As the fleet was returning, Spruance sent someone to see Turner, and shrenchnel hit him in the left leg, less than two centimeters from the main artery. The military doctor had already saved Turner from the brink of death, because the shrapnel was stuck between the bones, and the medical conditions on the battleship were limited, so it could not be taken out immediately, and the operation could only be performed after returning to the island hospital. Overall, Turner's injuries are not too serious, and at most he can fully recover after lying in the hospital for a while.

The losses of the officers and men of the fleet were not small, more than 2,500 officers and men were killed, most of them were officers and men on the aircraft carrier, and more than 100 people were lost on the unlucky light cruiser, and the officers and men who escaped were rescued. By the afternoon, when the search and rescue planes returned, it was confirmed that at least 418 pilots had not returned, and nearly 30 pilots would be disabled due to injuries. This is almost a third of the number of pilots of the Fifth Fleet. In other words, just one battle cost Spruance a third of months of hard work, but the remaining two-thirds of the pilots have already gained actual combat experience, they are survivors, and they are the winners of the brutal competition. When these pilots take to the skies again, they will become the "pride of the sky" and the hope of the US Navy and even the entire United States.

For the loss of the fleet, Spruance was not most concerned about the personnel, and this was not something he could care about, the wounded were taken care of, and the officers and men who fell into the water were rescued. Perhaps, there are still some officers and soldiers who have not been found and are still adrift on the sea, but Spruance has done his best. He could not let the fleet remain in dangerous seas, let alone take the hopes of tens of thousands of officers and men, as well as the hope of the US Navy, to make funeral offerings for those officers and soldiers who were not found. The fleet must return to sea, and it must return to Pearl Harbor as soon as possible. But the current state of the fleet did not make Spruance happy at all.

Although the power of an aviation torpedo warhead is much less than that of an aviation armor-piercing projectile, an aviation torpedo is more threatening than a bomb. Even a torpedo hit in a secondary part was capable of inflicting huge damage on a battleship. Three aircraft carriers in the Fifth Fleet were torpedoed, and the "Shangri-La" and "Boxer" were torpedoed by two of them, and the damage to these two aircraft carriers was also the most serious. The Shangri-La was barely able to maintain a speed of 14 knots. And the speed of the "Boxer" is not even 10 knots, and what is even worse is that the aircraft carrier is seriously flooded, and if the speed is too fast, then it will not be able to reduce the amount of water at all, and it will definitely sink before returning to Pearl Harbor. "Hancock" and "Good Guy Richard" each received a torpedo. The situation with the "Hancock" was a little better, the damage of the torpedoes was not very serious, and in the case that all three power systems worked. It can also maintain a speed of more than 20 knots. The situation on the Good Guy Richard was a little worse, and after the water intake was controlled, the aircraft carrier could only maintain a speed of about 16 knots. The other two ships did not suffer from torpedoes, and the situation of the mother was not much better. The Bennington and Antietam were both hit by three bombs, and the fire on the two carriers was so fierce that it was only in the afternoon that the damage control crew was able to contain the fire. By the end of the evening, the thorough inspection of the Antietam was over, and the speed was restored to 18 knots, before which only one power system was working on the aircraft carrier to avoid another fire due to fuel leaks. The speed is less than 10 knots. The inspection on the "Bennington" did not end until after eight o'clock in the evening. The speed returned to close to 20 knots, and before that, it was only possible to "crawl" at 12 knots.

Other words. At that time, among the six aircraft carriers in the fleet, the "Boxer" was in the worst situation, and even if the aircraft carrier only sailed at a speed of 8 knots, whether it could return to Pearl Harbor was a serious problem. The second is the "Shangri-La" and the "Bennington", the speed of the two aircraft carriers is below 16 knots, and both hide a lot of hidden dangers, and even many cabins have not been thoroughly inspected. The Good Richard and Antietam were able to maintain a speed of 16 knots, or even a little faster, but they could only reach that speed. The best situation is the "Hancock". After the water ingress was stopped and the three power systems were restored. The ship is capable of returning at a speed of more than 20 knots.

