Olin Edward Gilbert

Military
A P-51 Mustang aircraft - HL-A - (serial number 44-63216), named "Anne Nihilator”. This aircraft was piloted by Lieutenant Colonel Olin E. Gilbert. Whilst strafing Charleroi aerodrome on 28th August 1944, Gilbert's Mustang was struck by flak - causing a crash landing. Gilbert successfully evaded capture and escaped, with the assistance of the resistance. Handwritten on slide casing:"Anne Nihilator Mason Barnard" media-388350.jpg FRE 5608 A P-51 Mustang aircraft - HL-A - (serial number 44-63216), named "Anne Nihilator”. This aircraft was piloted by Lieutenant Colonel Olin E. Gilbert. Whilst strafing Charleroi aerodrome on 28th August 1944, Gilbert's Mustang was struck by flak - causing a crash landing. Gilbert successfully evaded capture and escaped, with the assistance of the resistance. Handwritten on slide casing:"Anne Nihilator Mason Barnard" Roger Freeman Collection

Page 40, The Mighty Eighth in Color, Roger Freeman.

Object Number - FRE 5608 - A P-51 Mustang aircraft - HL-A - (serial number 44-63216), named "Anne Nihilator”. This aircraft was piloted by Lieutenant Colonel Olin E. Gilbert....

78th FG. Lt Col Gilbert was the 78th Fighter Group’s fifth Commanding Officer taking office on 29th January 1945.



“Some pilots go along for the ride; others think.” In a speech by a veteran flight leader Lt Col Gilbert of Collinsville, Illinois, the speaker emphasised the high regard fellow pilots held for their new C.O. “The Lt Col has recognised ability to think things out in the air, where quick and accurate decisions are a must. He is an original eager beaver, and is reckless, but he isn’t crazy. He measures the odds.”



‘The new C.O., who appears to have acquired the slow speech of the South where he lived for several years, is quiet and reserved on the ground. He apparently believes in letting actions speak for themselves. He rarely speaks of his combat experiences, which include belly-landing in occupied Belgium and successfully evading, shooting down two German planes in aerial combat and destroying two while strafing a Nazi aerodrome, the scores of dive-bombing and strafing missions before and after D-Day when he flew on every trip he could, and the fact that he flew a 200-hour tour with a 150-hour extension and then came back for more.



The fact that Lt Col Gilbert is an “artist in the air” (as other pilots put it), that he flies instruments beautifully and is a good navigator is partly explained by the fact that he started flying when the second World War was dreamed of only by Hitler’s gang and a few “alarmists” in England and America. In fact the Illinois pilot attributes his failure to obtain a college degree until after four and one-half years study to the fact that he “couldn’t stay away from the airport.”



Olin made a homemade airplane without power in Collinsville Illinois and took off from a cliff, crashing for the first time at age 16. At 18 he started flying powered aircraft and this future fighter pilot received his commercial license at 20. By the time he left the University of Alabama had bought and traded a number of light planes, keeping gas in them with allowance money and keeping the motors running by doing his own tinkering. He started stunt flying as a hobby. At 22 he was instructing fledglings for an Army Air Forces contract school.



Lt Col Gilbert was born July 4, 1918, the son of Dr and Mrs Edward P. Gilbert, of 419 W. Main St., Collinsville, Illinois. He attended Collinsville High School, graduating in 1934 and continued studies at Washington University, St Louis. He transferred from there to the University of Alabama in 1937, majoring in chemistry with the intention of studying medicine.



While a student at Tuscaloosa, Col. Gilbert's room-mate, O.L Ford introduced him to his sister, Anne Frances Ford, and on his first date he took her flying and they married shortly thereafter. Mrs. Anne Ford Gilbert presented him with their oldest old son, Olin E. Gilbert Jr., and lived at Clairmont Ave, Birmingham. The colonel’s P-51 Mustang is named “Anne-Nihilator” in honor of his wife.



He instructed at the primary school from June 1940 to February 1941 at Dallas, Texas. In April 1941 he entered active duty from the Officers’ Reserve Corps as a second lieutenant. At the time he had logged some 1200 hours.



