David E. Olson was born in 1919 in Alburnett, Iowa. He was of Norwegian ancestry. He was born with a twin brother and also had one sister. His family moved to the Chicago area when he was a child. His father was an orphan. He lived with his brother and sister-in-law in a one room sod house. Olson’s father finished school and became a banker. His mother stayed home. The Great Depression saw the collapse of many banks. When the price on crops dropped, farmers could not repay their loans. The banks went down as a result of the overextension of credit to the farmers. Life during the Depression did not seem so difficult to Olson. Existence during those years was not so much different than life today. It is all a matter of how an individual reacts to life. Times were better for young Olson than it was for his parents. Improvements to make life better are made generation by generation. Olson enrolled at the University of Illinois in 1939. Tuition was 37 dollars per semester. He sang in the glee club and was a recruiter for new students. He heard about Pearl Harbor while in school. During college, he was in ROTC [Annotator’s Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps]. ROTC was a requirement for all males in land grant colleges. He was in the horse drawn artillery with a French 75mm artillery piece. He would complete the World War II at the same rank as Harry Truman completed his service in World War I. The training involved equipment that was from World War I but some of the equipment dated back to the Civil War. He and his classmates kept up with the progress of the war across Europe and Russia. The advances in warfare that were happening overseas made them realize how unprepared the United States was for entry in the war. The compact between Stalin and Hitler was also unnerving. Olson graduated in 1942 in business administration and went directly into the Army.

David Olson attended field artillery school at Fort Sill right after his graduation from college [Annotator’s Note: in 1942]. It was a 90 day program. The graduates from the rapid training were known as "90 Day Wonders." When he finished the training, the first sergeants realized that the new officers were green and chewed them up. He went to Fort Bragg from Fort Sill. He was married at the time. After Fort Bragg, he was sent to Fort Knox. He joined his unit, the 87th Armored Field Artillery Battalion. At that point, Olson was a second lieutenant in a platoon of 105mm howitzers that were self-propelled guns mounted on a tank chassis. He became a survey leader in the unit. The outfit was originally out of Panama. All the good people had been robbed while it was in Panama and sent to other units. The 87th in Fort Knox was a bunch of misfit enlisted men and officers. It was being rebuilt for deployment overseas. That was the point when Olson joined them. He joined them when the weather was hot. The men were put through forced marches and Olson had to lead them. He had a class to teach but needed to get a field manual to prepare for the class. When he asked the first sergeant for the manual, he was told that the commanding officer was in possession of all the manuals and he had dictated that he was in conference and was not to be disturbed. After Olson left, he saw the captain and his executive officer sound asleep in the commander’s office. Olson took his misfits and started what was to be a five mile march. Instead, he took them off base and to an area which had trees. He had them gather around him and told them that they were on a secret mission and no one was to ever talk about it. He said they were going to sleep. One man said he was not sleepy so Olson made him the guard to alert him if anyone came nearby. That made Olson popular with his men. Although the captain and his executive officer were transferred eventually, Olson stayed with the unit. [Annotator’s Note: Olson chuckles at the recollection.] After advanced artillery training, Olson took courses in survey. Survey is important to artillery officers. It is important to have accurate fire to prevent friendly fire injuries. A screw up can kill a lot of your own people. Maps are very important so if one is not available, one has to be made. Going into the military was like a completely new world. The best soldiers were not necessarily the successful men in civilian life. Many times, it was the men who had been kicked around in life. They made the best of their life. Most American boys are independent and can make the most of their situation. There was a staff sergeant who should have stayed in ROTC and become a lieutenant. The sergeant and Olson solved most of the problems that confronted the unit. Olson recommended him for a battlefield commission. The man received his commission. After only two weeks, the newly commissioned officer was killed.

