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The Formosa Air Battle (Japanese: 台湾沖航空戦, Chinese: 台灣空戰) took place between October 10 and 20, 1944, off the eastern coasts of the Ryukyu Islands, Formosa, and Luzon. It was fought by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and the approaching Task Force 38 of the United States Third Fleet and was one of a series of air raids on Japan during the Pacific War. The attacks served to prevent the Japanese aircraft from involvement in the Battle of Leyte Gulf later that month.
The battle was one-sided, as the Americans practically dominated air warfare due to the superior training and weaponry that they possessed at that point. The battle exhausted Japan's air power in the region, giving the Americans air superiority and weakening Japan's ability to defend the Okinawa Islands in the upcoming Okinawa Campaign. However, in an effort to boost morale and to cover up the defeat, Japanese headquarters claimed to have sunk 45 Allied ships, including 11 aircraft carriers and four battleships.
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The attacks on Formosa and the Ryukyu Islands were carried out to prevent the Japanese aerial forces there from participating in the planned landings at Leyte. The Japanese had responses prepared for a number of eventualities, including one in response to attacks on Formosa—Shō-Gō 2.
The U.S. Third Fleet started carrier-launched raids against Formosa on October 12, 1944. The Japanses response was to send waves of aircraft against the U.S. carriers. On October 13, the cruiser USS Canberra was seriously damaged by a torpedo bomber while for one of the first times in the war a kamikaze aircraft was used, which lightly damaged the carrier USS Franklin. The following day saw the island all but neutralized but the light cruiser USS Houston was damaged by an enemy torpedo, while the carrier USS Hancock, the light cruiser USS Reno and two destroyers had all incurred some form of damage. However over three days the Japanese had lost approximately 500 aircraft and countless ships, which was almost their entire air strength in the area.