1895: Air Power Key To Shih-ch'iu-ling Battery Capture

During the Sino-French War 1884-85 the Shih-ch'iu-ling battery at Keelung on Taiwan held out against French forces for most of the war, but during the Japanese invasion of 1895 the battery fell in a day due to the effective use of aerial power by the Japanese.

Japan's invasion of the newly independent Republic of Formosa followed the end of the Sino-Japanese War, when the Chinese ceded the island to Japan. Before the Japanese could take control the Formosans declared independence and prepared to resist the Japanese.

Unfortunately for the Formosans their resistance was to be severely impacted by the Japanese control of the air, with Japanese aerostat bombing the Shih-ch'iu-ling battery into submission after initial infantry assaults had been repulsed.

The Imperial Japanese Army employed its aerial forces considerably thereafter, notably at the pivotal Battle of Baguashan and to hunting down guerilla bands that continued to resist the Japanese for several years after the war officially ceased.