David Olson and his outfit [Annotator’s Note: the 87th Armored Field Artillery Battalion] went through Camp Shanks en route overseas. The 87th was to board the troop ship Normandie on Christmas Eve. Sabotage on the ship prevented that from happening. The men had to stand-down. The 87th was rescheduled for another ship. That was to be the British liner Queen Elizabeth, which was set to depart on New Year’s Eve. The ship was loaded to the gunwales. Olson was in a cabin with the door locked to the adjacent cabin. Through the keyhole, the officers could see that there were nurses next door. One man with a bunk nearest the nurses’ cabin would talk to the girls next day. There was often friendly but sometimes salty chatter between them. It was a good way to pass the time onboard the ship. [Annotator’s Note: Olson laughs about the comical discussions that ensued on the voyage.] There was no escort for the troopship as it proceeded alone across the Atlantic. It arrived in Scotland. The men of the 87th then proceeded to the ancient city of Banbury. There were blackouts with the end of the blitz going on. The V1s and V2s came over. The unit was there during a tough winter with bad weather. Without service packets, the guns could not be fired. As the weather improved, training could commence on the artillery range in southern England at the Salisbury Plain. Stonehenge was close by but the troops had no idea what the ring of huge boulders represented. It was 45 years later at a reunion of the 87th when Olson laughed with his fellow veterans about them not knowing the significance of Stonehenge. While in England, Olson participated in one practice exercise with live ammunition. En route, the German’s attacked some of the ships and several hundred men drowned. One of the M7 self propeller howitzers caught on fire. The ammunition started exploding. British Home Guard people thought the invasion of England was on. Landing preparations did not include information about the specifics of the Normandy invasion. Olson and the unit did not do much training but they dug many holes during that time. They were sent to Wales and prepared for the invasion. The camps they were billeted in were sealed. No one could enter or leave. They were there a week before going to the ships for departure. Part of the 87th went on the Susan B. Anthony [Annotator’s Note: USS Susan B. Anthony (AP-72)] and the other part including Olson went on another ship.

David Olson landed on Utah Beach on D plus 1. Part of his command was on another ship, the Susan B. Anthony [Annotator’s Note: USS Susan B. Anthony (AP-72)], that was hit by a mine. Most of the troops aboard the stricken ship were rescued. Off in the distance, Olson could see the heavy action on Omaha Beach. About a mile from the beach, Olson’s troopship had naval artillery firing over to top of the vessel. As the troop ship proceeded on to Utah Beach, the action was not as extreme. Some ships were sunk and there was German resistance against the 4th Infantry Division that hit that beach. The first night of the invasion, the 87th [Annotator’s Note: 87th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 4th Cavalry Group] was still on the ship. Nightfall came later at that latitude. A newspaper could be read on the open deck at ten at night. While on deck, Olson was with a pudgy man named Lieutenant Louie Yaffey [Annotator’s Note: unsure of spelling]. He was wearing not only a life jacket, but also the belt that was worn around the waist to inflate for flotation. When a German airplane appeared, the ship's captain told everyone not to fire their weapons on the aircraft so that they did not draw attention to their ship. Olson and Yaffey decided to go into the ship for cover. Yaffey inflated his flotation belt while they were in the door. The men were stuck in that position. No bombs came close. The next morning, word came for Olson to scale down the side of the ship and board a landing craft. The ship was bouncing up and down with the waves. It made boarding the landing craft difficult. As soon as Olson’s survey team was aboard the landing craft, a shell hit the ship where they had been. Arriving on Utah Beach, there was a chaotic scene. There was debris, bodies and equipment in the surf. He met Theodore Roosevelt’s son [Annotator’s Note: Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.] either on Utah or in the practice exercises in England prior to the landing. Roosevelt’s son died of a heart attack shortly afterward. Olson and the 87th proceeded inland into the hedgerow country where the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions had landed. The 87th would support both of those divisions during the fighting in Normandy. The hedgerows were impenetrable. Germans and Americans could be on opposite sides of the dense vegetation obstacles and not get to their opposition. It was tough going there with generally only one opening in each field. In one case, he came upon a series of bicycles with the wheels still turning. If the Germans had remained, they might have wiped out the American troops moving inland at that spot. Another night, the men could hear something on the opposite side of the vegetation wall. When Olson peered through an opening, a pistol was pointed at his nose. It turned out to belong to the battalion commander who had also detected the noise Olson and his men were making. The officer almost ended Olson’s career right there [Annotator’s Note: Olson laughs about the incident]. Clothes were discovered nearby the next morning. The clothing could have belonged to a spy working that area. An area of defense was finally established. A means to eliminate the hedgerow obstructions was discovered. Beach obstacles were welded to the front of armored vehicles and acted like teeth ripping up the deeply rooted vegetation. The first weeks of the campaign were slow going. Olson and his detachment only surveyed while they were moving. They used a leapfrog technique while moving the three batteries. Someone would always be firing. When they relocated, it was like moving a circus. They not only had to move the six 105mm howitzers in each of the three batteries, but the command centers as well. Communication wire had to be retrieved and restrung in the new location. Communications with battalion had to be reestablished. The survey crew had to prepare the new locations. In some cases, there would be three moves in one day. Coordination was important during the movement of the batteries.