The problem arises, if the six aircraft carriers return together, then there is no doubt that the speed of the fleet is only 8 knots, and it can only sail less than 20 nautical miles in a day, and it will take at least 7 days to return to Pearl Harbor. Even if it goes to Necke Island, it will take at least three days, and it will only be possible to enter the cover range of Necke Island's shore-based air forces by tomorrow evening at the earliest. It stands to reason that now it is time to return home with three aircraft carriers with a speed of more than 16 knots. Leave the worst "Boxer" at the back. But Spruance did not dare to make this decision immediately, because he knew that there were dozens of submarines of the Don Empire hidden under the surface of the nearby sea, and those submarines would allow them to return to Pearl Harbor unharmed? The answer is definitely no, maybe a group of Tang Empire submarine captains who have already received the news are letting their submarines rush over as fast as possible to encircle and suppress this injured beast!

Spruance also considered another threat, the cruisers and destroyers of Task Force 4 to the northeast. The bombers attacking Task Force 4 brought back a message that Task Force 4 had turned due west at the last minute of the attack, presumably preparing to return to Midway and then to Guam. If the Fourth Task Force had not changed course, the distance to the Fifth Fleet would have been nearly 400 nautical miles by the evening of the 30th. The three aircraft carriers of the Fourth Task Force were also damaged to varying degrees, and even if these three aircraft carriers did not sink immediately, they would not pose a threat to the Fifth Fleet. In order to cover the aircraft carriers, then the escort of the fourth task force, the battleships should return with the fleet, and the hope of catching up with the fifth fleet is quite slim. So, will the commander of the Fourth Task Force find a way to get that artillery formation to intercept the Fifth Fleet?

By this time, Spruance didn't understand why Huang Xiaotian had organized those battleships into an artillery formation? Judging from the bomber reports, the number of escort warships of the Fourth Task Force was smaller than he expected, and it was clear that the Fourth Task Force did not have a separate artillery bombardment formation, and those warships were drawn from the aircraft carrier battle group to form an artillery strike formation. And this in disguise weakens the escort of aircraft carriers, especially air defense. If these warships were part of the Fourth Task Force Aircraft Carrier Battle Group, perhaps one or even two aircraft carriers would have been able to avoid being hit and at least maintain some of their aviation combat capability. The result was completely different from what it is now.

It's a question that Spruance doesn't need to think about, and he doesn't think much about it. The threat is imminent, that artillery formation is less than 200 nautical miles away from the Fifth Fleet, and if Huang Xiaotian lets it go south, it will definitely be able to intercept the Fifth Fleet. But the problem is that Huang Xiaotian is not stupid, the escort battleships of the Fifth Fleet have not suffered much losses, and now there are still more than a dozen cruisers and more than thirty destroyers to fight. Will he let the shelling formations come and send them to their deaths? Even if Huang Xiaotian had this idea, then he should also think about the officers and men of the Tang Imperial Navy on those battleships, and in addition, the captains of those battleships should first consider the combat effectiveness of the escort warships of the Fifth Fleet, at least the 203 mm heavy guns on the "Baltimore" class heavy cruisers, and the 304 mm heavy torpedoes on the "Fletcher" class destroyers are not vegetarian places.

In the end, Spruance came to the conclusion that the threat of those few battleships was not small. But the Fifth Fleet could not be annihilated. And at this time, he should not be most concerned about those battleships, but about those submarines hidden under the surrounding sea. This is also the most important question for all fleet commanders to consider after the end of the naval battle.

Relatively speaking, to aircraft carrier battle groups. Even for wounded aircraft carrier battle groups, submarines are far more of a threat than surface warships. Especially at the end of the battle, when the aircraft carrier battle group returns home, it is easy to become a sneak target for submarines. Spruance would not have paid much attention to this issue two years ago, when the "B" submarines, the main equipment of the Tang Imperial Navy, did not have enough range to threaten the warships in the waters of the Hawaiian Islands. The number of Type C submarines is not very large, and it is even more difficult to pose a threat to the earth. But Spruance doesn't think that way now. The Tang Imperial Navy had begun to build a large number of "D" submarines, which were ocean-going submarines with excellent performance built by introducing the German Navy's new submarine technology, and were not only equipped with standard snorkels. In addition, the battery capacity has been increased a lot, and it can be underwater for a longer time. Moreover, this was also the first submarine of the Don Imperial Navy to be armed with 650-mm heavy torpedoes, a submarine that was enough to pose a great threat to any surface warship. In the six months since the "D" submarine was commissioned, at least more than 140 merchant ships were sunk on the route from the continental United States to Pearl Harbor!

