Taihoku Air Strike

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The Taihoku Air Strike was an attack by the Chinese Air Force against the metropolitan perimeter of Taihoku (Taipei), the capital of Taiwan, which was under Japanese rule, during January 1938. The raid was launched in response to Japanese attacks on China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and occurred in conjunction with air raids on Japanese forces in China.

The raid was carried out by one of the Chinese air force's nine bomber units, which took off from an airfield in Chekiang or Fukien, and flew over the Taiwan Kaikio (Taiwan Strait) to North Taiwan. In this sector over the Taihoku perimeter these Chinese aircraft dropped leaflets, or according to some sources made a minor bombing strike, and returned to the mainland, under Japanese antiaircraft fire.

This represented the first hostile air action by enemy planes over Japanese territory, preceding as it did the Doolittle raid against Tokyo.

After this action and the Battle of Wuhan, the Chinese Air force maintained bombing campaigns against Japanese held lands in Chinese territory and sustained fierce air resistance against Japanese Air forces, supported first by the "Flying Tigers" and later by regular units of the USAAF, until the end of the conflict.