Daylight Raid Over Belgium

I remember one daylight raid we made and I kind of think that was in Belgium because I remember flying over the Belgium airfield and the German aircraft were on the ground, on the airfield, you know, but none of them got up to attack us and one of our own bombers, I noticed there had lost an engine. I don't know how but anyway he had the props feathered, you know, in other words they weren't turning so then we just stayed with him until he got back safely and he wasn't attacked, neither were we but we stayed with him to add a little bit of gun support, you know, if he got a fighter attack and so on. But outside of that, you didn't see much of the daylight fighting. We lost, we didn't lose all that many, you know, in the invasion when they actually invaded. We lost more on the odd air raid than they lost the day of the invasion.

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.