The weather has had a huge impact on sea searches.

It was not until around 10 a.m. on September 2 that a US patrol aircraft that took off before dawn discovered the Second Fleet. However, the reconnaissance aircraft was indeed unlucky. It was returning to the base and flying above the clouds. After the observers discovered an abnormal situation on the sea, the pilot flew the reconnaissance aircraft to dive, which happened to be above the Second Fleet. At this time, the passive radar of the Second Fleet had detected the reconnaissance aircraft, but it was not sure of its identity and directional communication equipment was not used. It was not until the US reconnaissance aircraft rushed out of the clouds that the watchman on the warship determined that it was a shore-based anti-submarine patrol aircraft with four engines, rather than a carrier-based fixed-wing anti-submarine patrol aircraft with only two engines. As a result, the US reconnaissance aircraft had just started the radio and was shot down by the electromagnetic cannon on the warship.

To be precise, half of the wing and an engine were knocked out by an electromagnetic cannon.[]

Instead of falling immediately, the US reconnaissance plane staggered away from the attack area of ​​the small-caliber electromagnetic gun and crashed fifteen minutes later.

At that time, the radio station on the reconnaissance plane had failed.

About ten minutes later, another US reconnaissance plane returning to the sea discovered a friendly aircraft that fell into the sea. At this time, the pilots on the US reconnaissance plane who fell into the sea did a very important thing, using a distress signal gun to point out the direction of the Chinese fleet for the aircraft.

This action immediately changed the situation on the battlefield.

At 10:30, the US reconnaissance aircraft discovered the second fleet, and it was 100 kilometers away, locked the second fleet with a sea search radar.

Two minutes later, the reconnaissance plane turned and flew away.

It is not because the US pilots were timid and afraid of death, but because the remaining fuel on the transport plane was only enough to return to Honiara, and the US military did not have tankers in the Solomon Islands.

Interestingly, this time, the US pilot also reported that two aircraft carrier battle groups were discovered.

Obviously, the US reconnaissance aircraft regarded the two fast combat support ships as aircraft carriers, and there were eight large integrated warships and six anti-submarine warships in the second fleet, which was almost the same as the total number of escort warships required by the two aircraft carrier battle groups, and was almost the same as the first fleet in terms of fleet size.

The report of the reconnaissance aircraft was sent to Honiara and the US Third Fleet at the same time.

When Nixon received the report, he was shocked because the third fleet was only about 1,500 kilometers away from the Chinese main fleet, and the Chinese main fleet was coming on the shortest route, and it seemed that he knew that the US third fleet was right in front. In Nixon's view, the US third fleet had been exposed.

Of course, when he calmed down, he felt it was unlikely.

If the Chinese main fleet had discovered the U.S. third fleet, it would have launched an attack long ago, and there was no need to shorten the distance to 1,500 kilometers.

Could it be a coincidence?

Obviously, Nixon didn't think so.

He soon thought of a possibility, that is, the Chinese Navy determined that the U.S. third fleet would go to Ponape Island, so he rushed to intercept it, but it was not clear about the exact location of the U.S. third fleet, so he was not in a hurry to send reconnaissance planes. There is only one thing that is certain, that is, the Chinese main fleet would definitely send reconnaissance planes, and maybe it had sent reconnaissance planes before it was discovered by the U.S. reconnaissance planes.

This means that the U.S. Third Fleet may be exposed at any time.

Start an attack immediately?

Nixon hesitated because he was not sure whether he could get the fighter planes carrying out the attack mission to take off before the Chinese Navy's attack aircraft fleet arrived.

You know, the U.S. Third Fleet was not prepared for the battle at all.

Just when Nixon was hesitating, the news from Honiara made him relieved. The US shore-based fighter unit stationed in the Solomon Islands was about to be dispatched, and it is expected to attack the Chinese main fleet before 12:30 to one o'clock, so that the Third Fleet would be ready for the further attack.

In other words, the shore-based fighter jets took the initiative to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the first round of attacks.

In this way, the U.S. Third Fleet can first improve the fleet's air defense without rushing to dispatch attack aircraft groups.

Obviously, Nixon's judgment was completely wrong.

The exact meaning of this telegram is that the Third Fleet and the shore-based aviation force launch an attack at the same time, and the shore-based aviation force is responsible for the first round of assault, and the attack aircraft group of the Third Fleet will then conduct additional bombing. In other words, the shore-based fighter jets will use anti-ship missiles to attack the main fleet of China, and the 3rd Fleet's carrier-based fighter jets use anti-ship guided bombs to launch a fatal blow after the anti-ship missile attack.

Tactically speaking, this is obviously the most reasonable arrangement.

More importantly, four tactical aviation corpses of the US Air Force were deployed in the Solomon Islands. The pilots of the US Air Force were not familiar with using anti-ship guided bombs to attack targets, and did not reserve many anti-ship guided bombs. Instead, they reserved a large number of anti-ship missiles to fight against the Chinese fleet.

Of course, they are all tactical anti-ship missiles for fighter jets.

But, the problem lies here.

