Once a Hussar
A Memoir of Battle, Capture, and Escape in World War II
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Once a Hussar
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Narrated by:
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Derek Perkins
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By:
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Ray Ellis
About this listen
Once a Hussar is a vivid account of the wartime experiences of Ray Ellis, a gunner who in later life recorded this well-written, candid, and perceptive memoir of the conflict he knew as a young man seventy years ago.
As an impressionable teenager, filled 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.
His story is an honest and moving memoir that relays graphic eyewitness accounts of the horrors of warfare, but it also reveals the surprising triumphs of the human spirit in times of great hardship. Ellis's self-deprecating humor skillfully counters the harsh realities related in a personal recollection of a war that claimed so many young lives. Once a Hussar is a compelling and deftly told account of one soldier's life in the Second World War.
©2009, 2014 Ray Ellis (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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- By DAVIS J BEAM III on 03-28-18
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Blood and Soil
- The Memoir of a Third Reich Brandenburger
- By: Sepp de Giampietro, Lawrence Paterson - foreword, Eva Burke - translator
- Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
The Brandenburgers were Hitler's Special Forces, a band of mainly foreign German nationals who used disguise and fluency in other languages to complete daring missions into enemy territory. Overshadowed by stories of their Allied equivalents, their history has largely been ignored. First published in 1984, de Giampietro's highly-personal and eloquent memoir is a vivid account of his experiences. In astonishing detail, he delves into the reality of life in the unit from everyday concerns and politics to training and involvement in Brandenburg missions.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Memoir of a Liar and War Criminal? Perhaps.
- By Erik on 06-14-21
By: Sepp de Giampietro, and others
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Twilight of the Gods
- A Swedish Waffen-SS Volunteer's Experiences with the 11th SS-Panzergrenadier Division Nordland, Eastern Front 1944-45
- By: Thorolf Hillblad - editor
- Narrated by: Bruce Mann
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 284
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 248
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 247
Erik Wallin served with his unit in all of these locations, and provides the listener with a fascinating glimpse into these final battles. The book is written with a "no holds barred" approach which will captivate, excite, and maybe even shock the listener - his recollections do not evade the brutality of fighting against the advancing Red Army. Twilight of the Gods is destined to become a classic memoir of the Second World War.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A truly unique look at the Eastern Front from a devout Nazi.
- By S. H. Moore on 11-21-19
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By Tank into Normandy
- By: Stuart Hills, Lord Deedes - foreword
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 27
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
Stuart Hills embarked his Sherman DD tank on to an LCT at 6:45 a.m., Sunday, June 4th, 1944. He was 20 years old, un-blooded, fresh from a public-school background, and officer cadet training. He was going to war. Two days later, his tank sunk; he and his crew landed from a rubber dinghy with just the clothes they stood in. After that, the struggles through the Normandy bocage in a replacement tank, engaging the enemy in a constant round of close encounters, led to a swift mastering of the art of tank warfare and remarkable survival in the midst of carnage and destruction.
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5 out of 5 stars
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First “The Big Show” now this?!
- By S. H. Moore on 05-19-21
By: Stuart Hills, and others
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Facing the Mountain
- A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II
- By: Daniel James Brown
- Narrated by: Louis Ozawa
- Length: 17 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,354
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,203
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,194
In the days and months after Pearl Harbor, the lives of Japanese Americans across the continent and Hawaii were changed forever. In this unforgettable chronicle of war-time America and the battlefields of Europe, Daniel James Brown portrays the journey of Rudy Tokiwa, Fred Shiosaki, and Kats Miho, who volunteered for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and were deployed to France, Germany, and Italy, where they were asked to do the near impossible. Brown also tells the story of these soldiers' parents, immigrants who were forced to submit to life in concentration camps on U.S. soil.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wow
- By Tbone McCoy on 06-13-21
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Red Road from Stalingrad
- Recollections of a Soviet Infantryman
- By: Mansur Abdulin
- Narrated by: Alex Hyde-White
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 82
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 72
Mansur Abdulin fought in the front ranks of the Soviet infantry against the German invaders at Stalingrad, Kursk, and on the banks of the Dnieper. This is his extraordinary story. His vivid firsthand account of a ruthless war on the Eastern Front gives rare insight into the reality of the fighting and into the tactics and mentality of the Red Army's soldiers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Memoir of a Soviet soldier fighting the Nazis
- By Ladybug on 09-16-21
By: Mansur Abdulin
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We Will Not Go to Tuapse
- From the Donets to the Oder with the Legion Wallonie and 5th SS Volunteer Assault Brigade ‘Wallonien’ 1942-45
- By: Fernand Kaisergruber
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 18 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 103
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 97
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Story4 out of 5 stars 97
Until recent years, very little was known of the tens of thousands of foreign nationals from Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, and Spain who served voluntarily in the military formations of the German army and the German Waffen-SS. In Kaisergruber's book, the listener discovers important issues of collaboration, the apparent contributions of the volunteers to the German war effort, their varied experiences, their motives, the attitude of the German High Command and bureaucracy, and the reaction to these in the occupied countries.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Why did it end at Cherkassy?
