Gen's Story
Title
Gen's Story
Eugeniusz Olenyn autobiography
Description
An autobiography of Eugeniusz Olenyn's life.
The first part of the memoir talks of the many trials Genek went through both in attempting to rejoin his Polish Air Force unit and, once the Germans overran the country, escape to England.
Ganek landed in Oxford where he experienced his first taste of fish and chip together with tea containing milk. He left Oxford after dinner to travel to Blackpool where the Polish Air Force were based. Here he was re-equipped, swore on the Bible and received his British nationalisation after which he was promoted to LAC as a member of the Polish Air Force.
Genek crewed up at 105 Squadron RAF Syerston. He describes the movements of the aircrew from the pre-raid meeting to landing back at base afterwards and talk in detail of his first eight operations.
Genek became a POW on an operation Bremen. He explains how his plane was hit, his parachuting out, and how he was captured. Genek recounts the conditions in the many camps where he stayed. Genek explains about the contents of Red Cross parcels and how they were distributed amongst the men.
Genek describes the long march and the POW repatriation process. Genek was sent to the permanent Polish Air Force station at Dunholme Lodge. He talks for the problems of accessing his back-pay and life in the camp and the attraction of Blackpool for the Polish airmen, it was here he met the lady who would become his wife.
The first part of the memoir talks of the many trials Genek went through both in attempting to rejoin his Polish Air Force unit and, once the Germans overran the country, escape to England.
Ganek landed in Oxford where he experienced his first taste of fish and chip together with tea containing milk. He left Oxford after dinner to travel to Blackpool where the Polish Air Force were based. Here he was re-equipped, swore on the Bible and received his British nationalisation after which he was promoted to LAC as a member of the Polish Air Force.
Genek crewed up at 105 Squadron RAF Syerston. He describes the movements of the aircrew from the pre-raid meeting to landing back at base afterwards and talk in detail of his first eight operations.
Genek became a POW on an operation Bremen. He explains how his plane was hit, his parachuting out, and how he was captured. Genek recounts the conditions in the many camps where he stayed. Genek explains about the contents of Red Cross parcels and how they were distributed amongst the men.
Genek describes the long march and the POW repatriation process. Genek was sent to the permanent Polish Air Force station at Dunholme Lodge. He talks for the problems of accessing his back-pay and life in the camp and the attraction of Blackpool for the Polish airmen, it was here he met the lady who would become his wife.
Creator
Date
1995
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
69 printed pages
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
BOlenynEOlenynEv1
Collection
Citation
Eugeniusz Olenyn, “Gen's Story,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed June 13, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/50166.