![]() ![]() ![]() Mad Jack led one group up one hill, but only six of them managed to reach the target. In May 1944, a bigger operation was planned involving three attacks on separate hilltop positions. Next, Churchill was sent off to Yugoslavia where he led a series of raids against the Germans from the island of Vis. I maintain that, as long as you tell a German loudly and clearly what to do, if you are senior to him he will cry ‘jawohl’ (yes sir) and get on with it enthusiastically and efficiently whatever the situation. This was inline with his philosophy on fighting the Germans, which he described after capturing the 42: Churchill took 42 prisoners that night with the help of just one other companion and his trusty sword. He leapt out at German sentries from the darkness, blade held high, and the Germans were so frightened by the “demon” that they surrendered. Churchill went ahead of his soldiers wielding his sword. At the time, Mad Jack was a commanding officer in Salerno when his troops were forced into line fighting-something for which they hadn’t been trained. His sword also served him well later, in 1943. On the vessel bearing him to shore, Churchill stood at the front playing his bagpipes to the tune of “The March of the Cameron Men.” When they landed, he charged ahead of the rest of his men with his sword in hand. In the battle, he and his companies were in charge of taking out the German batteries on Maaloy Island. In 1941, Mad Jack volunteered for Operation Archery, an attack on a German garrison in Norway, in which he led two companies during the battle no word on whether or not he was able to use his bow in the aptly named operation. A German officer’s cap was hanging on the headlight. He was later seen chugging along on a motorcycle with his bow strapped to the side. During the 1940 Battle of Dunkirk-in which 300,000 troops became stranded on beaches and had to be evacuated-Churchill struck down a German soldier with a well-placed arrow. His medieval weaponry wasn’t just for decoration, either. Despite these weapons being wildly outdated, Churchill defended them, saying, “In my opinion…any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed.” He always marched into battle with a bow and arrows and his trusty basket-hilted claymore by his side. Mad Jack had left the army after ten years of service, but happily returned to it because of the “country having gotten into a jam in my absence.”īy May 1940, Mad Jack was the second in command of an infantry company. That same talent with archery took him to Oslo, Norway where he shot for Britain during the world championships in 1939.īy this time, of course, Europe was fast approaching World War II. ![]() Before his World War II fame, Mad Jack worked as an editor of a Nairobi newspaper, a model, and a movie extra, appearing in The Thief of Bagdad due to his expertise with a bow. However, for John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill, nicknamed “Mad Jack,” there was nothing he’d rather arm himself with than a trusty sword and bow.īorn into an old Oxfordshire family, he graduated from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in 1926. ![]() A sword isn’t the most likely of defences against rifles and tanks. But when it comes to World War II, such medieval weaponry looks like child’s play next to the technology of the time. Running into battle armed with a broadsword, bow, and quiver of arrows was perfectly acceptable if you were fighting in the Hundred Years’ War or fending off some orcs on Middle Earth. Churchill Storming the Beach, Sword in Hand ![]()
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