F/4751 Leslie Herbert Olsen, as an able seaman; Royal Australian Navy corvette HMAS Geraldton; Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and North Pacific Ocean; 1942-1946; interviewed by John Roberts.

Part of a collection of nineteen oral history interviews conducted by the Royal Australian Navy Corvettes Association of Western Australia. Interviewers included John Roberts, Margaret Rickard, Lorna Dodd, William Gray Ritchie and Jack Shepheard.

Les Olsen speaks of his childhood experiences; joining the Sydney Morning Herald [SMH] as cadet artist; his brief stint in the army and transfer to the RAN; initial training at HMAS Cerberus; sailing to Colombo on MV Majura; joining corvette HMAS Geraldton in September 1942; life on board a corvette; Geraldton's role both before and after Olsen joined it; his duties including watch keeping; his sketching and photography; Geraldton's collision with an US tanker in the Persian Gulf; convoy duties in the Indian Ocean; refit in Australia in January 1945; service in the North Pacific; the end of the war in the Pacific; a landing party after the war; his discharge and rejoining the SMH; working for the Corvette Association; establishing a corvette monument on Memorial Hill in West Australia, and Iris Nesdale's book The Corvettes.