But the big moment of the day came on the early 508th mission, a strike against the enemy airdrome at Krefeld, ten miles northwest of Dusseldorf and five miles west of the Rhine.

The squadron leader, Wayne Anacker, had seven to ten-tenths cloud cover to contend with, but after circling observed the airdrome through a small hole in the clouds. On it were at least 12 twin-engine single-fin aircraft, probably Ju-88's.

Anacker started down immediately, fearful of losing sight of the field, and called the squadron to follow quickly. Picking up speed, he opened fire with his machine guns from 8,000 feet and continued on down to 4,000 feet, where he released his bombs. The squadron followed his lead, ran into intense light flak, and almost immediately pulled into the clouds.

Only Frank Webner, Anacker's wingman, got a good look at what happened to the target. He saw Anacker's bullets spattering all over three parked planes, and saw his own tracers hitting two others. He didn't stay down long enough to watch the bombs go off as German 20 and 37 mm stuff streamed up in his face, but the squadron on the basis of his observation put in a claim of five Ju-88's probably destroyed.

Capt. Wayne H. Anacker had the honor of leading the 508th Squadron on the Group's first mission in 1945, taking off at 0852 to smash the marshalling yard and a concentration of goods wagons at Junkerath

Capt. Anacker led the 508th a bit further north to knock out 24 freight cars, and destroy or damage 17 vehicles, an armored vehicle, two tanks and three guns in the Schleiden area.

Fort Logan National Cemetery
Denver, Denver County, Colorado, USA
Plot
Section 26c Site 335