserves. In other words, even if a plane was sent to fetch it immediately, it would not have been possible to repair the broken catapult on the morning of the 5th.

There are still many problems that cannot be solved, and they all plague Lei Shaoqing and Chang Jianxin. For example, the thunderstorm of the storm seriously interfered with the fleet's communication with the outside world (receiving signals) As a result, when the first task force was sailing eastward, Liao Hanxiang's two telegrams were not received by the second task force. The Second Task Force did not follow the new route and continued to operate in the waters east of Aramagan and Guam. Moreover, the antenna on the flagship had been damaged at that time, and it was impossible for the radio station to receive the news from Liao Hanxiang.

The storm moved eastward, which was a good thing for Task Force 2. At about half past eight on the 5th, the wind and waves in the sea area where the fleet was located were much calmer. Lei Shaoqing immediately sent a plane back to Aramagan Island to get a few spare parts for repairing the antenna, and another plane immediately returned to Iwo Jima (which needed to land at Asunción Airport for refueling on the way, which delayed a lot of time) to bring back the parts for repairing the catapult. Until this time, Lei Shaoqing still did not know that the First Task Force had gone east, and that the 17th Task Force of the United States had already appeared to the south of them (about 18o nautical miles) at 9:30 a.m., and the plane sent to the island of Aramagan had returned, in addition to bringing back a few parts needed to repair the antenna, it also brought an extremely important piece of news, that is, the First Task Force had sailed east a few hours earlier. At this time, the straight-line distance between Task Force 1 and Task Force 2 was not 12o nautical miles. It's not 15o nautical miles either. Rather, the position of the second task force is at least 8o nautical miles to the west!

At this juncture, Lei Shaoqing did not hesitate. Immediately order the fleet to sail in a southwesterly direction, shorten the distance between the fleet and the 1st Task Force, and prepare for battle as soon as possible. Because the "Pearl River" aircraft carrier has only one catapult that can be used, there are actually only two and a half aircraft carriers in the fleet at this time (the weight of the carrier-based aircraft of the Tang Imperial Navy is not small, and if there is no catapult, it will be difficult to take off), but the combat effectiveness of the two and a half aircraft carriers cannot be underestimated, it is still stronger than the first task force, and it is not a problem to destroy the 16th task force of the United States.

In fact, it can already be seen that if Lei Shaoqing wants to catch up with these 8o nautical miles at this time, it will take about two hours and forty minutes. Two hours and forty minutes later, it will be twelve o'clock, and the reconnaissance planes sent by Spruance will be out in the next half hour, and the four reconnaissance planes can cover at least the second task force is heading for the course of these four reconnaissance planes!

The situation on the battlefield soon became complicated. At 11 o'clock, Lei Shaoqing also received the news of the appearance of the 17th US task force. This took him by surprise, and the guns of the American fleet were about to reach his backbone. Fortunately, there were at least a hundred nautical miles away, and news soon came from Task Force 1 that they would be ready for Task Force 2.

Lei Shaoqing arranged a reconnaissance plane at 11:20 a.m. The reconnaissance planes that took off from the three aircraft carriers mainly searched the eastern and northeastern seas of the fleet. At this time, Lei Shaoqing did not know the location of the US 16th Task Force (Tan Renhao also thought that the 16th Task Force was in their northeast direction at this time), so the focus of reconnaissance was in the northeast direction, not the south, or the southeast.

Lei Shaoqing has also been paying attention to the battle in the south. However, the communication channels used by the First Task Force and the First Air Wing were different from those of the Second Task Force (the radio communication technology at that time was not yet up to standard, and the radio communication capacity was insufficient, so the channels used by different units were different), and Lei Shaoqing could only learn about the battle situation on the front line from the telegram from the First Task Force and the telegram transmitted by Liao Hanxiang.

The 17th task force is unlucky, Lei Shaoqing knows very well Tan Renhao's ruthless methods, even for the sake of four battleships, Tan Renhao will do his best to send out all the bombers, not to mention that there is an aircraft carrier in it. Lei Shaoqing is more aware of the capabilities of those top pilots of the First Air Wing. Although the top-level pilots such as Deng Zi, Zhang Naiding, and Yang Shihong were all dug by him to the Second Task Force, Qiu Gengbo, Zhang Zhitao, and Yang Qinkai are also very good. This can be seen from the performance of these pilots in the "First Battle of the Marianas", under their bombing. Task Force 17, commanded by Fletcher, was not even capable of fighting back. Now that we have encountered the 17th Task Force again, I believe those pilots will never be relentless!

The only thing that worries Lei Shaoqing is the profile of Rear Admiral Spruance, the new commander of the 16th Task Force, who has not shown his head, and like Tan Renhao, he feels that although this opponent is a little older and his service record is not so superior, his years in the academy must have exposed him to a lot of advanced tactical ideas, especially the tactical ideas of naval aviation operations, because those years were the years when the debate between the aircraft carrier faction and the battleship faction was the most intense. Since Halsey recommended this fifties major general to Nimitz. That is enough to show that this person has the ability to command the aircraft carrier fleet in battle, and it is also an ability that Halsey appreciates!

