![]() It was: always take your job seriously, never yourself."Īddress at the New England "Forward to '54" Dinner, Boston, Massachusetts, 9/21/53 "Thank goodness, many years ago, I had a preceptor, for whom my admiration has never died, and he had a favorite saying, one that I trust I try to live by. "There is - in world affairs - a steady course to be followed between an assertion of strength that is truculent and a confession of helplessness that is cowardly." "A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." "For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid." Inaugural Address, Washington, DC, 1/20/53 "Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America." Homecoming Speech, Abilene, Kansas, 6/22/45 Over 75,000 of those that were held by Italy were recorded by the ‘Casualty (PW) Branch of the Directorate of Prisoners of War’ in London, during the war."The proudest thing I can claim is that I am from Abilene." The majority of men were caught between 19 and then imprisoned in POW camps stretching from Nazi-occupied Poland to Italy. The vast and ever-growing Forces War Records database is cross-referenced - so you may even find out further nuggets of information from this one search.ĭuring the Second World War, over 170,000 British Prisoners of War were captured by German and Italian forces, after defeats in France, North Africa and the Balkans. The records are likely to include: name, initials, rank service number, regiment/corps, and final Italian camp location. Searching for an ancestor who was once a Prisoner of War?įorces War Records have gathered and transcribed the Italian Prisoner of War camps nominal rolls directly from the National Archives, under reference WO392/12 ‘Imperial Prisoners of War in Italy’. For anybody researching a Prisoner of War, this could prove to be a crucial source of information, perhaps offering a missing jigsaw piece to your genealogy puzzle. I was in tears when I was taken prisoner.'Ĭol Tim Richmond, Honorary Colonel of the South Notts Hussars, said: "We regarded Ray and all those who fought as a band of brothers at Tobruk and Knightsbridge as heroes and the sacrifices that they made will never be forgotten." "I took his water bottle and drank his water. I found my comrade Jim Hardy lying nearby. "For some reason the tank didn't fire and I survived and am still here. And I took a deep breath and waited for mine. "Then the man standing at the side of me was killed because a German tank had come up behind us and fired its machine gun, almost point blank. That round, which was at about six o'clock at night, hit a Mark IV tank. "The regiment was almost wiped out - but by some miracle, I was the last man virtually, and I fired the last round. He said: "My regiment had been given the order to fight to the last man and the last round and not to retire, and this painting shows our position after a long day's battle. He was also invited to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst to talk to recruits about his experiences.ĭescribing the events of the last day of the battle on June 6, 1942, Mr Ellis described how he remained at his 25-pounder gun and witnessed the death of the shirtless comrade beside him. ![]() He even ended up naming one of his daughters, Nerina, after the girl who discovered him.Īfter his dramatic experiences, Mr Ellis then wrote a book published last year about his experiences in the Battle of Gazala in 1942, called 'Once a Hussar'. In later life Mr Ellis returned regularly to visit the family in the hill village of Massa Fermana, near Ancona, Italy, who helped save his life. ![]() A young Italian girl then found him and then led him to her sympathetic farming family who took him in. ![]() He was among 90 men from his regiment who were captured at the Battle of Knightsbridge.Īmazingly, the plucky soldier managed to escape though by marching out of the main gate as if on a work party and then hid in the mountains for a year. Mr Ellis got captured in the North African desert and taken to a Prisoner of War camp in Italy - shipped from Libya. Ordered to 'fight to the last man and the last round', they stuck to their guns as their comrades fell around them, reported the Daily Mail. He was also the last surviving veteran from the 1942 battle, which was one of the most celebrated acts of bravery in the Royal Artillery’s history and saw the 107th Regiment of the South Nottinghamshire Hussars virtually wiped out.Īccording to reports, former Hussar Captain Gil Aldridge hailed Mr Ellis as the last soldier to fire on the Germans at the end of the battle. Ray Ellis, the last soldier to fire on advancing German troops in the important World War II ‘Battle of Knightsbridge’, sadly passed away on Tuesday last week, aged 94.
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