Time passed by minute by minute. After the US land-based and sea-based aviation forces were unable to commit to the strike due to various reasons, the axial aircraft carrier formation, which had been in the tightest state, finally gained a valuable respite. Not only did the fighter perform the last supply, but it could no longer provide more backup aircraft, but it also won several hours of rest for the pilots who needed the most, so that they could lie down and rest. As for the fleet itself, he, like Hori Teki's choice, accelerated to run out. After the supply the night before yesterday, the fuel of each ship was relatively sufficient.

As for the z-shaped anti-submarine route, I don’t care about this thing now. People don’t believe that there are American submarines in the Caribbean. This is the American back garden. What’s the use of laying them here? In fact, if there are 1-2 ships, let the escort warships stand firm and have no time to waste on it. The only thing that makes Horitiki worried is that due to the different retreat time and speed, the entire fleet is now divided into 4 parts. The first part is the 4 aircraft carriers of the mobile fleet and the main escort warships, the second part is the 3 water-machine carriers of the bait fleet and some escort warships, and the third part is the transport fleet and a group of destroyers of transport personnel. Since the heavy equipment of the Marine Corps has been basically destroyed on the spot, the scale of the transport ships is now much smaller, and the fourth part is the artillery formation and some destroyers.

After analysis, Tsukahara believed that the enemy could only launch another strike in the evening at most. He hoped that the other party could eat his own bait first, so that he could use the advantages of the fighter to weaken the opponent and lay a solid foundation for the fierce battle the next day.

At 16:00 pm, a difficult multiple-choice question was placed in front of Fletcher: his fleet was about 720 kilometers away from the shelling fleet and about 930 kilometers away from the enemy aircraft carrier formation. These data were not simple. They were all reported by the downed B-25s. For this battle, the B-25s suffered a lot. The remaining B-25s were basically all in the process two days ago. The only good news is that after a long search, the location of the other four aircraft carriers was finally determined 115 kilometers south of the three light aircraft carriers, not far from the Venezuela coastline. The distance between the US aircraft carriers is more than 1,000 kilometers from this fleet.

This distance made Fletcher speechless: it was too far from the enemy aircraft carrier formation, almost exceeding the combat radius of the aircraft; it was not short of the distance from the artillery formation, so hesitated, not knowing how to choose the air strike target...

After thinking for a long time, he finally decided to attack the enemy's battleship units. At least this could slow down the enemy's retreat speed. He didn't think that Hori Teiki would throw away all the injured and slowed battleships, no matter what, he would become a commander after he went back.

But this idea was rejected by the Fleet Chief of Staff Colonel Cox: "Sir, I am forbidden, I cannot launch such an air strike that goes without returning."

"Why? Didn't it mean that there were not many enemy battleship troops to cover the aircraft, only more than 20?"

"Not many..." Cox sighed, "The problem is that it is now 4 pm, and the attack aircraft group flew over and flew back again, and the air strike time is nearly 5 hours. How many people do you think your young man can find the direction of the mothership at night and successfully complete the deck landing?"

"Hey!" Fletcher was speechless. The technical level of carrier-based pilots has dropped very quickly, which is completely different from the Battle of Midway. Now the best-skilled pilot in the fleet is only equivalent to the level at that time. Just changing a 6 made him embarrassed. The factory provided enough aircraft. There may be only more than 30 pilots who are proficient in 6. He had no choice but to let the Lexington and York City carry 16 6s each. The other pilots continued to use 4. The carrier-based pilots in the Pacific Fleet direction were more capable. Kenimitz said he would not draw anything back. Admiral Jin also had the same opinion on this.

Thinking of the terrible prospect of night combat that could cause the attack aircraft fleet to lose more than half, the cautious Fletcher dared not take the risk, and just took the telegram to General Jin and Ingersoll, explaining to them the reason for the inability to launch the attack and demanding a postponement until the next morning.

Ingersoll quickly agreed and even specifically instructed Fletcher to run slower and wait for the battleship troops behind him to now have the distance between the artillery troops of the Atlantic Fleet and the aircraft carrier to more than 250 kilometers. General Jin sighed at this and agreed to postpone it until the next day.

Almost at the same time, Kusato Renyi reported to Hori Teiki: "Sir, you have entered the 900-kilometer air defense circle of Puerto Rico."

"How long will it take to get dark?"

“About 2 hours and 20 minutes.”

"Let the fleet cheer up, we are likely to encounter air strikes immediately. The radar soldiers must do their best to make every effort to make all their money."

"Do you need to ask Tsukahara to send more escort fighters?" Kura Lu pointed to the 24 fighters above her head and asked with concern.

"No need, he has a lot of pressure. Leave the rest to him."

At 16:30, both the radar and the lookout post reported no abnormalities. At 16:45, the escort fighter reported shooting down an aircraft of unknown nationality. The atmosphere suddenly became tense and later learned that it was a plane sent by Venezuela. The United States put strong pressure on Colombia and Venezuela to report the situation. The two countries had to send several aircraft to meet the situation, but they were all shot down by the Axial Fighter. Now the pilot of the Axial Fighter who is not the one on the side will be shot down.

At 17:00, there was still no movement. At 18:00, all airspace reported a calmness. The sun set little by little to the west, and never waited for the US airstrike plane. At 18:15, there were still 7 minutes before darkness. In the sunset, all the escort fighters that were nearly exhausted returned. The entire fleet was empty, and there was no cover plane. In the process, Cao Lu felt that his heart seemed to be tightly held by one hand, and his back was soaked with sweat.

At 18:22, night finally came, and the entire fleet miraculously did not be attacked.

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

As a result, the fleets reported that there was no enemy situation.

"Onboard!Onboard!"

"God bless!"

Regardless of Japan and Germany, all the officers and soldiers cheered from the bottom of their hearts. It was great that there was no air strike. The death of American pilots in the past two days were numb, and the Axis Fleet was also numb when they were bombed. Suddenly one day they said they didn't have to be bombed, and the joy was beyond words.

Hori Teiki only smiled slightly, and then said something that was not very impressive: "The enemy commander is very cautious. It seems that the trouble will not be small tomorrow..."

"Sir, don't scare me."
Chapter completed!