- By DAVIS J BEAM III on 03-28-18
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Storm of Steel
- By: Ernst Jünger
- Narrated by: Frasier Mackenzie
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 109
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 92
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Story5 out of 5 stars 93
Ernst Jünger was a famous German soldier who saw action during World War I. He is best known for his memoirs Storm of Steel, which chronicle his experiences during World War I.
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5 out of 5 stars
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great book
- By Amazon Customer on 12-28-20
By: Ernst Jünger
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Swansong 1945
- A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich
- By: Walter Kempowski, Shaun Whiteside - translator
- Narrated by: Eric G. Dove, Christine Williams
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4 out of 5 stars 54
Swansong 1945 chronicles the end of Nazi Germany and World War II in Europe through hundreds of letters, diaries, and autobiographical accounts covering four days that fateful spring: Hitler's birthday on April 20, American and Soviet troops meeting at the Elbe on April 25, Hitler's suicide on April 30, and finally the German surrender on May 8.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Important, Tragic, Poignant...
- By Amazon Customer on 07-31-15
By: Walter Kempowski, and others
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Congo Mercenary
- By: Mike Hoare
- Narrated by: Mike Hoare
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 262
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 221
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 217
Col. Mike Hoare tells how his force of mercenaries, 5 Commando, put down a Comunist-backed rebel uprising in the Congo. As they restored law and order, town by town, he and his men freed 1800 nuns and priests. His men also learned what it means to be real soldiers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Nice to hear an unapologetic account
- By S. H. Moore on 01-16-20
By: Mike Hoare
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Voices of the Foreign Legion
- The History of the World's Most Famous Fighting Corps
- By: Adrian D. Gilbert
- Narrated by: Eric Brooks
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 72
The French Foreign Legion has established a reputation as the most formidable of military forces. Created as a means of protecting French interests abroad, the legion spearheaded French colonialism in North Africa during the nineteenth century. Accepting volunteers from all parts of the world, the legion acquired an aura of mystery—and a less than enviable reputation for brutality within its ranks.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A good, if not amazing listen
- By Shaun on 03-06-13
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The Note Through the Wire
- The Incredible True Story of a Prisoner of War and a Resistance Heroine
- By: Doug Gold
- Narrated by: Conrad Coleby
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 44
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
In the heart of Nazi-occupied Europe, two people meet fleetingly in a chance encounter. One an underground resistance fighter, a bold young woman determined to vanquish the enemy occupiers; the other a prisoner of war, a man longing to escape the confines of the camp so he can battle again. A crumpled note passes between these two strangers, slipped through the wire of the compound, and sets them on a course that will change their lives forever.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Such devotion
- By smilin29 on 01-01-24
By: Doug Gold
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Homage to Catalonia
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,848
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,577
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,563
In 1936, George Orwell went to Spain to report on the civil war and instead joined the P.O.U.M. militia to fight against the Fascists. In this now justly famous account of his experience, he describes both the bleak and the comic aspects of trench warfare on the Aragon front, the Barcelona uprising in May 1937, his nearly fatal wounding just two weeks later, and his escape from Barcelona into France after the P.O.U.M. was suppressed.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Excellent book, marred by narration
- By Kirby on 02-02-13
By: George Orwell
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Tobruk
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
- Length: 23 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 488
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 365
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 365
In the early days of April 1941, the 14,000 Australian forces garrisoned in the Libyan town of Tobruk were told to expect reinforcements and supplies within eight weeks... Eight months later these heroic, gallant, determined 'Rats of Tobruk' were rescued by the British Navy having held the fort against the might of Rommel's never-before defeated Afrika Corps.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fair dinkum
