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Once a Hussar: A Memoir of Battle, Capture and Escape in the Second World War
'Once a Hussar' is a vivid account of the wartime experiences of Ray Ellis, a gunner who in later life recorded the conflict he knew as a young man. As an impressionable teenager, fired with national pride, he was eager to join the army and fight for his country. He enlisted in the South Notts Hussars at the beginning of the Second World War and started a journey that would take him through fierce fighting in the Western Desert, the deprivation suffered in an Italian prisoner-of-war camp and a daring escape to join the partisan forces in the Appenines.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 5, 2021
This is a good memoir about a young Brit who fought as a gunner in the Western Desert up until his capture and subsequent escape from an Italian POW camp. He does not glorify the fighting, but does describe it in good detail, as well as everyday army life during the war. What I found particularly interesting was the author's time on guard against air attacks and aerial mining of the Suez Canal and his time inside the defensive perimeter during the siege of Tobruk. Highly recommended and easy to read.
September 7, 2017
a very good read, even 15 years later the army system had not changed, really enjoyed the whole book, i hope the
follow up will be announced.
the author was a very interesting story teller, someone i would have loved to meet
follow up will be announced.
the author was a very interesting story teller, someone i would have loved to meet
August 29, 2017
Fantastic
It was just luck. It just seemed an impossible story and yet so true. I could not put it down.
It was just luck. It just seemed an impossible story and yet so true. I could not put it down.
April 1, 2021
**** A moving story of privation, survival and the will to overcome ****
In writing this book some 70-plus years after the events it recounts, Ray Ellis had a two-fold purpose: to tell a story of horrific combat, captivity, escape, privation, survival and finally liberation from the standpoint of a common soldier; and to show that, when warfare strips away what he terms the “thin veneer” of civilization (a term I have used in other reviews) it also creates an opportunity for the qualities of humankind to be displayed at their worst—and at their best. Ellis writes with warmth, compassion, humor at times, and equanimity. While it is often true that the passage of time increases the tendency to view the events of the past through rose-colored lenses, and Ellis admits that many of his memories have blurred, softened or sometimes (in the case of the most extreme unpleasant ones, and deliberately so) vanished completely, he is unsparing in his descriptions of the rigors and privations of desert warfare as an artilleryman; the appalling sight of friends and fellow-soldiers killed and wounded all around him; the brutality of the prisoners’ treatment on the “death march” to a holding area, and in the hold of a ship on the way to captivity in Italy; life (if it can be called that!) in an Italian prison camp; and, as a refreshing contrast, the friendship and hospitality of the poor farm people who sheltered him and helped him survive for over a year until the Allied advance reached central Italy in 1944, and with whom, incidentally, he stayed in contact for the rest of his life. He concludes that relationships with people are what matter most in life, transcending all else, even when that lesson is learned in the hardest way imaginable.
His account is told in a compelling fashion and the desire to know how the story ultimately turns out increases as every page is turned. It’s hard not to believe that Ellis was either extremely fortunate or under some sort of divine hand of protection. Twice, enemy shells landed right next to him, but failed to explode; when his gun suffered a direct hit during the “cauldron battle” of Knightsbridge, he was the only survivor; he was able to walk out of the prison camp right under the eyes of the guards; and, even though he was a fugitive and vagabond in the Apennine Mountains, kindly people gave him food and shelter even though he was a complete stranger. Perhaps all this is so he would be able to tell this story.
All that is lacking is a description of the times he went back to Italy after the war for reunions with the friends (he considered them family!) he had made. There are pictures of some of these people, but it would have been a wonderful postscript to include an account of their postwar life as well. Ellis himself spent many years as a teacher/headmaster and retired in 1985, and passed away at 94 in 2014. His book was written during the last several years of his life; and perhaps in light of that he can be excused for concluding what must have been a tremendous effort of memory, and the transferral of all those memories to paper, at the point of his return to Britain in 1945.
Highly recommended.
**** review by Chuck Graham ****
In writing this book some 70-plus years after the events it recounts, Ray Ellis had a two-fold purpose: to tell a story of horrific combat, captivity, escape, privation, survival and finally liberation from the standpoint of a common soldier; and to show that, when warfare strips away what he terms the “thin veneer” of civilization (a term I have used in other reviews) it also creates an opportunity for the qualities of humankind to be displayed at their worst—and at their best. Ellis writes with warmth, compassion, humor at times, and equanimity. While it is often true that the passage of time increases the tendency to view the events of the past through rose-colored lenses, and Ellis admits that many of his memories have blurred, softened or sometimes (in the case of the most extreme unpleasant ones, and deliberately so) vanished completely, he is unsparing in his descriptions of the rigors and privations of desert warfare as an artilleryman; the appalling sight of friends and fellow-soldiers killed and wounded all around him; the brutality of the prisoners’ treatment on the “death march” to a holding area, and in the hold of a ship on the way to captivity in Italy; life (if it can be called that!) in an Italian prison camp; and, as a refreshing contrast, the friendship and hospitality of the poor farm people who sheltered him and helped him survive for over a year until the Allied advance reached central Italy in 1944, and with whom, incidentally, he stayed in contact for the rest of his life. He concludes that relationships with people are what matter most in life, transcending all else, even when that lesson is learned in the hardest way imaginable.
