Tsingtao and the case for naval air strike

The siege of Tsingtao supplies the spark for the counterfactual. A Farman seaplane from the Japanese carrier Wakamiya attacked the German cruiser Kaiserin Elisabeth and gunboat Jaguar, demonstrating a new way to reach ships in a defended anchorage. Sinking even the unarmored, roughly 1,000-ton Jaguar would have made the experiment much harder to dismiss. That example combines with the Royal Naval Air Service's existing interest in aircraft-launched torpedoes. The idea also fits Fisher's preference for weapons so frightening that they might deter war, making aviation both a practical strike tool and a psychological weapon. Tsingtao therefore gives Fisher a plausible reason to treat aviation as a future fleet weapon rather than a marginal scouting experiment.