Chapter 462 Caribbean Sea (4)

Time passed minute by second. After the U.S. land-based and sea-based aviation forces were unable to engage in strikes due to various reasons, the Axis aircraft carrier formation, which had been fighting continuously and had been in the most tense state of nerves, finally got a precious respite. , not only did the fighter jets replenish themselves for the last time and returned to 118 aircraft - Tsukahara could no longer provide more backup aircraft, but also won a few hours of rest time for the pilots who needed it most, allowing them to lie down calmly. Lie down and take a rest. As for the fleet itself, he made the same choice as Horikichi, speeding out and running away. After replenishing the ships the night before, the fuel for each ship was relatively sufficient.

As for the Z-shaped anti-submarine route, we don't care about it now. No one believes that there are American submarines in the Caribbean - this is the American back garden, what's the use of arranging it here? In fact, if there are 1-2 ships, it is better to let the escort warships stand firm. There is no time to waste on this. The only thing that makes Horikichi fearful is that due to the different retreat time and speed, the entire fleet is now divided into 4 parts. The first part is the mobile fleet of 4 aircraft carriers and the main escort warships, and the second part is the 3 water jets of the decoy fleet. The mother ship and some escort warships, the third part is the transport fleet and a group of destroyers transporting personnel. Since the Marine heavy equipment has been basically destroyed on the spot, the transport ships are now much smaller. The fourth part is the artillery formation and some destroyers.

After analysis, Tsukahara believed that the enemy could only launch another attack in the evening at most today. He hoped that the opponent would eat his bait first, so that he could use the advantage of the fighter jet to weaken the opponent and lay the foundation for a fierce battle the next day.

At 16:00 in the afternoon, a difficult multiple-choice question was placed in front of Fletcher: his fleet was about 720 kilometers away from the artillery fleet and about 930 kilometers away from the enemy aircraft carrier formation. These data were not easy to come by. They were all shot down. The B-25s reported that the B-25s suffered heavy losses in this battle. The remaining B-25s from the previous two days were basically wiped out in the process. The only good news is that after a long search, the locations of the other four aircraft carriers were finally determined - they are 115 kilometers south of the three light aircraft carriers, not far from the Venezuelan coastline. The US aircraft carrier is more than 1,000 kilometers away from this fleet.

This distance left Fletcher completely speechless: it was too far away from the enemy aircraft carrier formation, almost beyond the combat radius of the aircraft; it was also not a short distance away from the artillery formation. He hesitated, not knowing how to choose the target for air strikes...

After thinking for a long time, he finally decided to air attack the enemy battleships. At the very least, this could slow down the enemy's retreat. He didn't think Horikichi would abandon all the injured and slowed battleships - then he would become... The commander-in-chief.

But this idea was rejected by Captain Cox, chief of staff of the fleet: "Sir, with all due respect, I cannot launch such an air attack that will never return."

"Why? Didn't it mean that the enemy battleship force didn't have many cover aircraft, only about 20?"

"Not many..." Cox sighed, "The problem is that it is now 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the attack aircraft group flew over and then flew back, plus the air raid lasted nearly 5 hours, how many young men do you think you can have?" Can we find the course of the mothership and successfully complete the deck landing at night?”

"Hey!" Fletcher was speechless. The technical level of carrier-based aircraft pilots has declined very quickly. It is completely different from what it was during the Battle of Midway. The most skilled pilots in the fleet now are only equivalent to the average level at that time. At such a low level, just a single F6F change made him miserable - the factory provided a sufficient number of aircraft, and there were probably only more than 30 pilots who were proficient in the F6F. He had no choice but to let the Lexington and Yorktown each Carrying 16 F6Fs, the remaining pilots continued to use F4Fs. The carrier-based pilots in the direction of the Pacific Fleet were more capable, but Nimitz refused to be transferred back no matter what. Admiral Kim also held the same opinion.

Thinking of the terrible prospect that night operations might result in the loss of more than half of the attack fleet, the cautious Fletcher did not dare to take risks. He simply sent the telegram to Admiral King and Ingersoll, stating to them the reasons for not being able to launch the attack and requesting that it be postponed until the next day. Attack early the next morning.

Ingersoll quickly agreed, and even specifically told Fletcher to run slower and wait for the battleship force behind him-now the distance between the Atlantic Fleet's artillery force and the aircraft carrier had also increased to more than 250 kilometers. Admiral Kim sighed deeply and agreed to postpone it until the next day.

Almost at the same time, Kusaka Renichi reported to Horikichi: "Sir, we have entered the 900-kilometer air defense zone of Puerto Rico."

"How long until dark?"

"About 2 hours and 20 minutes."

"Cheer up the fleet. We are likely to encounter an air attack soon. The radar troops must go all out and damage control should be prepared for everything."

"Do you need to ask Tsukahara-kun to send more escort fighters?" Kusaka Renichi pointed to the 24 fighter jets above his head and asked worriedly.

"No need, he's under a lot of pressure, leave the rest to him."

At 16:30, the radar and lookout posts reported no abnormalities. At 16:45, the escort fighter jets reported downing an aircraft of unknown nationality, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense. It was later learned that this was a plane sent by Venezuela, and the United States exerted strong force. Under pressure, Colombia and Venezuela were required to report the situation. The two countries had to send several aircraft to respond to the situation. In the end, they were all shot down by Axis fighter jets. Now the Axis fighter pilots who are killing red-eyes will all be shot down as long as they are not their own aircraft.

At 17:00, there was still no movement. At 18:00, all airspace reports were calm. The sun was setting little by little to the west, but the US air strike aircraft still did not arrive. At 18:15, there were still 7 minutes until dark. Under the sunset, all the escort fighter jets, which were nearly out of fuel, returned home. The entire fleet was empty, and there was not a single covering aircraft. During this process, Cao Deer Renzhi felt as if his heart was tightly grasped by a hand, and his back was soaked with sweat.

At 18:22, night finally fell, and miraculously the entire fleet was not attacked.

"They won't attack the mobile fleet or transport fleet, right?"

As a result, each fleet reported that there was no enemy situation.

"Onboard! Onboard!"

"God bless!"

Regardless of Japan or Germany, all the officers and soldiers burst into cheers sincerely. It felt so good to have no air raids. In the past two days, the American pilots had been numb to death, and the Axis fleet had been numb to bombs. Suddenly one day they said no. Being bombed, the joy was beyond words.

Horikichi only smiled slightly, and then what he said was not very pleasant: "The enemy commander is very cautious. It seems that there will be no small trouble tomorrow..."

"Sir, please don't scare me."

"Send a telegram to Tsukahara and ask him to fully coordinate the air combat command and the artillery formation to obey the arrangements!"