Seven Man Crew

Heroes Remember

Seven Man Crew

Transcript

It was a seven man crew counting myself, we had no second pilot or anything like that. The Americans used another pilot all the time on their bombing raids but it was understandable, you know, they were flying day time and there was always danger of losing a pilot, I guess. We were the only pilot whether we had a four hour raid or a nine or ten hour raid, you were sitting in that seat. But we flew in a bomber stream, you know, not in formation or anything, we just flew at night with no lights. You carried on like that so we had a lot of close calls with collisions with our own planes and that was kind of scary. And we lost fellows that way too with the close calls.

Description

Mr. Sellen explains the responsibility of himself and his crew during formation flying.

Richard Sellen

Richard Sellen was born in Oak Bank, Manitoba on September 19, 1920. His hometown has been Oak Bank for his entire life. He enlisted approximately a year and a half after the war started. He was in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in 426 Squadron. His rank at the end of the war was flying officer. He returned to Oak Bank after the war and started a building construction company with his brother. They built all types of buildings throughout the province of Manitoba. His parents were both originally from England but they actually met in Winnipeg. They settled on a small acreage near Oak Bank and it is there on that very site that Mr. Sellen grew up and still lives today. He and his wife Mary have five children, 15 grandchildren and three great grandchildren. He has belonged to the Canadian Veterans Association since the war. After retirement, Mr. Sellen purchased a small plane which he enjoyed flying out of a grass strip near Oak Bank. He built and flew a home built airplane with two of his sons. Mr. Sellen holds great pride and recognition for being part of Bomber Command.

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