Olsen, Ronald Wingate (Oral history)

British NCO served as pilot with 619 and 627 Sqdns RAF in GB, 1943-1945

REEL 1 Background in Chester-le-Street and Birmingham, 1920-1939: family; education; employment; reasons for rejection for Royal Navy, 1939. Enlistment and training with RAF in GB and Canada, 1940-1943: reasons for joining RAF, 1940; basic training at St John's Wood, 1941; selection for aircrew; soloing on Tiger Moths; flying training in Canada, 1942; navigating on prairies; hospitality of Canadians; pattern of training on return to GB, 1/1943; blind approach training course at RAF Finningley; crewing up at RAF Upper Heyford, 5/1943; leaflet dropping raid on Bourges, 4/7/1943; opinion of Vickers Wellington; emergency landing at RAF Stradishall; converting to Avro Lancasters at RAF Swinderby, autumn 1943. Recollections of operations as NCO with 619 Sqdn, 1943-1944: posting to RAF Woodhall Spa, 17/9/1943; first raid to Bochum, 29/9/1943. REEL 2 Continues: effect of aborting raid on Leipzig, 20/10/1943; bad weather on raid to Kassel, 22/10/1943; first raid on Berlin, 18/11/1943; importance of surviving first five to ten operations; aircraft used on raids on Berlin, 22/11/943 and 2/12/1943; aircrew reactions at briefing to bombing Berlin; character of Berlin air defences, 1943- 1944; knowledge gleaned from army anti-aircraft expert carried on Berlin raid; frostbite injury received on operation, c20/1/1944; Berlin operations, 12/1943-2/1944; problems with wing-icing. REEL 3 Continues: night fighter attack during raid on Berlin during in which his aircraft lost port outer engine; technique of corkscrewing; method of running into target; night fighter attacks; mishap with iced up coffee in cockpit during operation; occasion when air gun iced up; question of losses during Nüremberg raid, 30/3/1944; story of navigation problem on Berlin raid. REEL 4 Continues: Munich raid in which Leonard Cheshire acted as marker; problem with hung up bomb; aileron problem on night flying test; last raid of his tour against Schweinfurt, 26/4/1944. Recollections of operations as NCO with 627 Sqdn, Pathfinder Force, 8 Group, 1945: flying De Havilland Mosquito from RAF Woodhall Spa; character of accommodation; method of marking targets; first raid on Ladburg, 7/2/1945; his experiences during Dresden raid, 13/2/1945; marking Mittelland Canal, 20/2/1945; raid on Horten, 23/2/1945. REEL 5 Continues: final raids spring 1945; mining Kiel Canal, 3/1945; story of pilot who ditched off Dutch coast; final operations against Germany and Czechoslovakia; decision not to volunteer for service in Far East, summer 1945. Aspects of operations as NCO pilot with Bomber Command, 1943-1945: sight of devastated German cities, 1945; after effects of experiences; degree of knowledge of targets bombed; story of briefing for raid on Peenemünde; fate of those branded Lack of Moral Fibre; attitude towards Germans.