Captain Harry R. Ankeny's Combat Diary
Page 15
19th May, 1944.
Another mission to Berlin. Our job was to escort
seven boxes of B-17 in to the target, the railroad yards
of Berlin. I flew as element leader in Capt. Williams’
Red flight with Lt. Holmberg, Kansas boy, on my wing.
Just before take-off a whole group of P-38's flew in here
to refuel. Evidently they were based in southwest England--
part of the 9th A.F. We took off about 11:15 A.M. and headed
out on a heading of 77. That took us up above the mainland
and we flew along the Fresian Islands until we rendezvous
with the bombers near Keil. We then headed southeast to
Berlin. About 50 miles above Berlin, some of the big friends
were attacked by a large force of ME109's. Our particular
flight didn't get in on the engagement we just kept cover-
ing the bombers, flying around 28,000 feet. I did see a
couple of dog fights and was quite sure I saw a 109 being
chased. I peeled off once on a ship but by the time I dropped
my belly tanks he had disappeared in the clouds below. Not
much happening we turned and headed for home. Capt. Adams,
Lt. Roberson and Lt. Harris shared a 109 together. The group
score was 10 destroyed and we lost one pilot--not from our
squadron. Everything went pretty smooth but it was a tiring
mission--logged around five hours, we did a very nice job
of missing flak today. They did put up quite a barrage for
the bombers over Berlin.
21st May, 1944.
Started engines at 1029 for a fighter sweep. The
area we were to hit was north of Berlin near Rostak. Started
out as element leader in Capt. Hagan's Green flight with Lt.
Starkey on my wing. Soon after we reached the enemy coast,
Capt. Baker pushed his engine up to 40" manifold press and
I just couldn't stay up. Lt. Starkey and I dropped back
and planned to cut off the squadron. Everywhere was com-
pletely overcast going in and we caught a lot of flak. We
finally met the squadron at Hanover and the flak got so bad
the whole squadron split up again. Lt. Conlin joined up
with Starkey and myself and we continued on towards our
strafing area. Hit the top of the Reich around Wismer, cir-
cled around and I saw an airport out on a peninsula near
Wismer, Germany. Decided to give it a try. Went southeast
about ten miles, dropped to the deck at 375 mi/hr. and headed
across the bay right on the water. Pulled up slightly as
I neared the field and fired a long burst at a HE-111K. I
thought at the time it was a ME-110 but the films showed
it to be a HE-111K. Lt. Starkey shot up a ME-110 and damaged
a JU-52. Lt. Conlin fired into a hangar. We joined up over
the water again and headed back. We had just got inland
around Lubeck at 12,000 and got in the middle of a flak barrage--
Copyright © 1996, Harry R. Ankeny