- By J B Tipton on 11-22-08
By: Peter FitzSimons
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The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz
- A True Story of World War II
- By: Denis Avey, Rob Broomby
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 149
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 127
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 127
The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz is the extraordinary true story of a British soldier who marched willingly into the notorious concentration camp, Buna-Monowitz, known as Auschwitz III. In the summer of 1944, Denis Avey was being held in a British POW labor camp, E715, near the site of Auschwitz III. He had heard of the brutality meted out to the prisoners there and he was determined to witness what he could.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great, great story
- By Anonymous User on 08-12-11
By: Denis Avey, and others
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Gallipoli 1915
- By: Joseph Murray
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hamilton
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 44
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
The Gallipoli Campaign stands out as a landmark in the history of the First World War, and it was perhaps the most controversial action; it certainly ended in tragedy. Joseph Murray was among the 400,000 British and Commonwealth troops taking part, and he served as a naval rating turned soldier in Hood Battalion of the Royal Naval Division. Gallipoli 1915 is based on a diary he kept at the time and his later letters home.
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5 out of 5 stars
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First hand experience from solider
- By Mike on 12-24-22
By: Joseph Murray
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Panzer Ace
- The Memoirs of an Iron Cross Panzer Commander from Barbarossa to Normandy
- By: Richard Freiherr von Rosen, Robert Forczyk
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 810
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 724
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 714
Richard Freiherr von Rosen was a highly decorated Wehrmacht soldier and outstanding panzer commander. After serving as a gunlayer on a Pz.Mk.III during Barbarossa, he led a company of Tigers at Kursk. Later he led a company of King Tiger panzers at Normandy and in late 1944 commanded a battle group (12 King Tigers and a flak company) against the Russians in Hungary in the rank of junior, later senior lieutenant (from November 1944, his final rank). Only 489 of these King Tiger tanks were ever built.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not what I expected
- By Gabriel on 01-04-19
By: Richard Freiherr von Rosen, and others
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Breaker Morant
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Cameron Goodall
- Length: 23 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story5 out of 5 stars 46
Most Australians have heard of the Boer War of 1899 to 1902 and of Harry 'Breaker' Morant, a figure who rivals Ned Kelly as an archetypal Australian folk hero. Born in England and emigrating to Queensland in 1883 in his early 20s, Morant was a charming but reckless man who established a reputation as a rider, polo player and writer. He submitted ballads to The Bulletin that were published under the name 'The Breaker' and counted Banjo Paterson as a friend.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Horrors of war
- By David R. on 04-15-21
By: Peter FitzSimons
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Killing Zone
- By: Harry McCallion
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 93
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 85
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Story5 out of 5 stars 84
Born ‘a ragged-arsed kid from the backstreets of Glasgow’, McCallion joined the Paras to escape a miserable home life and find the family he longed for. After six tense tours in Ulster, McCallion gave up everything to move to South Africa in the hope of qualifying for the highly elite South African Special Forces. Having succeeded in joining the Recces, McCallion was involved in plots to assassinate Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo.
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5 out of 5 stars
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What a Life
- By J.Brock on 10-01-21
By: Harry McCallion
What listeners say about Once a Hussar
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- S. H. Moore
- 04-07-22
Very well written personal memoir.
This man saw some ferocious fighting. If you often wonder if an artillery job was relatively safe, read this book. As this book found it’s legs I was drawn more and more deeply into just how much this man went through. He does not glorify or humble-brag at all he just tells you like it was. In fact he goes out of his way to remind and inform the listener that he is just relating his experience in one tiny corner of a big battle in a huge war, he never looses perspective. Just ordered a hardcover for my collection. Seriously, very good.
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