So, where exactly is Task Force 16? This is also the question of Lei Shaoqing and Chang Jianxin, if you can't find the enemy, you can't hit the enemy. At about one o'clock, Lei Shaoqing was a little out of breath, and the reconnaissance plane flying in the direction of the east and northeast had been out for an hour and forty minutes, and the flight distance had exceeded 25o nautical miles, and it was flying towards the maximum reconnaissance radius of 3oo nautical miles. The strike radius of American carrier-based bombers is up to 25o nautical miles, but until now there has not been any news from a reconnaissance aircraft, that is. The likelihood of the appearance of the American fleet in its northeastern direction is very small!

More than ten minutes later. When Lei Shaoqing received a telegram from Tan Renhao, he also woke up. U.S. Task Force 16 is not to their northeast, but to the southeast or south! Then a second telegram came. Lei Shaoqing immediately arranged for 12 reconnaissance planes (all of which were improvised reconnaissance planes by "Osprey" bombers) to take off and search southeast and south. But the problem is that at this time, the second task force is about 32o nautical miles away from the first task force and the 16th task force, and the reconnaissance radius set by Lei Shaoqing is 39o nautical miles!

It can be said that on the battlefield at that time, the main fleets of the warring sides were hidden, and they were all trying to find the main fleets of the other side, and the first to fight were the fleets used by both sides to sacrifice. This situation is relatively fair for both sides, after all, before the main fleet is exposed. No one can be sure who the victory will belong.

Spruance sent the fleet north, just to seize the opportunity to attack the Second Task Force of the Tang Imperial Navy, and there was nothing wrong with this decision in itself, if the opportunity to defeat the Second Task Force was missed, then the US Navy would still not be able to seize the sea supremacy of the Mariana Islands, and it would not be able to turn the tide of the war. And he didn't know that the 16th Task Force could have stayed in a relatively safe sea area, and the First Task Force of the Tang Empire could not pose a threat to it before it was attacked, and even reconnaissance planes could not be dispatched. And the Tang Empire's Second Task Force is still far away from more than 3oo nautical miles, so he can concentrate on killing the First Task Force first, and then seek an opportunity to fight a decisive battle with the Second Task Force. But Spruance wanted to be a complete victory, a complete victory, and he didn't know that the two task forces of the Tang Empire had distanced themselves, so he retained part of his strength, one to be a backup strike force, and the other to deal with the second task force of the Tang Empire. What he didn't expect was that in order to seize the opportunity to strike at the Second Task Force, as a result, the Second Task Force reconnaissance plane came to move forward!

The reconnaissance planes of both sides were almost head-on, but the US reconnaissance planes took off dozens of minutes ahead of schedule. By this time, the outcome of the naval battle was still uncertain, as neither side's main fleets were exposed, and shortly after the destruction of Task Force 17, American bombers would also reach Task Force 1. That's when the turning point happened!

The distance of one hundred and fifty nautical miles is probably less than an hour's flight range (cruising degree when fully loaded) for a bomber. The American fleet left the fleet at about one o'clock, and by the time they reached the skies over Task Force 1, there was a difference of five minutes to two o'clock. Moreover, this group of American bombers also flew in the wrong direction, and it was a fighter plane that came out of the front to appear in the first task force, and then immediately called in the bomber group. Therefore, American bombers actually entered from the east of the 1st Task Force, and not from the southeast!

"Immediately send all the fighters over, do we have any fighters?"

Hao Dongjue shook his head, all the fighters in the fleet had already taken off, and the first batch of fighters to take off was only left with fuel for air combat.

"Then let them intercept as much as possible, and if they can't be stopped, hand it over to the air defense battleship!"

Tan Renhao also knows the current situation of the fleet, "Where is the fleet of aircraft returning home?" ”

"It's almost there, I just contacted Ellsler, and the escort fighters led by him have turned around, trying to reach the skies over the fleet before the American bombers!"

Tan Renhao didn't say anything more, and now he has done everything he can do. He walked quickly to the chart table, looked at it for a while, and said: "The distance between the American fleet and us is between 12o nautical miles and 18o nautical miles!" ”

"I've figured it out, it should be within this distance!"

"But now American bombers are coming from the east, why?"

Tan Renhao glanced at Hao Dongjue.

"We don't have their reconnaissance planes, and the American commander must have sent bombers according to the approximate location!"

Hao Dongjue also took this into account, "Their luck is too good, they collided, maybe the bombing line deviated a lot, but they must be in our south, more likely in the southeast sea, not in the east!" ”

Tan Renhao nodded slightly. "Immediately send the news out and tell Lei Shaoqing that the enemy fleet is to the southeast or south of us, with a horizontal width of about 8o nautical miles, and let them send bombers immediately!"

The news quickly got out, and the American bombers soon reached the skies over Task Force 1. The thirty-odd escort fighters sent by Spruance played a big role. Although the "Falcon" did its best, the performance of the "Pirate" was not much worse than that of the "Falcon"; when the fighters of the two sides were fighting fiercely, the US bombers had already killed them and pounced on the "Yangtze River"!