After Utah Beach had been somewhat secure, David Olson and his outfit [Annotator’s Note: 87th Armored Field Artillery Battalion] moved out, attempting to get beyond Normandy. After a few weeks, the Germans would be encircled and try to escape Normandy through the Falaise Gap. A scheduled American bombing of enemy positions went wrong due to adverse wind conditions. Smoke from targeting markers blew over American lines. Bombs were dropped short of the intended German targets and fell on many American troops. A famous American commander, General McNair [Annotator’s Note: General Leslie J. McNair], was killed in the friendly fire incident. The desired Allied closure of the opening in the pocket did not occur. Many Germans escaped through the gap. This action occurred in August [Annotator’s Note: August 1944]. Elements of the 87th Armored Field Artillery Battalion were almost overrun on 2 August 1944. Many people were lost. Olson’s section had gone up the night before while working with the cavalry. His outfit had a jeep and a halftrack. They were at the end of the column. They approached the enemy lines and were told to go on ahead. Olson and his men had trouble keeping up with the column. They had difficulty knowing exactly what direction the column took. Olson and his men could not use lights for fear of drawing enemy fire. They went down on their hands and knees on the road to try to see the track marks of the vehicles that had preceded them. The front lines were not a solid set of positions. There were troops scattered here and there. Upon Olson finally reaching the lead elements of the column, the Germans subsequently closed in behind them. Part of the battalion came up in the morning. German tanks were waiting for them. There were 87th casualties that resulted from the German armor attack. The Germans were in full flight at this time. The 87th was attached to Patton’s Army [Annotator’s Note: General George S. Patton's US 3rd Army]. The 87th often played a supporting role for infantry, cavalry or larger units. There were about 250 separate artillery battalions in the Army to support various units or organizations in diverse campaigns. Artillery was a dreadful weapon in war. It was horrifying to participate on the receiving end of an artillery barrage. The Germans were really hammered by American artillery. By this point in the Normandy campaign, the 87th had fired approximately 30,000 rounds of artillery. By war’s end, the battalion had fired enough rounds to fill a train. That was considering only one battalion out of the 250 battalions in operation. In addition, each division had assigned to it three 105mm artillery battalion and one 155mm battalion. When a division mounted an attack, it would have additional artillery battalions attached to it. The 87th was one of the battalions that would, at various times, be attached to a number of different divisions.

Following the Normandy breakout, David Olson and his outfit [Annotator’s Note: the 87th Armored Field Artillery Battalion] met scattered German resistance that held them up until they reach Belgium. The battalion proceeded to the area of Malmedy and Camp Elsenborn. This was in the Ardennes Forest where the Battle of the Bulge occurred. The 87th was attached to the 4th Cavalry [Annotator’s Note: 4th Mechanized Cavalry Group] at that time. The scene had been the location of many historical battles of the past. When the 87th arrived around Christmas time [Annotator’s Note: Christmas 1944], there was little activity. The men had a premonition from the nightly noises that something was coming on. It was cold and miserable at night. The tubes on many of the battalion's guns had been worn out. There was a recall of the 87th to replace the tubes. Olson thought it was so good to get out of that spooky wooded area. The battalion was withdrawn and just after that the unforeseen German offensive started [Annotator’s Note: the German Ardennes Offensive, also referred to as the Battle of the Bulge]. With the German attack, the 87th was thrown back into combat in the very area they had formerly held. That was where the main enemy resistance was. With their repaired gun tubes, the 87th was attached to an armored division in General Patton’s Army [Annotator’s Note: General George S. Patton's US 3rd Army]. As the 87th advanced to the front, they observed stragglers from the American units which had surrendered or been destroyed. It was a very dramatic sight as the dejected men walked back without equipment. Upon reaching Spa, Belgium at Christmas time, Olson saw a huge stack of turkeys being guarded by a few armed soldiers. Olson asked for some turkeys and was told to help himself. He piled the turkeys high in his vehicles and moved on. Upon reaching the assigned area, he distributed the frozen turkeys by cutting them apart with an axe. How the men managed to prepare the turkeys in that frozen climate he doesn't know. Nevertheless, he distributed the birds to the troops in his battalion so they would have turkey for Christmas. The snow was deep. It was a terrible day. During the battle, Olson never felt the Germans would overwhelm the Americans for very long. He did have a problem with the GIs [Annotator’s Note: short for gastrointestinal problems causing pain and diarrhea]. It was awful. He had on seven layers of clothes trying to keep warm. It was difficult to undress to relieve himself. Additionally, he became very chapped in the snow. As the battle wound down, the colonel asked Olson what the problem was. When the issue was revealed, the colonel got him a flight back to a hospital in a Piper Cub observation airplane. Olson sat in the back of the small plane and served as navigator. With the cloudy conditions, the fliers lost their way. Eventually, Olson found a landmark and determined they were in Holland. They landed the plane as the internal pressure was building up in him. They were in a schoolyard. Olson immediately took care of his urgent business no matter who saw him. He was happy to just get the pressure off. He finally went into the hospital.

