攻擊花蓮！ Battle of Formosa: Karenko

之前一直不能理解為什麼美國海軍漢考克號航艦（USS Hancock, CV-19）在1944年10月派機轟炸台灣的戰報與相關照片這麼罕見，直到今天才找到可能的答案。原來在1945年1月21日下午，一架結束轟炸台灣任務的TBM-3魚雷轟炸機返航順利降落後，機上的500磅炸彈突然爆炸，不僅炸死眾多官兵，引發的大火也燒毀了許多重要文件，其中包括了1944年10月轟炸台灣任務的文件與照片。
For some time I had been wondering why it was so difficult to find original documents and photographs taken by USS Hancock (CV-19) during its operations against Formosa in October 1944. Yesterday I finally found out why: On January 21, 1945, a TBM-3 torpedo bomber returning from a strike mission against Formosa made a normal landing on USS Hancock’s deck, taxied to the island structure, and here its 500-pound bombs exploded. Many shipmates were killed and many documents and photographs were destroyed by the blast and the ensuing fire.

上圖是我找到該期間拍攝的三張照片中的一張，說明文字僅敘述漢考克號的戰機在10月12日轟炸花蓮港飛行場。利用美軍後來拍攝的垂直偵察照片，比對圖中飛行場與溪流、道路、被炸的基地建築物、山脈的相對位置，可以確認遭到美機攻擊的是位在目前吉安鄉內的花蓮港南飛行場。以下面這張1945年6月15日拍攝的照片為基準的話，上圖大約是從下圖下半部由右往左拍攝的：
The top photo is one of the only three photos that I could find taken by Hancock’s aircraft during October 1944. The caption only says “Hannah’s planes hit airfields at Karenko, Formosa, October 12, 1944.” Using the relative locations of the river, roads, buildings, and mountains to the airfield, I concluded the airfield in the photo is the former Karenko (now Hualien) South Airdrome. The photo was taken in the left-to-right direction corresponding to the following vertical reconnaissance photo, which was taken on June 15, 1945.

Source： NARA via Academia Sinica 中央研究院臺灣文史資源海外徵集與國際合作計畫「美國國家檔案館典藏臺灣舊航空照片」

以現代的衛星照片來看，花蓮港南飛行場的位置如下：
Karenko South Airdrome on the modern satellite image:

在較大的地圖上查看花蓮港南飛行場

另一張由漢考克號的戰機拍攝的照片如下，不難發現場景就在現在的花蓮港一帶：
Another photo taken by Hannah’s aircraft is shown below. It is not too difficult to determine that it covered the area near Karenko harbor.

仔細看上圖的左上角，可以發現有兩處被炸中，冒出濃煙。我把這兩個被炸中的地方標示在下面這張1945年7月16日拍攝的垂直偵察照片上，A是日本アルミニウム（日本鋁）株式会社花蓮港工場，B則是東邦金属製錬株式会社花蓮港工場，這兩個都是美軍在花蓮地區的主要目標：
In the upper-left corner of the above photo, smokes can be seen billow from two areas. They correspond to the two factory complexes in the following vertical aerial photo taken on July 16, 1945. Location A was Japan Aluminum Company’s Karenko factory and B was Toho Metallurgy Company’s Karenko plant. Both were key targets identified by the US intelligence analysts.

Source： NARA via Academia Sinica 中央研究院臺灣文史資源海外徵集與國際合作計畫「美國國家檔案館典藏臺灣舊航空照片」

如果這次轟炸任務發生在現代，那麼美軍拍到的照片應該就像這樣：
If the attack took place today, the strike photo would look like this:

【附錄】漢考克號上的第7轟炸中隊在作戰日誌上對相關文件被毀的說明，艦上其他單位的作戰日誌也有類似的文字：
Appendix USS Hancock’s VB-7 War Diary wrote about the consequences of the accident on January 21, 1945: