Captain Harry R. Ankeny's Combat Diary
Page 20
NOTE:
The following reports were written the 15th of July,
1945 in Lincoln, Nebr. less than a week after I received
my discharge from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. My informa-
tion is from my own Form 5 file which listed the mission,
the location of our target plus the help of my letters to
Betsy, my best gal a year ago and still but much better-now
my wife.
(continuing) 22 June, 1944.
Today's mission was a bomber escort near Paris, France
and I logged 4 hours of combat time. Things didn't go
too good on this mission. I was leading the last flight
in the group and had a terrific time keeping up in posi-
tion. At times our formation was so bad our flight was
strung out for miles and everyone pulling full throttle.
Then to top things off, every so often the group C.O.
would yell for us to get up even with him, which was of
course impossible. Guess I shouldn't gripe because the
mission went off OK and all returned.
23 June, 1944.
Today's mission was an Area Support of Sweep job in
which the latter half of the mission proved to be much
fun--good ol' strafing. We took off and flew to an area
just north and east of Paris and covered that area to keep
away any Huns that might intrude. Believe some English
Lancasters were coming in to bomb spot in that area and
Belgium. After we finished that job we split up into
squadrons and started hunting ground targets of opportun-
ity. Our flight caught a staff car (German) traveling in
the direction of Paris with a motorcycle leading the way.
We really did riddle that car and motorcycle. The four
of us in the flight made about 3 passes each, just like a
gunnery pattern and poured the lead at them. The guy on
the motorcycle jumped off in a ditch and fired at us with
a rifle I guess. He sure had a lot of guts to keep firing
with 6 guns blazing at him. I often wonder whether Germans
have any brains at all. If they did they would have given
up by now but I imagine the greater percentage still think
they will win. Logged 5 hrs. 20 min. today.
Copyright © 1996, Harry R. Ankeny