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Gunship Ace: The Wars Of Neall Ellis, Gunship Pilot And Mercenary
A former South African Air Force pilot who saw action throughout the region from the 1970s on, Neall Ellis is the best-known mercenary combat aviator alive. Apart from flying Alouette helicopter gunships in Angola, he has fought in the Balkan War (for Islamic forces), tried to resuscitate Mobutu’s ailing air force during his final days ruling the Congo, flew Mi-8s for Executive Outcomes, and thereafter an Mi-8 fondly dubbed 'Bokkie' for Colonel Tim Spicer in Sierra Leone. Finally, with a pair of aging Mi-24 Hinds, Ellis ran the Air Wing out of Aberdeen Barracks in the war against Sankoh's vicious RUF rebels.
For the past two years, as a “civilian contractor,” Ellis has been flying helicopter support missions in Afghanistan, where, he reckons, he has had more close shaves than in his entire previous four-decades put together.
Twice, single-handedly (and without a copilot), he turned the enemy back from the gates of Freetown, effectively preventing the rebels from overrunning Sierra Leone’s capital—once in the middle of the night without the benefit of night vision goggles. Nellis (as his friends call him) was also the first mercenary to work hand-in-glove with British ground and air assets in a modern guerrilla war. In Sierra Leone, Ellis' Mi-24 (“it leaked when it rained”) played a seminal role in rescuing the 11 British soldiers who had been taken hostage by the so-called West Side Boys. He also used his helicopter numerous times to fly SAS personnel on low-level reconnaissance missions into the interior of the diamond-rich country, for the simple reason that no other pilot knew the country—and the enemy—better than he did.
Al Venter, the author of War Dog and other acclaimed titles, accompanied Nellis on some of these missions. “Occasionally we returned to base with holes in our fuselage,” Venter recounts, “though once it was self-inflicted: in his enthusiasm during an attack on one of the towns in the interior, a side-gunner onboard swung his heavy machine-gun a bit too wide and hit one of our drop tanks. Had it been full at the time, things might have been different.” The upshot was that over the course of a year of military operations, the two former Soviet helicopters operated for the Sierra Leone Air Wing by Nellis and his boys were patched more often than any other comparable pair of gun ships in Asia, Africa or Latin America. Nellis himself earned a price on his head: some reports spoke of a $1 million reward dead or alive while others doubled it.
This book describes the full career of this storied aerial warrior, from the bush and jungles of Africa to the forests of the Balkans and the merciless mountains of today’s Afghanistan. Along the way the reader encounters a multiethnic array of enemies ranging from ideological to cold-blooded to pure evil, as well as well as examples of incredible heroism for hire.
For the past two years, as a “civilian contractor,” Ellis has been flying helicopter support missions in Afghanistan, where, he reckons, he has had more close shaves than in his entire previous four-decades put together.
Twice, single-handedly (and without a copilot), he turned the enemy back from the gates of Freetown, effectively preventing the rebels from overrunning Sierra Leone’s capital—once in the middle of the night without the benefit of night vision goggles. Nellis (as his friends call him) was also the first mercenary to work hand-in-glove with British ground and air assets in a modern guerrilla war. In Sierra Leone, Ellis' Mi-24 (“it leaked when it rained”) played a seminal role in rescuing the 11 British soldiers who had been taken hostage by the so-called West Side Boys. He also used his helicopter numerous times to fly SAS personnel on low-level reconnaissance missions into the interior of the diamond-rich country, for the simple reason that no other pilot knew the country—and the enemy—better than he did.
Al Venter, the author of War Dog and other acclaimed titles, accompanied Nellis on some of these missions. “Occasionally we returned to base with holes in our fuselage,” Venter recounts, “though once it was self-inflicted: in his enthusiasm during an attack on one of the towns in the interior, a side-gunner onboard swung his heavy machine-gun a bit too wide and hit one of our drop tanks. Had it been full at the time, things might have been different.” The upshot was that over the course of a year of military operations, the two former Soviet helicopters operated for the Sierra Leone Air Wing by Nellis and his boys were patched more often than any other comparable pair of gun ships in Asia, Africa or Latin America. Nellis himself earned a price on his head: some reports spoke of a $1 million reward dead or alive while others doubled it.
This book describes the full career of this storied aerial warrior, from the bush and jungles of Africa to the forests of the Balkans and the merciless mountains of today’s Afghanistan. Along the way the reader encounters a multiethnic array of enemies ranging from ideological to cold-blooded to pure evil, as well as well as examples of incredible heroism for hire.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 19, 2012
About the author
Al J. Venter
55 books30 followersAlbertus Johannes Venter is a South African journalist and historian who is arguably the world's foremost expert on the modern military history of Africa. He has been a war correspondent/military affairs reporter for many publications, notably serving as African and Middle East correspondent for Jane's International Defence Review. He has also worked as a documentary filmmaker, and has authored more than forty books.
He has reported on a number of Africa’s bloodiest wars, starting with the Nigerian Civil War in 1965, where he spent time covering the conflict with colleague Frederick Forsyth, who was working in Biafra for the BBC at the time.
