Captain Harry R. Ankeny's Combat Diary
Page 17
29th May, 1944.
Bomber escort to Posen, Poland again. Someone
screwed up the times because we rendezvoused with the
bombers over the Zeider Zee. We stuck with them and took
them clear into and past the target until the red-nosed
P51's picked them up. I ran both drop tanks dry and my
main fuselage tank but didn't have to sweat gas much. My
oxygen ran low but not serious. Major Broadhead did an
excellent job of navigating coming home and we never hit
a bit of flak. I flew as element leader in his flight with
Lt. Starkey on my wing. Logged 5:50 hrs.-- a long drag.
Total time to date--146 hrs. combat time. Bombing results
were excellent--really lowered the Focke-Wulf aircraft fac-
tories.
31 May, 1944.
Lt. Pugh led the squadron and did a very good job.
We started out for Strasbourg down in southwest Germany.
Lt. Starkey flew on my wing in Major Gates' White flight.
We crossed in OK but the weather continued to get worse.
Picked up the bombers OK but they decided to bomb their
2nd alternate target, an airfield a little south of Brussels.
A short mission but it worked out OK. We escorted the heavies
clear back to the English coast near Manston and came on in.
2 June, 1944.
Capt. England led our squadron and we were to
support the bombers over an airfield near Lille, France.
Lt. Roughgarden flew on my wing in Capt. Ragan's Blue
flight, Went out at noon and returned around 2:30. Didn't
see a thing.
12 June, 1944.
Just returned from a week's rest at the rest home
near Alton, England, a swell deal. Went there with Lt.
Wallen. Lt. Roughgarden flew my wing in Major Gates White
flight, We went on an area support just east of the beach-
head, east of LaHavre Started engines at 0638 and landed
at 1105.
13 June, 1944.
Flew as element leader in Capt. Hagan's Green flight
with Lt. Coon on my wing. We were escorting bombers to
bomb an airfield near Rouen, France, fairly near the beach-
head. All went well. I have been noticing a single ME109 fly-
Copyright © 1996, Harry R. Ankeny