David Olson felt most of the people in France were happy to see the Americans. They had never fully recovered from the tremendous loss of lives in the Napoleonic Wars and World War I. People in the countryside liked the Americans a bit more than the city dwellers. It was a bad time in history for the whole world. Olson heard about the surrender of Germany but cannot remember where he was. His battery was charged with taking over a German town and seeking out SS soldiers, politicians and criminals. Their purpose was hard to understand, but basically it was to create law and order in an area. Eventually, he and his battery were put in charge of one of the many small German concentration camps. The camp was to be a collecting point for displaced persons. Polish, French, Dutch, Spaniards and others who worked out of the concentration camps were all DPs. They acted as indentured workers in nearby farms or businesses. They were to be collected in the camp that Olson and his battery oversaw in preparation for their eventual trip to their homeland. The concentration camp was a sewer. It was hard to imagine how people could be kept in there. The toilet was a huge pit with rope around it for males and females. The kitchen was horrible. So was the bedding in the camp. Olson developed a list of clean-up needs for the camp. He went to the local town with the list. The elderly mayor told Olson, through an interpreter, that he knew nothing of what went on in the camp. Olson informed the mayor that he had to fulfill the items on the list immediately and then take the townspeople to the concentration camp and clean it up. The camp would be cleaned before the DPs arrived there or Olson’s battery would blow the town apart. The mayor understood and complied. The DPs came in from all over. They robbed and stole on the way in to get back at the Germans. The story was that every person got back to their own country except the Russians. They killed them before they made it back to Russia. Olson would leave Europe in November [Annotator’s Note: November 1945].

David Olson left the European Theater as an S3 officer in charge of plans, training and gunnery. Not too many men in artillery had that MOS [Annotator’s Note: military occupational specialty]. The next war that was looming was in Korea. It appeared that it was beginning to flare up. Some of his friends were being called up for active service. Olson decided that if he was going to get into another war, he was going to be part of a unit. He decided to join the Illinois National Guard. He was in the 33rd Division Illinois National Guard. The other Illinois Guard division, the 44th, was called up for Korea. The 33rd was not called up because of the race problems in Chicago. They were kept in readiness in case they were needed domestically. Olson was in the Guard for 16 years. He trained troops for Vietnam. He served in the Army for 20 years and retired in 1962. He was discharged as a lieutenant colonel. He left the Illinois Guard just before the riots in Chicago. The G3 [Annotator’s Note: operations officer] was a lawyer and opted to get out. They came to Olson to offer him the position as G3. He had no training in police work and felt he should retire. After discharge, he returned to the company where he worked as a young man. They promised him as a senior in college that he would have his job back after serving in the armed forces. He would even have the same wage back. That was one dollar per hour. Olson went back to them and hired on. He was married and had a young boy at the time. He asked his supervisor for a raise. His boss told him that he was not even worth the salary he was getting. It was the greatest message he ever heard. [Annotator’s Note: Olson bends over with laughter] Olson decided it was time to get out of that job. He went to another job for a couple of years and then started his own business with two other men. That was in 1948. He still has the same job. The company sold chain saws which were a revolutionary tool at the time. His business is still going and his two sons are involved now. His company is called Power Equipment Company.

David Olson had his most interesting and sad moment in the Army when his outfit broke up after the war. As the battery commander, the men had to turn their equipment over to him. The main items of concern at the time were the watches that had been issued to the men. As part of a battery, the timing for firing barrages was critical so watches were issued to many of the men. There were about 50 watches that had to be collected by Olson. The howitzers and other items were not so much a concern for the Army as those watches were. At the end of the war, watches were in high demand. Olson collected the timepieces from his battery. Overnight, the watches disappeared from Olson’s possession. He knew that he was going to be held responsible for the missing watches. He gathered the men and requested that the culprit return the watches with no questions asked. He told the men that the items were worth about 1,000 dollars and did not want to have his record reflect losing them. No watches were turned back to Olson. Instead, on the last day before the men departed, the First Sergeant gave 1,000 dollars to Olson on behalf of the men in his battery. They had collected the money to keep him out of trouble. Tears came to Olson’s eyes knowing what his men had done for him. They were a great bunch of guys. The war caused Olson to grow up. He was no longer a kid. He learned a great deal but does not recommend the experience. Olson thinks the United States is a wonderful and unique country. He felt good about supporting the country in its time of need. He made a small contribution but it is appreciated by his family. World War II for the current generation is looked at in a similar fashion as Olson’s generation viewed the Civil War or the Spanish-American War. As history, it is in the distance. What is important is that the country survived. The National WWII Museum is doing commendable work in trying to educate future generations on the Second World War.