His account is told in a compelling fashion and the desire to know how the story ultimately turns out increases as every page is turned. It’s hard not to believe that Ellis was either extremely fortunate or under some sort of divine hand of protection. Twice, enemy shells landed right next to him, but failed to explode; when his gun suffered a direct hit during the “cauldron battle” of Knightsbridge, he was the only survivor; he was able to walk out of the prison camp right under the eyes of the guards; and, even though he was a fugitive and vagabond in the Apennine Mountains, kindly people gave him food and shelter even though he was a complete stranger. Perhaps all this is so he would be able to tell this story.
All that is lacking is a description of the times he went back to Italy after the war for reunions with the friends (he considered them family!) he had made. There are pictures of some of these people, but it would have been a wonderful postscript to include an account of their postwar life as well. Ellis himself spent many years as a teacher/headmaster and retired in 1985, and passed away at 94 in 2014. His book was written during the last several years of his life; and perhaps in light of that he can be excused for concluding what must have been a tremendous effort of memory, and the transferral of all those memories to paper, at the point of his return to Britain in 1945.
Highly recommended.
**** review by Chuck Graham ****
January 29, 2017
I wasn't sure what to expect with this one - an autobiography of an artilleryman didn't seem to promise, but again, I bought it for just 99p. What I got was one of the most amazing and detailed WWII accounts I've read to date.
Over half of the book is involved in the early years of the North African campaign, first fighting just the Italians, then being pushed back when the Germans arrive. We have a long and intense chapter about the 8-month siege of Tobruk, which Ellis was caught in.
The sheer intensity of the Axis onslaught comes across as the British forces were pushed back toward Egypt. However, before Montgommery changes the tide at El Alamein, Ray Ellis's unit is destroyed and he is captured.
We then spend a number of chapters with him as a POW in Italy, then escaping and ending up living with an Italian family, before escaping back to Allied lines.
What really stands out about this book is the details - little things that never get in the way of the narrative, but always enrich it. I ended up making quite a lot of notes for my own chronicles series. Later on, his account of his time in Italy was translated into Italian because it captured a way of life, now gone, that was little written about.
Overall, an outstanding book - so much so, that I'm going to chase down the sequel about his post-war life.
Over half of the book is involved in the early years of the North African campaign, first fighting just the Italians, then being pushed back when the Germans arrive. We have a long and intense chapter about the 8-month siege of Tobruk, which Ellis was caught in.
The sheer intensity of the Axis onslaught comes across as the British forces were pushed back toward Egypt. However, before Montgommery changes the tide at El Alamein, Ray Ellis's unit is destroyed and he is captured.
We then spend a number of chapters with him as a POW in Italy, then escaping and ending up living with an Italian family, before escaping back to Allied lines.
What really stands out about this book is the details - little things that never get in the way of the narrative, but always enrich it. I ended up making quite a lot of notes for my own chronicles series. Later on, his account of his time in Italy was translated into Italian because it captured a way of life, now gone, that was little written about.
Overall, an outstanding book - so much so, that I'm going to chase down the sequel about his post-war life.
October 17, 2024
Mr. Ellis sounds like a man I would have loved to meet: an honest, humble man with an understanding heart that the average foot soldier, fought for love of country.
In Mr. Ellis' account of his own time in the army and watching the slaughter of his regiment, the 107 of South Nottingham Hussars, is at once heart-breaking and uplifting. Though the pain of loss and capture, he realizes something that few men do, that self-pity gets you nowhere and the only way get home is to stand on your own feet and start walking. And so he does.
I have to admit there was one thing that confused me - Mr. Ellis said it was the 22nd Panzer division that they fought against in the Battle of Knightsbridge. Which makes me think that either Mr. Ellis was misinformed, as noted in his and many other personal accounts during the war, infantry men where rarely given details on their ventures and any news was often rumor...or, he misremembered, he himself said time and age often delude fact. I only note this because when I looked it up in my many texts on the North African Campaign, all accounts say it was the 21st Panzer division in the NAC; not the 22nd which was fighting on the Eastern Front at the time.
