Captain Harry R. Ankeny's Combat Diary
Page 25
Many times they will wait until you are right in the
center, then throw up a large barrage of it. Whichever
direction you turn, you are going into it--a very un-
pleasant feeling.
29 July, 1944.
We had a big show over Europe today and the boys
did plenty good. Our mission was again to Merseburg
to get those oil refineries which the bombers probably
missed yesterday. Unfortunately I just wasn't at the
right place at the right time. Was too bad because
there I was leading Green flight and would have been
able to do some shooting. We took off very early this
morning, weather being pretty good. Lt. Sehl was flying
my wing. We picked up to bombers just a few miles north
of the target around 25,000 feet and escorting them keep-
ing flights in trail--that put my flight in the rear of
our squadron formation. Just as the bombers hit the tar-
get they were hit from above and in front by ME109's and
FW190's. The boys in front really got the meat. I hurried
up there keeping my eyes wide open for any stray Huns.
Thought I spotted two directly below the bombers so I dove
and as I closed in a bit Lt. Sehl called me and said to
break because he thought an enemy aircraft was behind me.
Naturally I broke hard to the right and lost the planes,
I was trying to follow. Here is what happened--the bombers
had been dropping "chaf" (strings of tin-foil which throws
off enemy radar) and with it glistening in the sun it looks
like tracer bullets. I am quite sure that is what he saw--
he did the right thing nevertheless. Jumped a couple of
other planes but as I closed in I recognized them to be
all friendly. You have to get very close to another plane
to be able to recognize for sure whether a plane is enemy
or friendly. The German FWl90 looks a great deal like
our P-47 and also their ME109 is quite similar to our P-51's
at a distance. The only sure way I could ever recognize
any of them was the usual grey fuselage with big black
Swastikas on their wing tips. You can never mistake that
marking. What an ugly insignia!! Flak was very light to-
day for us--navigation was good. On returning from the
target area though two separate barrages of stuff came up
at a flight and guess whose flight--of course mine. It
was very inaccurate, thank goodness. So as a whole the mission
was a success except we did lose a good boy--Lt. Holmberg.
The last they saw of him was he was firing at a Hun and his
ship blew up.
Copyright © 1996, Harry R. Ankeny