A succession of assignments and schools followed. While at Sherman Field, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, he filled jobs from “just plain pilot” to engineering officer, and was selected for the Command and General Staff School. He graduated in 1942, and then studied at the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics at Orlando, Fla., where combat veterans lectured on their experiences.



In early 1943, the then Captain Gilbert joined the 327th Fighter Group at Richmond, Virginia, as a squadron commander, flying P-40 Warhawks and later changing over to P-47 Thunderbolts. In July of that year, now a major, he transferred to the 365th Fighter Group, a Thunderbolt outfit at Dover, Del., as group executive officer.



When Washington called for volunteers to become squadron commanders in E.T.O. fighter groups, the Illinois pilot jumped at the chance to get into combat, even though it meant a less responsible position. He came across in October,1943, and joined 78th Fighter Group in November as a spare pilot, flying wing on younger and lower-ranking pilots who were old in combat experience. After 10 missions he began leading the group on missions, was appointed 83rd Fighter Squadron commanding officer, and in June, 1944, was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. He became executive flying officer before going home on leave in September 1944.

Only incomplete details of how Lt Col Gilbert escaped from occupied Belgium can be told here. On August 28, 1944 he was strafing oil cars on a siding about 10 miles east of Valenciennes and ran into light flak. His aircraft was hit and his engine stopped. He made a perfect belly landing in a small field and was seen heading for a small farmhouse with two women helping him get rid of his flying equipment. It was with the help of Gilbert Bertiau, that he was hidden from the Germans whom he strafed, and reunited with US ground troups. He arrived back at 78th Fighter Group on September 12, 1944, and was given leave home before continuing his combat career.



After releasing the bombs on one mission the colonel’s flight began looking for trains, and after letting down through clouds accidentally flew over an airdrome at 1000 feet altitude. The Germans first fired a flare, apparently thinking the aircraft very friendly. When they realised that the planes were Thunderbolts they threw up a terrific flak barrage. The Americans dodged back into the clouds, and the colonel pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Just at that moment the anti-aircraft gunners picked up the fighters on radar, and another barrage filled the air.

“I never did find that cigarette,” Lt Col Gilbert says.’



Evaded (EVD) crashed ner Valenciennes on 28 Aug 44 in P-47 #4228408. He flew P-38 P-51, T-33, F-84, F-86, F-100, F-105, and AWAC aircraft. He retired as a colonel after the Vietnam War



Silver Star, Legion of Merit, DFC w/2Oak Leaf Cluster/Air Medal w/8Oak Leaf Clusters/Purple Heart, Army Commedndation Medaland AFLSA with 6/Oak Leaf Clusters

Connections

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Units served with

Aircraft

  • Aircraft Type: P-47 Thunderbolt
  • Unit: 78th Fighter Group 83rd Fighter Squadron
  • Aircraft Type: P-47 Thunderbolt
  • Unit: 78th Fighter Group
  • Aircraft Type: P-47 Thunderbolt
  • Unit: 56th Fighter Group 78th Fighter Group 61st Fighter Squadron 83rd Fighter Squadron
A P-51 Mustang aircraft (HL-A, serial number 44-63216), named "Anne Nihilator". Colonel John Landers, Commanding Officer of the 78th Fighter Group - based at Duxford is in the cockpit. This photograph was taken in early 1945; subsequent to this Mustang being reallocated from Lieutenant Colonel Gilbert E. Olin. Handwritten on slide casing:"HL-A Mason Barnard"
  • Aircraft Type: P-51 Mustang
  • Nicknames: Anne Nihilator
  • Unit: 78th Fighter Group 83rd Fighter Squadron

Missions

Events

Event Location Date Description

Born

4 July 1918

Other

Evaded (EVD)

28 August 1944

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End Tour of Duty (ETD)

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Promoted

Other

Transferred

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Newspapers

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National Archives

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National Archives

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National Archives

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Duxford Diary Curtis Shepard collection

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Gregory F Gilbert, son

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Gregory Ford Gilbert, Son

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78th FG Monthly Histories 1944

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78th FG Monthly Histories 1945

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78th FG Records

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AAM Website

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AAM Website

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The 78th Fighter Group’s Fifth Commanding Officer 0013-14 Group Historian

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Ted Damick, VIII Fighter Command pilots list

Olin Edward Gilbert: Gallery (27 items)