Tainan Airfield(s) 1944-45 Part 1

It took a while to piece together the missing details of the bombing of Tainan Airfield, from 12 Oct 1944 til the end of the Pacific War in 1945. 

Thanks to Prof YangHL who points the way: The paper published by 杜正宇 and 吳建昇, "日治下臺南永康機場的時空記憶", 台灣文獻 Vol 63, Issue 1, Pp 230-284 (2012) has reported that there were actually three Tainan Airfields, located in 永寧庄, 永康庄, and 歸仁庄, respectively. Only one remains today, i.e., the present Tainan Airport, previously known as the 臺南飛行場(永寧庄). The other two have long disappeared, both physically and historically. Now, with the seminal efforts of Prof 洪致文, the above-mentioned paper has reconstructed the history of 臺南飛行場(永康庄), unknown to even natives of Tainan. One of them, Mr WuJM comments: "I did not know there used to have an airfield although I went to Tainan Industrial Tech High in Yong-kang. I traveled on dirt road from near Tainan railroad station to YongKang every day for three years. Of course I was young then."

The proper Japanese kan-ji pronunciation of 永寧庄 and 永康庄 is Eineisho and Eikosho, respectively. For unknown reasons, perhaps for disinformation purposes, the former was misspelled as "Einansho" which consistently appeared in all 1944 US military documents. "Einei-sho" is seen only in the 1945 map of Tainan City made by the US Army Map Service (in the Univ of Texas Library map collection)[http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/formosa_city_plans/txu-oclc-6565942.jpg]. Both airfields were targeted by the US.

There are multiple confusions: (1) in the US records, "Tainan Airfield" is not necessarily the Einansho Airdrome and Depot, it can be one of the 3 different airbases of the same name; (2) since two of the 3 bases vanished after the war, it was never clear which one(s) the US bombers had hit on each mission; (3) Einansho is actually Eineisho - almost no one could decipher what Einansho was in Japanese kanji; and (4) on at least one occasion, the USAAF had bombed 麻豆飛行場 also in Tainan, mistaking it as the Tainan Airfield (Eiko) because of the proximity and the almost identical runway configuration.

Here is the narrative of a USS Enterprise-based Navy Ensign, Bob Barnes, who piloted a Helldiver in the attack on:

12 October 1944 - Einansho Airfield (Formosa)

Robert J Barnes, then 20 years old on the wing of his Curtis Helldiver

We headed for Formosa (Taiwan) to attack a very large Japanese airfield. We headed in with VB-20 leading the way under CDR Riera and VT-20 and VF-20 for fighter cover. As we got close to the target and ready to peel off for our dive, we heard the fighters on the radio say 7 Zekes (Japanese fighters) were heading to attack. I switched gas tanks to have a full tank and peeled off. On the way down - straight down - I was concentrating on the target, wind, etc., when I heard a tremendous explosion. The plane shook and at first I thought I had forgotten to switch tanks and the empty tank had caused the engine to backfire.

Here I was, in a dive through heavy anti-aircraft fire, with Jap fighters chasing me. I switched tanks again, released the bomb, pulled out and the engine quit. In the meantime, my rear seat aircrewman confirmed we had been hit in the tail by AA. I quickly checked my fuel tanks and then realized I had already switched tanks and in the heat of the moment had switched back to the low tank. After switching back to the full tank, the engine started. What a relief! I headed for our rendezvous for the return to Enterprise. After landing, it was found that the plane had a large hole in the vertical stabilizer from the AA that had hit and bursts which sprayed shrapnel holes all over the rear of the Helldiver.

The defenders had put up a fight and incurred some losses: "On 12 October 1944, when we attacked Formosa, two of our Helldivers flown by LT Sam Tharp and LT(jg) George Muinch were hit by AA but were able to glide out to sea, to be picked up by our good old lifeguard submarines. One of my roommates, ENS Fred Turnbull from VF-20, was shot down that day and taken prisoner. I next saw him at a reunion 45 years later, in Pensacola. That same day, LT(jg) William F. Ross of VT-20 and his crew, Harry Aldro and Charles E. McVay, were shot down and captured. Sadly both crewmen were killed while prisoners. LT(jg) Ross was a prisoner throughout the war. That was one rough day!"

The Oct 12 1944 attack on Taiwan was island-wide, conducted principally by the US Navy with carrier-based aircraft. Bombing with land-based long-range bombers followed two days later and continued well into the early part of 1945.