Captain Harry R. Ankeny's Combat Diary
Page 12
the hangars and barracks area. Came home rather early.
Some of the boys got a few ME109's - Capt. Broadhead, Lt.
Becker and Lt. R. D. Brown. O'Brien also shared one with
Lt. McKinney of the 364th.
26th April, 1944.
Flew as element leader with Lt. Holmberg on my wing
in Capt. Broadhead's Red flight. Was a bomber escort job
to lower an airfield near Truis, France. R/V ok but nothing
happened. Dove on some blue nosed P51's thinking they were
ME109's.
27th April, 1944.
1st mission of the day, we went on a fighter sweep
around Paris. Flew in Blue flight as element leader with
Lt. Harris on my wing - Lt. Baker lead the flight. Saw
Paris very clearly but didn't go directly over it. Went
down to 12,000 ft. looking for stuff to choose but there
just wasn't anything around.
2nd mission was a bomber escort to France, middle
part. Harris was on my wing again in Becker's flight.
Our box didn't drop their bombs until they hit the enemy
coast coming out. They dropped their bombs on the beach
at Blankenberg, Belgium. Saw several bombers go down in
flames hit by flak. Saw five parachute out over the coast
at Blankenburg. We stayed with the bombers nearly the whole
way across the channel. It was about 9:00 P.M. when we landed.
The reason they wanted us to stay with them so long was to
prevent any jerries from following them back in the evening,
almost dark. Two weeks ago when the bombers came home, some
came in just after dark, a few ME410's followed them over
and shot 13 down. We stood outside the barracks and saw three
go down. Really was a mess.
30th April, 1944.
Flew in Green flight on Lt. Hagan's wing to southern
France. We were to escort the heavies as they bombed an
airfield below Nevers, France. We picked up the wrong bomb
division, escorted awhile and came on home.
Copyright © 1996, Harry R. Ankeny