In the 1980’s, Al J Venter also reported in Uganda while under the reign of Idi Amin. The most notable consequence of this assignment was an hour-long documentary titled Africa’s Killing Fields, ultimately broadcast nationwide in the United States by Public Broadcasting Service.
In-between, he cumulatively spent several years reporting on events in the Middle East, fluctuating between Israel and a beleaguered Lebanon torn by factional Islamic/Christian violence. He was with the Israeli invasion force when they entered Beirut in 1982. From there he covered hostilities in Rhodesia, the Sudan, Angola, the South African Border War, the Congo as well as Portuguese Guinea, which resulted in a book on that colonial struggle published by the Munger Africana Library of the California Institute of Technology.
In 1985 he made a one-hour documentary that commemorated the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
He also spent time in Somalia with the US Army helicopter air wing in the early 1990s, three military assignments with the mercenary group Executive Outcomes (Angola and Sierra Leone) and a Joint-STAR mission with the United States Air Force over Kosovo.
More recently, Al Venter was active in Sierra Leone with South African mercenary pilot Neall Ellis flying combat in a Russian helicopter gunship (that leaked when it rained.) That experience formed the basis of the book on mercenaries published recently and titled War Dog: Fighting Other People's Wars.
He has been twice wounded in combat, once by a Soviet anti-tank mine in Angola, an event that left him partially deaf.
Al Venter originally qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers at the Baltic Exchange in London.
(from wikipedia)
He has reported on a number of Africa’s bloodiest wars, starting with the Nigerian Civil War in 1965, where he spent time covering the conflict with colleague Frederick Forsyth, who was working in Biafra for the BBC at the time.
In the 1980’s, Al J Venter also reported in Uganda while under the reign of Idi Amin. The most notable consequence of this assignment was an hour-long documentary titled Africa’s Killing Fields, ultimately broadcast nationwide in the United States by Public Broadcasting Service.
In-between, he cumulatively spent several years reporting on events in the Middle East, fluctuating between Israel and a beleaguered Lebanon torn by factional Islamic/Christian violence. He was with the Israeli invasion force when they entered Beirut in 1982. From there he covered hostilities in Rhodesia, the Sudan, Angola, the South African Border War, the Congo as well as Portuguese Guinea, which resulted in a book on that colonial struggle published by the Munger Africana Library of the California Institute of Technology.
In 1985 he made a one-hour documentary that commemorated the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
He also spent time in Somalia with the US Army helicopter air wing in the early 1990s, three military assignments with the mercenary group Executive Outcomes (Angola and Sierra Leone) and a Joint-STAR mission with the United States Air Force over Kosovo.
More recently, Al Venter was active in Sierra Leone with South African mercenary pilot Neall Ellis flying combat in a Russian helicopter gunship (that leaked when it rained.) That experience formed the basis of the book on mercenaries published recently and titled War Dog: Fighting Other People's Wars.
He has been twice wounded in combat, once by a Soviet anti-tank mine in Angola, an event that left him partially deaf.
Al Venter originally qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers at the Baltic Exchange in London.
(from wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 23, 2012
Neill Ellis, "Nellis," is a legendary combat helicopter pilot. This book outlines his story in detail.
This unassuming man almost single-handily beat back the Revolutionary United Front In Sierra Leone flying an MI-24 Hind gunship and an MI-8 utility helicopter and his exploits in that single war are worth a book in itself.
If you are interested in what really makes Africa tick, this book is for you.
This unassuming man almost single-handily beat back the Revolutionary United Front In Sierra Leone flying an MI-24 Hind gunship and an MI-8 utility helicopter and his exploits in that single war are worth a book in itself.
If you are interested in what really makes Africa tick, this book is for you.
September 30, 2019
This is a book you can pass up. Not a bad read but not a good one. All the activity blurs together after awhile. This copter pilot did a lot of transporting and extracting. Sometimes received groundfire, sometimes flew his chopper on gunship missions. Seeing as how he was an 'ace' I kept waiting for him to engage in air-to-air combat but it never happened. Then suddenly he was old enough to retire, but chose to keep on trucking. The end.
April 24, 2021
A very interesting account of Neall Ellis's life and career. A true legend of Mercenary soldiering in Africa. Most of the book was quite fast paced and well written. It gave quite a nuanced insight into exactly what was going on in Sierra Leone during the civil war. Glad I took the time to read it.
November 17, 2023
I enjoyed the stories, and the information was enlightening, but the format and the formatting could have been better.
More like 3.5 stars than 3. A nice biography about an accomplished pilot. Starting with a brief section on his growing up in Rhodesia and South Africa, all the way through his time in Afghanistan in the early 2010s, it covers a events through several decades of flying. I've never really read anything about the Rhodesian Bush War, nor the wars South Africa fought along its northern border, so it was interesting hearing about how those conflicts were prosecuted. I hadn't realized just how lopsided the casualty numbers were, nor that SA used so many Soviet helicopters.
