In the sea area a full six hundred kilometers west of the Azores, the main force of the American fleet was cruising through these waters. They had already arrived here before dark, yet the fleet did not advance any further.
If they were to continue pushing forward, they would likely enter the strike radius of the German Navy's land-based aircraft located on the Azores. Although the aircraft carrier formation of the American fleet possessed a total of twenty-four capital ships and over fifteen hundred carrier-based aircraft of various sizes, engaging in a war of attrition with the German Navy's land-based aircraft stationed on the Azores would undoubtedly prove highly cost-ineffective. No matter how many losses the German Navy's land-based aircraft suffered, they could be replenished swiftly.
After all, from the islands in the eastern Azores to Europe, the distance was merely sixteen hundred kilometers or so. Both fighters and bombers could fly directly from Europe to the Azores, which meant that as long as the airfields on the islands remained undestroyed, the German Navy would be capable of continuously mobilizing and dispatching reinforcements from the domestic mainland to bolster the Azores. The American fleet, however, could not do the same. Once they lost too many carrier-based aircraft, possessing aircraft carriers alone would fail to yield any combat effectiveness. They would have no choice but to return to the mainland and replenish their carrier-based aircraft before regaining their combat capability.
Not to mention the three major fleets of the German Navy, which still boasted a full twenty aircraft carriers lingering nearby with predatory gazes. Once those aircraft carriers also began launching carrier-based aircraft to attack the American fleet's carrier formation, the situation would become even more perilous for the American Navy.
After nightfall, Admiral Nimitz, acting as the Fleet Commander, refrained