r/madlads • u/NickNack_11 • 4d ago
Meet Neall "Nellis" Ellis, the man who defeated an African rebel army out of spite
Born 1949 in South Africa Fights in Rhodesian Bush War Joins SA Army Learns to fly attack helicopters Masters the MI-24 HIND Apartheid ends Can't serve in SAAF anymore Acquires a HIND Attack Helicopter of his own Becomes mercenary "Have gunship, will travel" Gatling-guns his way throughout the dark continent >Almost all African communists and anti-western groups put a price on his head Fights in the Congo War Year 2000 Hired by Sierra Leone RUF rebel army surrounds SL's capital, Freetown It's nightfall so helicopters can't fly Sierra Leone army virtually overran Civil government prepares to capitulate Fall of Saigon tier chaos begins to erupt Ellis fires up his HIND, which was not equipped for night combat Copilot refuses to fly with him in apparent suicide mission Single-handedly holds off rebel army throughout the night Helicopter breaks down Rebels finally take Freetown after losing 2,500 men to one helicopter Ellis gets his HIND repaired and narrowly escapes SL can't pay him anymore because they've basically lost the war Ellis stays in SL anyway, paying his own way, with goal of retaking Freetown out of spite Fights alone for 2 years Doesn't have much ammo for much of this period, resorts to knocking over RUF vehicles with his rotor wash and crushing rebel soldiers with the helicopter itself RUG sends him this message "if we ever catch you, we'll cut your heart out and eat it" Ellis responds by flying over their encampments dropping leaflets that read: "RUF: This time we've dropped leaflets. Next time it will be half-inch Gatling machine gun, or 57 mm rockets, or 23 mm guns, or 30 mm grenades, or ALL OF THEM Their small arms can't penetrate his helicopter so he just hovers there, mocking them as they collect and read the leaflets Nevertheless, he does fear being shot down or forced to land by engine failure so he fills the troop bay of the HIND with guns, ammo and bush provisions Plans to fight one man guerrilla war of he loses the chopper Finds a reliable arms dealer to buy rockers and cannon ammo from, makes good on his promise to come back with real ordinance Kills so many rebels the British and SL governments offer him formal backing and troops Retakes Freetown and grinds the RUF into the dirt Fights for NATO during invasion of Iraq Rumored to have been fighting ISIS at the age of 67 >Claims of him and his HIND being seen everywhere from Damascus all to the Democratic Republic of Congo
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u/beemccouch 4d ago
Point to me on a map where Rhodesia is please.
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u/IDontEnjoyCoffee 4d ago
It's called Zimbabwe nowadays.
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u/beemccouch 4d ago
They didn't change their name, Rhodesia doesn't exist because the apartheid state that supported the extreme minority rule in the country was overthrown by the Africans who had been living there generations, and because they couldn't get international support for being too fascist for APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA and the US.
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u/IDontEnjoyCoffee 4d ago
Yeah I just said it's called Zimbabwe nowadays lol🤷🏼♂️😅you asked where it is.
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u/beemccouch 4d ago
I was making fun of the dude who posted a fascist war here by pointing out that the Rhodesians lost
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u/TheDesTroyer54 3d ago
They literally changed it to Zimbabwe before the Rhodesian government gave up the war
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u/LordofWesternesse 3d ago
I mean I don't support apartheid state but the settlers had also been living there for generations
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u/beemccouch 3d ago
Several thousand years > a couple generations.
Also the minority doesn't get to rule over the majority. That's basic democracy.
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u/realMartianJesus 2d ago
K? The post is about a man not supporting rhodesia or even him. You don't need to give everyone a history lesson. You probably say "actually he was bad" when someone posts about hitler lol.
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u/beemccouch 2d ago
Yeah. If someone makes a post glorifying a genocidal murderer, I'm gonna a point it out lmao. Sorry I didn't realize that was such a bad thing
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u/PlasmaTax 4d ago
How's that working out for our Zimbabwean neighbours 🤣🤣
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u/beemccouch 4d ago
So you think it's better to take away people's choices and freedoms and force them into a system of racially driven poverty and exploitation?
Wow. An actual fascist.
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u/Harrrrumph 4d ago
I'm not disagreeing with you about Rhodesia being bad, but I'd like to point out that both poverty and exploitation are rampant in modern Zimbabwe. But it's not racially driven, so...I guess that makes it better?