I do wish a little more time had been spent on his most famous actions in Sierra Leone. Something I was surprised about, having never read anything regarding mercenary use, was the relatively short duration of the contracts for mercenaries. I was thinking that they would have signed up for several months, or even a year, at a time. But it appears most of the contracts he had were for just a few weeks, and then decide whether to re-up or leave.
The utter barbarity of the wars in Africa is likely a shock to many Americans. I'm sure there were even more atrocious acts than those mentioned, but those mentioned were horrific. Pregnant women having their babies cut from their bellies, then forced to boil and eat them? Ripping the arms and legs off someone before being gutted? Cutting hunks of flesh sliced off prisoners and then roasted and eaten in front of them? Those are not things that we have had to deal with in the civilized world for a long, long time.
The structural format of the eBook was somewhat confusing at times. There would be long stretches of quotes from NEllis surrounding events, told in first person. And then there would be sections also told in first person from the author about events as well. Sometimes there didn't seem to be a clear demarcation between who was telling the story.
The formatting of the pages themselves involved numerous punctuation errors (space between word and comma, no period at the end of a sentence, etc.) as well as the occasional word with a space in the middle of it. The British spellings of words was to be expected, but the occasional slang words that we don't use in the US I had to look up sometimes if I wasn't familiar with them.
More like 3.5 stars than 3. A nice biography about an accomplished pilot. Starting with a brief section on his growing up in Rhodesia and South Africa, all the way through his time in Afghanistan in the early 2010s, it covers a events through several decades of flying. I've never really read anything about the Rhodesian Bush War, nor the wars South Africa fought along its northern border, so it was interesting hearing about how those conflicts were prosecuted. I hadn't realized just how lopsided the casualty numbers were, nor that SA used so many Soviet helicopters.
I do wish a little more time had been spent on his most famous actions in Sierra Leone. Something I was surprised about, having never read anything regarding mercenary use, was the relatively short duration of the contracts for mercenaries. I was thinking that they would have signed up for several months, or even a year, at a time. But it appears most of the contracts he had were for just a few weeks, and then decide whether to re-up or leave.
The utter barbarity of the wars in Africa is likely a shock to many Americans. I'm sure there were even more atrocious acts than those mentioned, but those mentioned were horrific. Pregnant women having their babies cut from their bellies, then forced to boil and eat them? Ripping the arms and legs off someone before being gutted? Cutting hunks of flesh sliced off prisoners and then roasted and eaten in front of them? Those are not things that we have had to deal with in the civilized world for a long, long time.
The structural format of the eBook was somewhat confusing at times. There would be long stretches of quotes from NEllis surrounding events, told in first person. And then there would be sections also told in first person from the author about events as well. Sometimes there didn't seem to be a clear demarcation between who was telling the story.
The formatting of the pages themselves involved numerous punctuation errors (space between word and comma, no period at the end of a sentence, etc.) as well as the occasional word with a space in the middle of it. The British spellings of words was to be expected, but the occasional slang words that we don't use in the US I had to look up sometimes if I wasn't familiar with them.
May 21, 2023
The very interesting story of Neall Ellis as told by Al J Venter, both of whom are known to me. Al J Venter is a highly acclaimed African warfare author. Neall"s story is told as a biography; his childhood through the SAAF as a pilot who was engaged in combat sorties in northern Namibia and Angola to a Mercenary (Contract Pilot) flying as a combat chopper pilot in Sierre Leone and his non - combatant pilot in Afghanistan. For those interested in helicopter ops this will be a fascinating read and is highly recommended.
June 28, 2020
Pretty good read. Provides a good overview of the gunship tactics during the Angola Border War, and for most of the book deals with Ellis's role as a mercenary in various countries. Mostly insightful, sometimes more so about the mercenary scene and the challenges of operating in the respective countries than anything else. Slows down towards the end with some forgettable sections, but I enjoyed most of it.
August 11, 2017
Picked this book, as research material, for my own books. I think a helicooter aficando or a pilot would enjoy this book more than I did It did provide me a decent insight into the operations of helicopters in the mercenary world and in armed conflicts. Some gruesome description of the excesses of the RUF.
August 2, 2024
Super fascinating life and stories; I'd say 70% is heavy military verbiage and African history, 30% is 'war' stories. I don't have the military background to fully appreciate those aspects which is why I gave it four stars, but the battle and in the trench stories were incredible.
October 3, 2012
Mostly a jumbled together collection of war stories. The narration of the book jumps between Al Venter's third person and Neall Ellis's first person, which becomes difficult to follow. Events are somewhat out of order too. At one point they jump to a story about parts availability problems for their Hind before they even acquire the helicopter in the narration.
One last point: The term "ace" means one who has achieved 5 air-to-air victories. To the best of my knowledge there was no helicopter-on-helicopter action described in this book.
One last point: The term "ace" means one who has achieved 5 air-to-air victories. To the best of my knowledge there was no helicopter-on-helicopter action described in this book.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews