Formosa Air Battle

Formosa Air Battle
Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II
Crewmen on USS Hancock (CV-19) move rockets to planes while preparing for strikes on Formosa, 12 October 1944.
Date October 12–16, 1944 Location Formosa, Philippine Sea Result American victory
Belligerents
Japan	United States
Commanders and leaders
Ryūnosuke Kusaka Shigeru Fukudome	William Halsey, Jr. Marc Mitscher
Units involved
Navy Air Service 1st Air Fleet 2nd Air Fleet 3rd Air Fleet Army Air Service 4th Air Army	Third Fleet Task Force 38 Twentieth Air Force 58th Bombardment Wing
Strength
330 aircraft in Formosa, 350 in Kyushu, plus 690 flying in from bases in Japan and China over four days	9 fleet carriers 8 light carriers 6 battleships 4 heavy cruisers 11 light cruisers 57 destroyers ~1,000 carrier aircraft ~130 heavy bombers
Casualties and losses
321–525 aircraft Formosan military installations and infrastructure heavily damaged	89 aircraft 1 heavy cruiser seriously damaged 2 light cruisers damaged 1 destroyer damaged

The Formosa Air Battle (Japanese: 台湾沖航空戦, lit. 'Battle of the Taiwan Sea', Chinese: 臺灣空戰), 12–16 October 1944, was a series of large-scale aerial engagements between carrier air groups of the United States Navy Fast Carrier Task Force (TF 38) and Japanese land-based air forces of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The battle consisted of American air raids against Japanese military installations on Formosa (Taiwan) during the day and Japanese air attacks at night against American ships. Japanese losses exceeded 300 planes destroyed in the air, while American losses amounted to fewer than 100 aircraft destroyed and two cruisers damaged. This outcome effectively deprived the Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet of air cover for future operations, which proved decisive during the Battle of Leyte Gulf later in October.