Regardless if it was the 21st or the 22nd Panzer's, what Mr. Ellis and all the brave souls who fought, I am thankful there were and are men like Mr. Ellis. Thank you for your service.
In Mr. Ellis' account of his own time in the army and watching the slaughter of his regiment, the 107 of South Nottingham Hussars, is at once heart-breaking and uplifting. Though the pain of loss and capture, he realizes something that few men do, that self-pity gets you nowhere and the only way get home is to stand on your own feet and start walking. And so he does.
I have to admit there was one thing that confused me - Mr. Ellis said it was the 22nd Panzer division that they fought against in the Battle of Knightsbridge. Which makes me think that either Mr. Ellis was misinformed, as noted in his and many other personal accounts during the war, infantry men where rarely given details on their ventures and any news was often rumor...or, he misremembered, he himself said time and age often delude fact. I only note this because when I looked it up in my many texts on the North African Campaign, all accounts say it was the 21st Panzer division in the NAC; not the 22nd which was fighting on the Eastern Front at the time.
Regardless if it was the 21st or the 22nd Panzer's, what Mr. Ellis and all the brave souls who fought, I am thankful there were and are men like Mr. Ellis. Thank you for your service.
January 1, 2026
A remarkable story. Frankly I'm surprised I had never heard of this man (now deceased, of course). This was written just before his death in 2014, so fully 70 years after the events of 1939-43 described in his book took place. Now I don't want to be a Doubting Thomas but I wonder if perhaps after seven decades of telling his tale, and the possibility of some embellishment to occur, that maybe everything as written wasn't quite as it transpired. I would want the story to be as written - it is a hell of a story. Yet wandering through the Apennines in winter, in snow, with no boots for weeks on end? Nah! And how is it that the British Army didn't award this man at a minimum at Military Medal, or even a Distinguished Conduct Medal, for his role in Knightsbridge 1942 (as he described it)? Certainly Ellis was no man to toot his own horn yet in the years following the war he was fairly famous in some circles. The award could have, should have, been made at that point in time. Why not? But that's just me. Please, do, read the book and form your own opinion. It is cheap and readily available on Kindle. There is not a whiff of any nay saying after Ellis died in 2014 so likely I'm just a hard-hearted bastard.
May 9, 2018
This is the first book I have read, of a soldiers account of WW2, Having read many from the Vietnam war.I have thoroughly enjoyed this book, it is very well written. I now have some insight of what my Dad went through as he was an Hussar in WW2 also.
I would highly recommend this book, it is informative often funny and also often sad. I am now looking for more WW2 memoirs.
I would highly recommend this book, it is informative often funny and also often sad. I am now looking for more WW2 memoirs.
March 4, 2023
a good read
A fun account of a string of unfun events. Just a story of how a strange series of coincidences can unfold in war.
A fun account of a string of unfun events. Just a story of how a strange series of coincidences can unfold in war.
May 21, 2023
Enjoyed
Interesting read about Rays experiences during the war and to hear how he was able to adjust to conditions and be content if not happy with what we’re very hard conditions.
Interesting read about Rays experiences during the war and to hear how he was able to adjust to conditions and be content if not happy with what we’re very hard conditions.
September 6, 2025
An astonishing and charming memoir written by Sergeant Ray Ellis about his experience of WW2, from joining the British Army at the start of the war, fighting his way through Libya and the Battle Of Tobruk, to his eventual capture and deportation to Italy as a POW and later, an escapee.
Rarely are stories of this caliber given the justice they deserve by being so well written. Ellis pens a beautiful tale of endurance, hope and ultimately, humanity. A fantastical memoir so vivid and theatrical that it far surpasses and ascends its genre.
Ellis is a thoroughly likeable author, and his story is one of the greats.
I read this book in one sitting and couldn’t recommend it any more.
Rarely are stories of this caliber given the justice they deserve by being so well written. Ellis pens a beautiful tale of endurance, hope and ultimately, humanity. A fantastical memoir so vivid and theatrical that it far surpasses and ascends its genre.
Ellis is a thoroughly likeable author, and his story is one of the greats.
I read this book in one sitting and couldn’t recommend it any more.
January 6, 2015
Excellent memoir of a British lad's journey into war, captivity, and escape. A look into the war in North Africa in WWII; we'll worth a read
March 31, 2015
Good example of a war memoir. War memoirs help to put things in perspective and reevaluate one's priorities. Read at least one a year.
September 1, 2015
very incredible story of a British artillery man in World War II
April 19, 2017
Excellent book a very good read
Pity he didn't write a sequel he would mama good author these reviews are too long I've said all I need to say
Pity he didn't write a sequel he would mama good author these reviews are too long I've said all I need to say
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews