At the enemy's home court, the speed of the warships is impossible to sail at the most economical speed, and they must maintain a higher cruise speed. The 10 knots of American battleships before Nevada were less than 8,000 nautical miles! So to be honest, those American dreadnoughts could not participate in this kind of expedition at all. They were not able to participate in this kind of expedition, and they were burning coal. Coal replenishment operations were much more troublesome than replenishing heavy oil. This was the case with the main battleships, and the same was true for destroyers, but because American destroyers are now burning oil, it is convenient to replenish. If there is an oil tanker, they can barely enter the Sulawesi Sea, but it is not enough to stay for a long time.

Therefore, Shigetaro Yoshimatsu has a correct inference, that is, all the main ships of the US fleet cannot fight in the Sulawesi Sea, so there is only one problem left now. What if some American battleships come here? This is OK from the perspective of endurance and supply. After all, the fleet is small and there are few ships that need to be replenished. The new warship has good endurance and more convenient supply. But there is another tactical problem. If the Americans just send Super Fearless and aircraft carriers, they will not be able to defeat the main force of the Japanese fleet. Moreover, in the Japanese area, the opponent has land-based advantages. Well, aren't the Americans afraid to play a big game this time and lose a lot of fleets? Anyway, the Japanese dare not do this. The Germans have worked in the North Sea, but that was also a Doger Shark not far from their side that they beat the British once.

Therefore, even though the views raised by Suzuki Kantaro are very close to the Americans' strategic and tactical ideas, neither Shigetaro Yoshimatsu nor Betty would have thought that the Americans would be so crazy this time. They really divided the main force of the fleet to travel across the ocean to Kalimantan to cause trouble! Sometimes it makes sense to say that the higher the upper limit is, the higher the upper limit!

Therefore, after some discussion, the Japanese and British were more inclined to the American fleet this time to try to ambush the Joint Fleet. For this reason, the Japanese chose to be timid when the situation was unclear, and wait until the situation was clear and the size and location of the US fleet were known, the Joint Fleet would then attack.

So the joint fleet began to shrink its forces and even moved a little to the north of the Philippines to avoid possible strikes from the US fleet. This undoubtedly meant that it had lost the last chance to prevent the US fleet from entering the Sulawesi Sea and attacking Zaragan! After all, the distance between the two sides is a bit far now, and this time the US fleet is preparing to race to Zaragan Island!

No matter what the Americans are preparing to do, we must increase the defense power of the Talao Islands, especially the aviation power. After all, this is a crossroads. If we deploy an air force here, it is of great significance to restrict the US military's operations, and based on this, we can form a complete front with the Philippines and New Guinea Island. Betty said one of its previous plans.

Yes, but in a hurry, we cannot deploy too many aircraft supplies and ground crews. The attack force may be difficult, but we can deploy some reconnaissance aircraft and fighter units. At the same time, we would better let Goodnow's seaplane reconnaissance force expand the search range to see if we can find the US fleet tomorrow morning. Shigetaro Yoshimatsu said. Then the senior leaders of the British and Japanese naval forces discussed some things and then broke up. Everyone prepared themselves. At the same time, what are the Americans doing?

We have crossed the last island of the Talaw Islands and now officially enter the Sulawesi Sea. So far, our main fleet should not be exposed. Majiphin said to Sims.

Hopefully so, didn't our fighter unit destroy a seaplane? And it is said that the seaplane is sending a report, Sims asked.

That's right, but the telegram should not be sent. Our radio monitoring station tracked the seaplane. The sending of the message is often no more than 3 minutes. The Japanese used a dumb puzzle machine similar to ours, and three minutes were only enough to send the previous identification code. Majifen said.

No other leaks? Sims said hesitantly.

There should be no more. At least there is no such thing in the core circle of the fleet. When we were replenishing supplies, we took off a total of 70 aircraft of various types spread around the main fleet, and we had our fighter jets at an altitude of 300 meters to 5,000 meters above sea level. In addition, the air defense sentry composed of a large number of destroyers, if they were missed like this, it would be God's intention, and I had no choice. Majifen said half-seriously and half-jokingly.

Well, order the fleet to sail in dense formations, maintain a speed of 18 knots, and further strengthen the control of the radio from now on, we have entered the final sprint stage! Sims said.

From now on, it will take 2 and a half days to 3 days to arrive at Taragen Island. This is the Japanese inland sea. What should we do if we encounter a merchant ship? Majifen said.

If a merchant ship with Japanese nationality is directly destroyed, the merchant ship with other nationality is temporarily detained. By the way, if you encounter a British ship, you will also destroy it. That's it. At the same time, you ordered the destroyer team as avant-garde to consider turning on the radio interference equipment during the day. Sims said.

Tomorrow, our submarines will also open a new cordon at this location to alert the Japanese fleet that may have arrived from Davao. As he said that, Majiphin came to the chart and drew a dotted line across the Talao Islands. This is the newly deployed cordon of the Americans to be responsible for alerting the eastern exit of the Sulawesi Sea.

In fact, if the Japanese fleet had completed combat preparations at this time, even if we were exposed only after completing the attack on Lagen Island under the ideal circumstances, the Japanese Combined Fleet would have the opportunity to block us at the eastern end of the Sulawesi Sea. Sims took a deep breath and said in a gloomy tone.

Our fleet is far stronger than our opponents, and we are raiding against Lagen Island, and the losses will be very small. Even if we encounter the Japanese fleet, we are not afraid. Majifen said.

Perhaps as the Germans said, this time we have been preparing for too long, and our plan may have loopholes. We will show all the cards before our opponents. The Japanese are not stupid. If we show all the cards and the Japanese fleet still dares to challenge it, it means that their fleet strength has made great progress. Sims said.
Chapter completed!