Chapter 461 Caribbean Sea (3)

Ps: I am leaving for Chongqing today to play for two days. I have set up automatic updates, but I will update twice. Thank you for your support...

Soon after the order was issued, at 9:35, new news came to Washington: B-25 found an enemy aircraft carrier formation in the waters north of Aruba, Venezuela, with 3 light aircraft carriers... But before it could report more, this brave plane was shot down.

"3 light aircraft carriers?" Admiral Jin frowned. Didn't they say there were 7 aircraft carriers? Why were there only 3 reported? What about the other 4?

"Are there any of our planes nearby?"

"No, some are returning, some are shot down, unless we transfer enough planes from other reconnaissance directions, it will take at least an hour, and the range may not be enough."

"We have to transfer more planes no matter how long it takes! We must fully grasp the enemy's movements. Fleet reconnaissance planes can't cover such a long distance now, and Catalina is too slow. We must use B-25 as the eyes and ears of the fleet." Speaking of reconnaissance planes, Admiral King was full of complaints. The front line reported to him that the Japanese sea reconnaissance planes were running very fast, and they expressed great envy and strongly demanded similar products. Admiral King searched and searched, and only the Curtiss Seahawk seaplane reconnaissance plane project met the requirements - the maximum speed can reach 500 kilometers per hour, and the longest range is 1050 kilometers. The problem is that this thing has not been finalized on the drawing board, let alone a prototype. He can only urge Curtiss to speed up.

The order was given, but combined with the initial feedback, it was his turn to be in trouble. He could not understand the enemy's deployment at all: part of the enemy's aircraft carrier formation had already run to the vicinity of Aruba, Venezuela, while the bombardment formation was still in the direction of Barranquilla, more than 600 kilometers apart - I have never heard of such a distance between the battleship formation and the aircraft carrier formation; secondly, the reconnaissance aircraft only found three light aircraft carriers, and the most important four fleet aircraft carriers were nowhere to be seen - where did they go?

After thinking for a long time, he still could not figure it out, so he could only copy the telegram to Cohen and Fletcher, asking them to judge and report the subsequent combat plan based on the current situation.

15 minutes later, Cohen's call came back. To Admiral King's surprise, Duncan explicitly opposed the next operational plan of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The reason was: According to the existing intelligence, the Nicaragua base was more than 900 kilometers away from the enemy's artillery formation and more than 1,500 kilometers away from the enemy's aircraft carrier formation. If they set out to attack the artillery formation now, the aircraft would have to fly for more than 2 hours. If they wanted to attack the aircraft carrier formation, the aircraft would have to fly for nearly 4 hours. This period of time was enough for the two enemy fleets to run a long distance. Based on the current level and experience of the air force, let alone air strikes on aircraft carrier formations, he thought that air strikes on artillery fleets were impossible.

As for why it was impossible, Admiral King knew it well. Pilots and commanders with air strike experience were either killed or missing. The newly arrived pilots were completely in the dark about the situation in the war zone. It was indeed difficult for them to suddenly attack targets 1,000 kilometers away. As for the sea attack 1,600 kilometers away, it was completely beyond the limit of the aviation force and was simply impossible. That was not combat, that was suicide!

Cohen's suggestion was very simple: since the enemy fleet was fleeing eastward, it was enough to keep some combat forces in Nicaragua, and there was no need to continue to reinforce. The focus was to send more troops to Puerto Rico. The Atlantic Fleet should dispatch carrier-based aircraft to weaken the enemy this evening, and tomorrow the land-based and carrier-based aircraft would work together to completely destroy the enemy fleet. Marshall and Arnold readily accepted the suggestion: too many people died in the Army Air Force, and waves of pilots died in the past two days, which was the limit of what they could bear.

Admiral King thought about it again and again, and finally had to admit that Cohen's idea made sense: there were still 7 hours before the carrier-based aircraft could launch an attack. After 7 hours, the enemy fleet would be at least 1,200 kilometers away from Nicaragua and could not be attacked; if the Army Air Force was forced to appear now, it would be equivalent to fighting alone and unable to form a joint force, which would basically be the rhythm of the whole army being destroyed - before the fleet arrived in the past two days, the Army Air Force could continue to consume the enemy's strength, but today it could not be done again, and the relationship and balance between the Army and the Navy must be comprehensively considered.

So he readily agreed to this suggestion, and the other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff immediately agreed to deploy troops in the direction of Puerto Rico - which meant that the attack could only be launched the next day.

Just as Admiral Jin sighed, Hori Teikichi was also worried. He looked at the sea chart again and again, but he could not find a good way out of the predicament: the fleet was getting farther and farther away from the US troops in Nicaragua and closer and closer to the US troops in Puerto Rico, and he had a vague premonition that the enemy Atlantic Fleet should have rushed down from the north, but he didn't know where it was at the current distance.

"The mobile fleet reported that the first guerrilla detachment had been discovered by the enemy..."

"Where is the mobile fleet headquarters?"

"It is inferred that it has not been discovered, but there is a certain possibility."

"This..." Faced with such a situation report submitted by the staff, Kusaka Renji himself had no choice.

"Sir, what should we do? Our distance from the mobile fleet is still increasing, and the possibility of fighters covering us is getting smaller and smaller."

"If you were the US military, facing the battleship formation and the aircraft carrier formation, which one would you attack first?"

"This..." Kusaka Renichi couldn't say anything and could only comfort Horikichi, "Sir, maybe the situation is not as bad as you think. Our distance from Nicaragua will soon exceed 1,000 kilometers, and we are also more than 1,100 kilometers from Puerto Rico. "As time goes by, by the time the sun sets today, the distance between us and Puerto Rico will be reduced to 900 kilometers - this distance is basically beyond the range of enemy aircraft, so don't worry too much."

"Luck is very important to us. I didn't expect that I would be so superstitious about luck now." Horikichi sighed and asked, "Have the reconnaissance planes gained anything?"

"Nothing gained yet."

"The fleet will maintain its current speed and continue moving forward." Horikichi thought for a while, "Remember to remind me when we enter the 900-kilometer range of Puerto Rico."

The third person who suffers the most is Fletcher. His aircraft carrier formation is more than 850 kilometers away from the Axis bombardment fleet and 900 kilometers away from the Axis aircraft carrier formation, both of which are long distances where air attacks cannot be launched - unless he does not want the attack fleet to return. Moreover, Nicaragua's army and aviation fleet cannot cooperate in combat. Puerto Rico can only go into combat the next day. If it wants to attack today, it must be carried out by carrier-based aircraft alone. The cautious Fletcher did not dare to make too much of this, and finally called back to Admiral King: "The fleet will continue to move forward and decide whether to launch an air attack at around 4 p.m."