Clearly, the enemy wanted to catch him in a pincer move, exposing weaknesses in their haste.
But unfortunately, he didn't have many good options. After most of the airplanes were damaged, anti-aircraft weapons on the warships were the only thing that could limit the enemy airplanes.
To better defend against enemy airplanes, the fleet became more dispersed and used anti-aircraft weapons to focus their attack on the enemy's airplanes.
Spreading out was meant to lower the bombers' chances of hitting their targets. After all, a warship's size is both big and small—it's not easy to aim at for high-speed airplanes.
As long as the bombs didn't hit critical areas of the warships, the threat wasn't so high.
Dispersing the warships would increase the chances of bombs falling into the sea.
However, the problem was that if the fleet dispersed, it would inevitably be at a disadvantage in naval warfare.
