"Mad Jack" Churchill can be seen on the right, sword in hand, leading the charge
Captain “Mad Jack” Churchill – the only man known to have killed an enemy in WWII with a long bow. Seriously, do I need to follow that up with anything?
Fine. How about a bit of a bio…
Jack Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill was an Englishman born in Hong Kong (1906) who appears to have wished himself Scottish. A life-long soldier, he spent peacetime years bored and mastering the bagpipes.
As soon as Germany invaded Poland and the Second World War was started proper, Churchill enlisted immediately. His eccentricity manifested itself again with his insistence that he always carry a sword, bow and arrows with him into combat. Famously, he once remarked that “any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed”.
When England put out a call for commandos, Churchill signed on despite not knowing what commandos were. It sounded dangerous and he had heard there would be action — that was good enough for him.
Among his exploits were such scenes as playing the bagpipes from the lead boat landing at a German position in Norway (prior to leading the attack, of course); escaping from a concentration camp, and being the only known soldier to kill an enemy combatant with a bow.
Of particular note in Churchill’s WWII career is one particular raid that took place in 1943. With the assistance of one rifleman (that’s a total of two soldiers for those of you doing the math), Churchill managed to capture 42 prisoners and a mortar squad during the course of one night, walking them out of town the next morning.
When the war in Europe was nearly done, he asked to be redeployed to the Pacific. By the time he arrived, however, the war was over. A soldier through and through, Churchill was not pleased with the end of the war. He is said to have complained: “If it wasn’t for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years!”
(Lengthier articles about “Mad Jack” Churchill can be found at Damn Interesting and Wikipedia.)
New hero? Found.