Captain Harry R. Ankeny's Combat Diary
Page 18
ing high above the formation around 35,000 to 40,000 feet.
It has been going back and forth over us--probably a
German spotter ship.
14 June, 1944
Area support in area east and south of LaHavre
clear down to Paris. I flew as element leader in Major
Broadhead's Red flight with Lt. Badger on my wing. An
early morning mission starting engine at 0550 and return-
ing at 0920. Some a flight, of the 364th, ran into a
pack of FW190's near Paris. They shot two down and lost
one man. The Germans are getting very crafty and have
been bouncing flights and smaller stagging around. We
have been sticking close together to avoid such attacks.
Five P-47 fighter bombers were shot down just off of the
enemy coast and there have been similar incidents. All
pilots are really watching out from now on.
16 June, 1944.
Started out and as I was breezing down the runway
my left gas connection on my droppable tank broke and really
started shooting out gasoline. I left a vapor trail all
around the pattern and on landing the other gas connection
broke on my right droppable tank.
17 June, 1944
Flew as element leader in Capt. Smith's White flight
with Lt. Sehl on my wing. We were to escort bombers to an
airfield just north of Paris. The bombers got all screwed
up and finally went on and dropped their bombs on an empty
airfield. Instead of weaving back and forth across the
bombers we would fly alongside for a while turn 180 and go
to the rear repeating the procedure. In my opinion I couldn't
see this method. It makes the boys in the rear pull too
much mercury. We got kind of messed up on the take-off and
I took a flight thru the overcast, We finally found Smith.
As we were returning Capt. Hagan's ship quit on him dead and
he glided down and tried his best to make the beachhead. He
made a crash landing just about 10 miles south of Caen, prob-
ably right in the midst of two German panzer divisions and
one infantry division. It certainly was a terrific blow to
the squadron since he has been ass't. operations officer and
an excellent pilot. In my opinion we lost the most valuable
man in the squadron. We have slight hopes that he may work
his way thru the lines. My total combat time including this
mission is 166 hrs. and 10 minutes.
Copyright © 1996, Harry R. Ankeny