In fact, the US military has already noticed some abnormal signs of the Japanese joint fleet.

After all, at this time, a large number of submarines in the US military carried out the mission of attacking transport ships in the waters controlled by the Japanese army, and these submarines were very scattered. There were always several submarines that would be lucky enough to hit the Japanese warships gathered towards the Mariana Islands.

For example, the American submarine Flying Fish appeared a Japanese fleet in the San Bernardino Strait; another American submarine Seahorse also appeared another Japanese fleet near Mindanae in the northern part of the Surigao Strait in the Philippines, and both fleets were heading towards the Mariana Islands.

This is the benefit of submarine reconnaissance... If it is air reconnaissance, the Japanese observation soldiers saw a little shadow of the plane from a distance, which would temporarily change the course of the fleet to confuse the reconnaissance aircraft and make the enemy unable to know the purpose of the fleet.

In this regard, the Japanese are indeed stronger than the Americans, and the Americans rely more on radar. Although the lookouts sometimes work, compared with the lookouts, they are in the sky and the other underground.

But if it is a submarine reconnaissance... it is obvious that its course will be exposed, because the Japanese army was traveling without a submarine nearby (if it is discovered, it will be bombed and driven away by destroyers).

This should be said to be very obvious that the Japanese army will be deployed to the joint fleet in the battle in the Mariana Islands.

But this intelligence did not attract the attention of the US Navy, because the submarine did not show aircraft carriers in these warships...

It should be said that this statement does make sense, because at this time, both the US and the Japanese army knew very well the significance of air supremacy in naval warfare. If a fleet is not covered by aircraft carriers, it is basically no different from driving to the front line to commit suicide.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Raymond, commander-in-chief of the US Fifth Fleet, believes that this may be just an action by the Japanese army to protect the transportation line. After all, the US Navy's submarines have gained a lot during this period, which puts great pressure on Japan's maritime transportation.

But in fact, these Japanese warships did not have aircraft carrier cover...but the aircraft carrier formation followed far behind under the escort of a few light cruisers and destroyers.

The Japanese army's tactical idea is to use island airports as transit stations, so the aircraft carrier actually does not need to drive to the front line at all. Even if it is driven to the front line, it can keep a distance from the US aircraft carrier and use island airports to mobilize fighters to fight "no contact war" with the US military.

So the Japanese joint fleet sailed towards the Mariana Islands without any defense. Finally, after a whole night of high sailing, it finally reached the target sea area. (High sailing at night can prevent the fleet from being visible to the enemy)

At 4:2 o'clock in the morning on the 19th, Lieutenant General Ozawa Shisaburo Ozawa ordered the reconnaissance troops to conduct reconnaissance for the last time.

This reconnaissance is decisive because it can determine the specific location of the enemy and the target, so as to facilitate the Japanese army to carry out accurate strikes on the target.

Then the information continued to spread to Jisaburo Ozawa, like snowflakes.

Jisaburo Ozawa was very satisfied with this intelligence because the position of the US fleets had almost no change compared to the previous day. This means that the US military did not realize that the Japanese joint fleet was approaching, otherwise the US Navy would have changed its formation and came to fight.

"Lieutenant General!" At this time, the staff reminded Ozawa: "It's already dawn!"

The staff officer means that he can carry out an attack.

But Ozawa Jisaburo hesitated for a while, then shook his head and said, "Transfer the order to delay the attack!"

"Lieutenant General..." The staff officer looked at Jisaburo Ozawa in surprise: "Why should I postpone it? This is the best time to attack! The time delay... If it is discovered by an enemy submarine or reconnaissance plane, then I will lose this opportunity!"

"The enemy will not show us!" Ozawa Shisaburo replied: "They don't know that we are coming at all. They are concentrating on bombing the islands with all their might, so the reconnaissance power is very weak, and we may be exposed very little! On the other hand, it is not a good time for attack at this time. The enemy slept last night and was full of energy at this time. And before we had a day's offensive, they could organize defense calmly when our fighter planes flew to their heads."

Ozawa Jisanro paused and continued, "But... if we delay the attack time by a few hours, the situation will be completely different. The enemy has been back and forth between the attack islands, and the fighter planes are under intense dispatch. I am afraid that there will be bombers loaded with bombs on the flight deck. Our sudden arrival will definitely make them at a loss!"

"Yes!" The staff officer couldn't help but be deeply impressed by the superior's wisdom when he heard this, and immediately passed on the order to refuse the attack.

At this time, Zhang Chi and John had no idea that the Japanese joint fleet had approached the Mariana Islands, and they had no idea that their seventh detachment had been locked as the main target by the Japanese army.

At this time, the Seventh Detachment was advancing towards Tinian Island under John's order... At this time, it had actually passed what John had said before, but John still did not issue an order to stop moving forward because he felt that this was not close enough. John felt that the only thing that the Japanese army could threaten the US fleet was artillery, and artillery could not be so far away from 1 oo kilometers. So pushing forward a little can increase the bombing efficiency exponentially. Why not do it?

It was not until this time that Zhang Chi received the aerial photos sent by John... John didn't think this was so important. On the other hand, the aircraft needed to send photos between aircraft carriers. At this time, it was the time when the plane was busy dispatching, so John was temporarily put aside the delivery of photos.

After receiving these photos, Zhang Chi's face changed drastically before he could read a few photos. Then he quickly pulled out John's phone call.

"General!" Zhang Chi said in a serious tone: "I don't think we should continue to move forward, but be prepared for defense!"

"What?" John asked incredible rebuttal: "Defense? Who to defend against?"

"The Japanese plane!" Zhang Chi replied: "I guess they are likely to be planning a large-scale attack!"

"That's impossible!" John smiled and said, "Our bombers are flying around the island and throwing bombs everywhere, but Japan has never seen any fighter planes intercept it!"

Zhang Chi took one of the photos and said, "Although there are no planes on the island, there are airports... If you observe these photos carefully, you will see that some places are always covered by smoke! But other places appear and disappear from time to time. Judging from the shape and range of smoke, it is very likely that it is an airport, and there are four... If there is no offensive plan, why should the Japanese cover the airport with smoke?"

(To be continued.)8
Chapter completed!