Hsinchu Air Raid
新竹空襲
On 25 November 1943, B-25 bombers and fighters of the US Fourteenth Air Force and the Chinese-American Composite Wing, flying from Suichuan in Jiangxi, made a surprise low-level attack on the Japanese naval airfield at Hsinchu. It was the first Allied air raid on Taiwan.
History
The Hsinchu raid of 25 November 1943 was the first Allied air attack on Japanese-ruled Taiwan. The strike force consisted of 14 B-25 medium bombers, eight from the US 11th Bomb Squadron and six from the newly formed Chinese-American Composite Wing, escorted by eight P-38G and seven P-51A fighters, one of which turned back. The aircraft took off from Suichuan airfield in Jiangxi Province and crossed the Taiwan Strait to attack the naval airfield at Hsinchu.
The attackers achieved surprise. Allied assessments claimed 37 to 42 Japanese aircraft destroyed on the ground and 14 or 15 shot down, while the Japanese Navy acknowledged far smaller losses: two fighters and two bombers shot down and 13 bombers destroyed on the ground. Japanese records give 25 killed and 20 wounded. All Allied aircraft returned, with two slightly damaged by anti-aircraft fire.
The Hsinchu Naval Air Group was disbanded on 1 January 1944. The raid demonstrated that China-based aircraft could reach Taiwan and opened the Allied air campaign against the island, which intensified with the carrier strikes of October 1944 and continued until the end of the war.
Related sites
Sources
- 新竹空襲Website維基百科