When the fleet returned, Spruance first ordered to strengthen anti-submarine patrols, the speed of the fleet was not very fast, and the destroyers could completely keep up with the anti-submarine cruise speed. The local Fifth Fleet lacks specialized air defense cruisers such as the "Li Jing" class and the "Rui Beast" class. It is only possible to equip as many destroyers as possible to make up for the loopholes in the fleet's escort force, so the number of destroyers in the Fifth Fleet is quite large, which is enough for any submarine captain to consider whether he can avoid the encirclement of these thirty or so destroyers before deciding to sneak attack the aircraft carrier.

In order to improve the anti-submarine capability as much as possible, Spruance also contacted the shore-based air force on Necke Island and asked the Necke Island side to send a group of long-range antisubmarine patrol planes over as soon as possible. But the problem is that the Fifth Fleet will not be able to enter the covered sea area of anti-submarine patrol aircraft at least tomorrow night, that is, before that, it can only rely on its own anti-submarine forces to deal with the submarines of the Tang Empire, which are very likely to have already arrived.

By half past eight in the evening, when the inspection of the last carrier had finished and the speed had begun, Spruance had made a big decision. The three aircraft carriers, capable of maintaining a cruising speed of 16 knots, formed an independent formation and returned to Pearl Harbor first. The other two carriers, capable of maintaining a speed of 14 knots, formed a second formation and headed for Necker Island, then to the Kauai side for a simple repair, or directly back to Pearl Harbor. And the aircraft carrier "Boxer" was protected by six destroyers and returned at a speed of 8 knots.

Obviously, Spruance didn't want to stay on the battlefield any longer, but this decision brought two problems. One is that the anti-submarine forces of the fleet will be dispersed, and all three aircraft carrier formations acting alone are likely to be besieged by submarines. The other is that if the commander of the Fourth Task Force judges that the Fifth Fleet will return in several groups, will the artillery formation he left in the northeast of the battlefield take corresponding measures? At that time, even if the submarine did not kill the "Boxer", it is very likely that the cruisers and destroyers that killed the "Boxer" will be able to deal with the "Boxer", and the six destroyers escorting the "Boxer" will certainly not be the opponent of the Fourth Task Force shelling formation.

The most dangerous is the "Boxer", the damage to this aircraft carrier is so serious that even if it returns to Pearl Harbor, it will take at least several months to repair, but this is 10,000 times better than never returning to Pearl Harbor. Six destroyers should be able to deal with the sneak attack submarines, but the problem is that in the face of three heavy cruisers and six destroyers, these six "Fletcher"-class destroyers will be powerless.

If cruisers were to be sent to escort the ship, it would also send a group of destroyers over, and it would further divide the escort warships of the Fifth Fleet, so that the other two carrier formations would also be threatened. And the escort warships of the Fifth Fleet could not protect three aircraft carrier formations at the same time. In the end, Spruance once again made a big decision to form a separate fleet of six Baltimore-class heavy cruisers, as well as eight Fletcher-class destroyers, to deal with the shelling of the 4th Task Force!

The relevant orders were given before eleven o'clock in the evening, and the formation of six cruisers and eight destroyers subsequently broke away from the accelerating carrier formation. Spruance also played the last card, and now he has nothing to do, and he has only one hope, that is, to return to Pearl Harbor as soon as possible, so that a few lightly damaged aircraft carriers can be repaired as soon as possible, and put into battle again, but he feels that his hope is a bit high, and it can even be called extravagant.

What Spruance didn't expect was that the artillery formation commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Jiang Hailong was about to rush over, and the Fifth Fleet dispersed the operation, which actually gave Jiang Hailong a precious opportunity.