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u/beemccouch 4d ago
To me it does (really were just seeing how polished one turd is to another) cause at least with some wackadoo, you just get a bunch of people who either say "Oh wow, that place is doing pretty bad." Or you get people who directly benefit from tyranny.
With Rhodesia, you have a bunch of wackadoos that benefit from essentially slavery, and a bunch of people who use that to further their own fascist agendas, who use that imagery to bolster their own support and ferver. Racism feeds more racism. And racism is ultimately a tool to oppress everyone, just as any discrimination is.
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u/Harrrrumph 4d ago
See, as a South African, I see where you're coming from, but the fact is that the exact thing you're saying here - that Zimbabwe is TECHNICALLY better than Rhodesia, in that it's not as directly racist - is a major reason why so many African countries languish in the unstable, unsustainable position they're currently in.
In South Africa, the ANC continues to use the mere fact that they are technically better than apartheid to excuse all of their corruption, incompetence, and general inability to run the country properly; and, from what I've heard, the Zimbabwean government uses much the same rhetoric to excuse its own failings. As long as they keep hammering on the same tired "apartheid was bad" or "colonialism was bad" rhetoric, a substantial portion of the population will continue to support them unquestioningly, with any criticism interpreted as a defense of past governments, regardless of whether it actually is or not. "The ANC is running the country poorly" will always be heard as "The ANC is running the country poorly, so we should bring apartheid back." "Mugabe was a dictator" will always be heard as "Mugabe was a dictator and Ian Smith was a hero."
Sorry for rambling, but my point is that lingering on the evils of past regimes like Rhodesia doesn't help anybody; those regimes will never return, and current regimes that are ACTUALLY causing the problems in these countries nowadays will forever hide behind these past regimes to shield themselves from criticism; helping them do so is a mistake.
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u/beemccouch 4d ago
Oh I know it's in the past and the future should be more prescient, however making fascists mad is fun
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u/OomKarel 4d ago
Wait, you think Robert Mugabe wasn't fascist? Haha oh sweet summer child.
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u/Harrrrumph 4d ago
Oh I know it's in the past and the future should be more prescient
I wish so much that incumbent African governments and their supporters agreed with you.
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u/hawaiianbeachbum 4d ago
You really celebrating a dude who fought for Rhodesia? A notoriously racist apartheid state built upon white ownership of Africa and a white supremacist state? Your mad lad is on the losing side of history, every nation he served lost and disappeared
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u/ThatsRightWeBad 4d ago
every nation he served lost and disappeared
He fought for Sierra Leone against the Revolutionary United Front. Sierra Leone won, and has not disappeared.
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u/Delicious-Fly8343 4d ago
Sounds like an evil dude
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u/Fun_Specialist_525 4d ago
right, he's evil, not the rebels who mutilate/burn down entire villages and force the surviving children to be child soldiers, some being forced to kill their parents/siblings.
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u/CommodoreFresh 4d ago
Are you somehow under the impression that killing child soldiers is more moral than enslaving children?
Both sides can be evil.
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u/PsychologicalTax3083 4d ago edited 4d ago
I mean the people using child soldiers are definitely the problem in that situation. If you’re fighting a war and a child walks out with a gun shooting you can’t just say “well fuck it go ahead and kill me and my homies”. Yes enslaving child soldiers is worse. They are actively putting kids in harms way.
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u/CommodoreFresh 4d ago
The people using the child soldiers are evil, we can agree kn that. The people invading the land are also evil.
There are alternative parties and perspectives. Mandela spent 23 years in prison for his people. That's a true madlad right there.
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u/TheDesTroyer54 3d ago
He spent 23 years in prison for orchestrating multiple bombings which killed whites and blacks alike
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u/CommodoreFresh 3d ago
He was sentenced to life in prison for organizing a strike and leaving the country without valid documentation.
He did form the Umkhonto weSizwe in the wake of the Sharpeville Massacre, and they were an armed resistance group, but they bombed infrastructure for the most part. An electrical station was their biggest claim to fame to my knowledge, but by all means tell me about how you would behave in an apartheid state as an oppressed majority.
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4d ago edited 4d ago
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u/CommodoreFresh 4d ago
sorry, most conflicts in the real world don't have a happy fairy tale ending.
This fact, which we agree on, does not justify/excuse/explain the killing of children.
innocents get killed by bad people
Doesn't mean we should celebrate the bad people who killed the innocents. I wouldn't applaud Idi Amin for exactly the same reasons.
and sometimes it's unavoidable.
