ntelligence had informed Spruance that the Japanese would not reach the area where the Americans were until June 19th. During the time that this took, Spruance organised his force so that it was 180 west of Tinian. Seven battleships were taken from task groups 58-1 and 58-4 to form a battleship force supported by four heavy cruisers and thirteen destroyers. The primary task of this awesome force was to stop the Japanese getting near the American aircraft carriers. The planes from task group 58-4 were used to give the battleship group air cover.
Now, is that protection from the Japanese surface forces or aircraft?
” Now, is that protection from the Japanese surface forces or aircraft?”
It was for aircraft protection. Lee’s battleships and cruisers had been supplied with the top secret VT proximity shell. These shells had miniature radars and would explode when they simply got near their targets. ‘Close’ counts in horseshoes and proximity shells. This shell was a secret guarded like that of the atom bomb.
Lee’s fleet also would defend against any surface attack that Ozawa launched but it was set up to be a massive anti-aircraft gun line to engage anything that got past the combat air patrol fighters.