The format of the telegrams of the US Air Force and the US Navy is different. As a result, Nixon misunderstood the Air Force's intentions and believes that after the Air Force completes the attack, he will decide whether to carry out additional strikes.

In fact, this understanding is not wrong.

The four tactical aviation corps have about 800 fighter jets, even if they only dispatch half of them, it is equivalent to the attack power of six aircraft carrier battle groups. The attack waves composed of 400 fighters are enough to achieve a decisive victory against a fleet of only two aircraft carriers.

In Nixon's opinion, this was a battle without any suspense.

Of course, to be precise, there is still a little suspense, that is, Nixon is not sure whether he can withstand the air strikes of the Chinese main fleet.

In this way, if he wants to win a complete victory, his first priority is to preserve the fleet.

With this idea, Nixon would naturally arrange the fleet to air defense first.

You know, he only has three aircraft carriers in his hand, and three traditional angled deck aircraft carriers, with only two hundred fighter jets in total. If the Chinese main fleet decides to fight to the death, the two twin-deck aircraft carriers can dispatch 160 fighter jets in one attack.

Obviously, the situation of the US Third Fleet is not optimistic.

As a result, before 11:30, Nixon did only one thing: increase the air defense fighter jets over the fleet to more than one hundred in one breath.

In order to support these fighter jets, the U.S. Third Fleet also dispatched eight early warning aircraft.

Before all the air defense fighters deployed by Nixon urgently took off, the US fighter jets deployed on the Solomon Islands began to take off.

At this time, Tong Shaoyun had sent an emergency telegram.

To be precise, after 10:30, that is, after the US reconnaissance plane was discovered and intercepted the radar signal and telegram of the US reconnaissance plane, Tong Shaoyun realized that the US air strike was coming, so an emergency telegram was sent at 10:35.

According to the tactics he and Gong Jifei agreed upon, the First Fleet will immediately provide air defense cover for the Second Fleet.

The problem is that Tong Shaoyun did not expect that the US Third Fleet was nearby.

According to the alarm issued by Mu Haoyang, there may be two situations. One is that the US military had decided to counter Ponape Island long ago, so the US Third Fleet sailed eastward on the 29th, and had arrived at the Tuvalu Islands at this time, and perhaps heading north, more than 2,000 kilometers away from the Second Fleet. The second is that the US military did not make plans early, and did not decide to counter Ponape Island until the fall of Ponape Island. Therefore, the US Third Fleet turned north on the 31st or even September 1st. At this time, it was either in the Coral Sea, or between the New Hebrides and the Solomon Islands, and about 2,000 kilometers away from the Second Fleet.

Of course, Tong Shaoyun believes that the latter is more likely because the US military did not expect the Chinese Navy to attack Ponape Island.

In fact, no matter what the situation occurs, the U.S. shore-based fighter jets deployed in the Solomon Islands are most likely to attack the Second Fleet first.

Now, in Tong Shaoyun's opinion, the threat is not too great.

The reason is very simple. The Military Intelligence Agency has provided exact information long ago. The tactical aviation of the US Air Force deployed in the Solomon Islands, and only reserved tactical anti-ship missiles and did not reserve anti-ship guided bombs. Therefore, these US fighters do not pose a great threat to the Second Fleet.

Affected by this, Tong Shaoyun only asked the First Fleet to provide limited air defense cover in the emergency telegram.

It will not take until the afternoon, when Tong Shaoyun believes that it is very likely to be attacked by US carrier-based fighter jets, that air defense cover needs to be strengthened.

It must be admitted that Tong Shaoyun is very lucky.

In fact, when later generations evaluated the young naval general who emerged during World War III and was as famous as Mu Haoyang in military use, they all admitted that he was a very lucky guy, and that good luck had at least half of the achievements he achieved.

In a sense, it seems that God particularly favored the young major general.

Judging from the situation at that time, Tong Shaoyun actually misjudged the situation. If it were someone else, even Mu Haoyang would ask the First Fleet to provide comprehensive air defense cover instead of sending more than 20 fighter jets symbolically. As for the result, it must be a world of difference.

This mistake did not make Tong Shaoyun very unlucky, but instead made him lucky.

After shooting the telegram, Tong Shaoyun let the fleet enter air defense combat state. Eight large integrated warships surrounded six anti-submarine warships and lined up in dense formations to ensure that any large integrated warship can be covered by two adjacent friendly ships and can also cover the two friendly ships. That is, the inner air defense area of ​​the large integrated warship has an overlapping range of 50%, so that the last defense system can achieve 100% combat effectiveness.

Immediately afterwards, Tong Shaoyun sent out all inclined rotary wing aircraft.

First, these aircraft were not helpful in air defense operations, and second, he had to determine the judgment he had made before, that is, whether the US Third Fleet was in the New Hebrides.

To this end, all tilted rotary wing aircraft removed anti-submarine equipment and carried the secondary fuel tank in a transitional flight.

In this case, the tilted rotary wing aircraft has no anti-submarine combat capability, but its flight distance exceeds 4,000 kilometers, which is the maximum reconnaissance radius of 2,000 kilometers.

After Tong Shaoyun made these arrangements, the US attack aircraft group also arrived.
Chapter completed!