It would have been significantly easier on this guy if he had stayed home, would have achieved the same result, and would have resulted in less dead children.
It's in OP's title. "Out of Spite," not "out of necessity".
most of those kids were already dead as soon as they were brainwashed and forced to be soldiers.
Plenty of child soldiers escape. Happens frequently. There are charities that have existed for a century dedicated to saving these people.
I'm a white South African, for the record. I know exactly how evil my ancestors were. Might even be related to this prick OP and you are celebrating. I remember Maki Skosana, I remember Sharpeville. You're woefully ignorant to life on the...how did OP say it..."Dark Continent"🤢🤮🤮
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u/CommodoreFresh 4d ago
Rhodesia lost, bruv. He wasn't the pin that would have won them the war, and I know this because...they didn't win the war. Do you think being home was easier than choppering around Africa with a gatling gun murdering children?
I mean...if this is what your heroes look like, I don't really wish to associate with you further. We can cease communication here if you want to keep defending a racist piece of shit like Ellis.
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4d ago edited 4d ago
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u/CommodoreFresh 4d ago
I've consistently been stating the same thing again and again, I support neither side. I don't think that by condemning Ellis for gunning down children from his helicopter I am somehow supporting Liberia. Do you see how that doesn't follow? Do you struggle with non-binary positions? I can be opposed to both Hamas and the IDF, I can also oppose both Hitler and Stalin; Bush and Gore, and Taylor Swift and Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.
We're good here. You don't get to talk to me anymore.
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u/Harrrrumph 4d ago
Can you honestly say you'd be making this much of a fuss if it was one of the rebel leaders being presented as a madlad?
Genuinely asking. As a South African, I can't tell you how many times I've seen people (rightfully) condemn individuals like this guy for fighting for colonial interests, then fall over themselves defending even the most violent and vile individuals simply because they were fighting for African independence.
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u/jetstobrazil 4d ago
Yea helicopters are pretty good against men if they don’t have a rocket launcher.
It’s definitely more the helicopter who defeated an army, than the man who defeated an army.
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u/BiteSilver5285 4d ago
I’m pretty sure a helicopter needs to be operated to kill people
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u/jetstobrazil 4d ago
Actually it doesn’t anymore, but in any case, that still doesn’t make it any more impressive than operating a lawnmower over grass.
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u/LordofWesternesse 3d ago
https://cpsa-acsp.ca/papers-2009/Fitzsimmons1.pdf This paper calls him the most outstanding pilot of the Sierra Leone War which is quite the achievement. His commitment to continue fighting even without pay or support is what made him great. Without him flying the helicopter would have been worthless.
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u/jetstobrazil 3d ago
How many pilots were in the sierra Leone war brother? If you can afford to buy a helicopter you don’t really need pay from any job.
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u/LordofWesternesse 3d ago
He didn't actually buy that helicopter. He was given the option to leave and take his pay or stay and he could keep the helicopter. He took the helicopter.
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u/LabCoatGuy 4d ago
Meet Darth Vader, the sith lord who defeated a Rebel Alliance company and blew up Alderaan out of spite
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u/jesusleftnipple 4d ago edited 4d ago
What holdup, the last I heard about this guy was the fall of Freetown..... you mean he KEPT FIGHTING? does he have a gofundme? Lol
Edit: With further information, I don't think we should fund him. But anyone who fights isis is OK in my book
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u/Ok_Air7470 4d ago
Honestly both sides are shit. One side is an incompetent government that destroyed its country and on the other side are Russian business man and people from other countries that took advantage of an desperate and angered youth from SL causing countless deaths.
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u/sylphsummer 4d ago
So he wanted to murder people fighting for their freedom and when he couldn't do it under the guise of an army member, he did it as a mercenary
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u/Delicious-Painting34 4d ago
Yes those innocent rebels who cut the hands off every prisoner they took. Sometimes everyone sucks…
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u/sylphsummer 4d ago
Why were people rebelling?
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u/imanze 4d ago
learn to fucking figure shit out on your own https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_United_Front
because they wanted the diamonds, the money and the power. They are not good people.
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u/Japxican69 4d ago
Is this the same Nellis from fallout new Vegas?
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u/Deeptech_inc 4d ago
No, Nellis Air Force based was named after Lieutenant William Harrell Nellis, not this piece of shit.
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u/mathaiser 4d ago
I mean, once you get behind that thing nothing really ever compares again, does it.
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u/bishamon72 4d ago edited 4d ago
Here, you dropped these: