In the bellicose May 1940, while Winston Churchill assumed the role of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, another Churchill, equally intrepid and daring, found himself on the battlefield in France. John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill, known as Jackcommanded an Infantry group with the mission of defending the small town of L’Epinette.
It was on this stage where he performed one of his most memorable feats: He sneaked up to a barn and, from 30 meters away, pierced a German sergeant with an arrow., starting a fierce battle that culminated in the victory of his men. This performance, in addition to being a preamble to his legend, gave the first signs of his skill as an archer and his indomitable spirit.
Born on September 16, 1906 in Colombo, British Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Jack was the son of Alec Fleming Churchill and Elinor Elizabeth. His father, an engineer, was an official in the colonial administration. Jack’s education took place at King William’s College, on the Isle of Man, and he then graduated from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in 1926.
His first assignment as a soldier was in Burmawith the Manchester Regiment, where he developed a passion for motorcycles that led him to tour the Indian subcontinent in his spare time.
He did not have, at the beginning, a distinguished military career. In fact, his biographer, Rex King-Clark, states that he lacked the concentration required to advance through the military ranks. He says, for example, that he used to play the bagpipes at odd hours and that, on one occasion, when training for an exam that would test his knowledge of military campaigns, he focused on a different campaign than the one he had to study.
So in 1936 Jack left the Army. and embarked on other projects: editing a newspaper in Nairobi, Kenya, and trying his luck as a male model. Because of his talent with the bow and the bagpipes he got small roles in films like A Yankee in Oxford (1938), The Thief of Baghdad (1940) e Ivanhoe (1952). In addition, he was a representative of Great Britain at the World Archery Championships, held in Oslo in 1939.
Jack decided to arm himself with a medieval-style Spanish yew wood bow, which he had bought for £100.
Return to weapons
That year, the year of the outbreak of World War II, marked a turning point in Jack’s career. He re-enlisted in the British Army and, rather than settle for standard equipment, Jack decided to arm himself with a medieval-style Spanish yew wood bow, which he had bought in London for 100 pounds.
In addition to the sword, Churchill considered his bagpipes and bow and arrows essential before entering any battle. This is how the legend of “Crazy Jack” or “The Fighting Jack Churchill” began to be forged.
At the end of 1939, frustrated by the inactivity of the Allied troops on the Maginot Line, he decided to take the initiative. Armed with his bow and arrows, he crept up to the Nazi trenches and firedcausing confusion and terror among enemy soldiers.
In May 1940, his bravery was again tested at the Battle of Dunkirk. As the Allied troops retreated under heavy enemy fire, Jack marched along the beach with his bow and arrows and thus managed to motivate his companions with his audacity.. His actions during the evacuation were recorded in the war diary of the Fourth Infantry Brigade, which highlighted his courage and leadership abilities.
But his exploits were not limited to France, and in December 1941 he led a daring raid on Nazi garrisons, warehouses and fish oil factories in Vågsøy, Norway, as part of Operation Archery.
Sir John Hammerton, in his voluminous History of the Second World War, noted that, upon disembarking, Churchill jumped from the boat and, just before throwing a grenade at enemy positions, played his bagpipes. March of the Cameron Menthe famous song celebrating the exploits of one of Scotland’s oldest and most respected clans. For his actions at Dunkirk and Vågsøy, Jack was awarded the Military Cross, one of the British Army’s highest awards.
He managed to escape from a concentration camp, but after 14 days he was recaptured.
The fearless warrior
Jack’s legend reached its zenith in 1943, during the night attack on the Italian town of Piegoletti. Shouting “Commando!”, he intimidated and captured 136 German soldiers, infiltrating enemy camp and silently neutralizing guard posts with his sword. For these reasons, he received a new decoration and thus ended up solidifying his reputation as a fearless warrior.
However, his upward path had moments of less intensity, as occurred in 1944 during an operation in Yugoslavia, in which he was isolated with six of his men. His luck ran out when the sound of his bagpipe was drowned out by a grenade explosion that caused him severe injuries, and when he was captured by the Nazis, who sent him to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
There, amid suffering and deprivation, he met prisoners who had participated in a famous escape and together they planned an escape. Together they dug a tunnel and managed to escape. But Jack’s luck continued to be bad and he ended up recaptured after 14 days.
Despite Adolf Hitler’s orders to execute all prisoners, a Nazi captain refused to do so and this allowed Jack to survive and continue his fight, although he only achieved his freedom after the war ended.
In 1959, Jack retired from the Army, but he never abandoned his eccentricity and passion for adventure.: he was a parachutist; He surprised train passengers by throwing his briefcase out the window so he wouldn’t have to carry it from the station to his house; He sailed coal-powered ships on the River Thames and made models of remote-controlled warships.
In his later years, Jack took up gardening and bowfishing, a skill he had honed during his time in the Army. Known for his sense of humor, he used to say that “Any officer who does not carry a sword while on duty is poorly dressed.”. This philosophy of life, which combined tradition with modernity, perfectly concentrated the vigor of Jack Churchill: a man out of his time, but always prepared for any battle of the time.
There is an anecdote that on the occasion of a military exercise in Scotland, Jack appeared on the top of a hill, with contagious joy, dressed in a kilt and playing the bagpipes. His form of leadership was surprising because he always showed the same determination and bravery that he had shown on the battlefields of Europe.
The life of this 20th century character, marked by bravery and eccentricity, came to an end on March 8, 1996, in Surrey, at the age of 89. Not because one of his most ingenious and most important sentences is the one that says that they are less likely to shoot you “if you give them a smile.”
The creative genius of Jack Churchill resonates with relevance today, as a reminder that creativity can shine brightly, even in the darkest, confinement and unrest moments.