Penghu Air Raids
Japan had been fortifying Penghu since 1901, when the government declared the island archipelago a "fortress" and established the Penghu Fortress Command. For four decades, the islands served as a strategic anchor in the Taiwan Strait -- a staging point for projecting military power across the region. In June 1939, Japanese forces used Penghu as an advance base to attack mainland China from Shantou, Guangdong. But by October 1944, the fortress had become a target. Allied carrier-based aircraft arrived over the archipelago on October 12, and for the next ten months, until the war's final day on August 14, 1945, they systematically dismantled everything Japan had built there.
Fortress in the Strait
Penghu's military significance predated World War II by decades. After Japan took control of Taiwan from the Qing dynasty in 1895, the strategic value of the Penghu archipelago -- sitting squarely between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland -- was immediately apparent. The 1901 fortress designation transformed the islands from a fishing community into a military installation. When the Marco Polo Bridge incident triggered the Second Sino-Japanese War on July 7, 1937, all of Japanese-controlled Taiwan entered a war economy. Penghu became an operational hub, its harbors sheltering warships, its airfields launching sorties toward the Asian mainland. The city of Magong, the archipelago's administrative center, hosted major Japanese naval bases that made it the primary target when the Allies finally turned their attention to the Taiwan Strait.
Hellcats Over the Archipelago
The first attack came on October 12, 1944, carried out by elements of the Fast Carrier Task Force as part of the broader Formosa Air Battle. From dawn to dusk, waves of aircraft -- Grumman F6F Hellcats, Curtiss SB2C Helldivers, and Grumman TBF Avengers -- swept over the islands. They came armed with machine guns, rockets, bombs, and air-dropped torpedoes, launching four successive waves against Penghu's Cetian Island Naval Base, Zhumushuhui Airfield, and surrounding military facilities. The raids were not a one-day affair. They continued intermittently for ten months, long after the Formosa Air Battle itself had concluded, grinding down Japanese infrastructure and military capability on the islands.
What the Bombs Left Behind
The sustained campaign resulted in the mass destruction of infrastructure and military hardware across the archipelago. Magong bore the heaviest damage, its naval installations reduced to wreckage by repeated bombing runs. Airfields were cratered, harbor facilities demolished, and the defensive apparatus that Japan had spent four decades constructing was methodically destroyed. The raids continued until August 14, 1945 -- the day before Japan's formal surrender. For the residents of Penghu who endured those ten months, the experience of living beneath Allied bombing runs left scars that outlasted the physical reconstruction. The islands that had been built into a fortress were returned to what they had been before: a windswept archipelago in the Taiwan Strait, their military chapter violently closed.
From the Air
Located at 23.49N, 119.52E in the Taiwan Strait. The Penghu archipelago sits between Taiwan and mainland China, approximately 50 kilometers off Taiwan's western coast. Magong, the main city, was the primary target of the air raids. Penghu Airport (ICAO: RCQC) is located on the main island. The strait is known for strong winds, especially during the northeast monsoon season. From altitude, bomb-damaged areas have been rebuilt, but the natural harbor that attracted Japanese naval planners remains clearly visible.