Archer's Profile: The Last Warbow Archer

The last Warbow Archer

By Nils Visser

Sometimes one runs into a story that seems to contain so much poppycock, that you know the story simply has to be true. No writer would be brave enough to make up the plot elements, simply because no one would believe it. Such is the tale of Captain Jack Churchill.

Jack Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill (not related to Winston) was born in 1906 and became famous in the Second World War because of the utter fearlessness with which he entered battle as well as his rather unorthodox kit.

The first honourable mention for said kit is merited by his bagpipe. Of course, this isn’t an unknown item in the British Armed Forces, being used to this day by Scottish units. We have all seen them in the fifties and sixties World War 2 epics, fearless Highland pipers piping their way through a hail of bullets on beach, in woods, on fields and hills, the enemy fleeing, either totally intimidated by the courage of the pipers, or else frightened witless by the Celtic cauterwauling heading their way. But Jack was an Englishman, not a Scot, and he wasn’t half bad at playing the bagpipe. In 1938 he managed to come in second place at a competition for officers at Aldershot. He was the only Englishman amongst the 70 or so other contestants.

Jack’s love for the bagpipe meant that he couldn’t quite grasp that others did not always share his passion, which meant there was little to stop him when he decided to practice in the barracks at odd times. Who, after all, doesn’t appreciate a few jaunty gigs at three o’clock in the morning? He also took his instrument with him when he went to war, playing tunes when his commando unit landed on beaches in Norway, Italy and Yugoslavia. This reached a climax in Yugoslavia in May 1944. Jack’s commando unit had been surrounded on a hilltop on the island of Vis. The few survivors, half of them wounded, had just beaten off a German attack, and as the German soldiers pulled back to regroup, Jack played Will ye no come back again? That the Germans did, and Jack was taken prisoner. Because it was assumed he was related to Winston Churchill, he was flown to Berlin for interrogation. By the by, Jack has always denied having anything to do with the fire that broke out on his plane after landing in Berlin. He assumed that the pile of smoldering newspapers was related to one of the German officers who had been smoking during the flight. Naturally, Jack managed to escape from the Niederdorf prison camp, was recaptured, and then escaped again, after which he walked 150 miles southwards until he ran into an American tank unit in Italy.

The second piece of Jack’s equipment was his sword, a Scottish Claybeg, not quite a Claymore which is larger, but an imposing weapon none-the-less. According to Jack: “….any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed.” It’s possible to conclude that the enemy were duly impressed by Jack’s blade as well. During the landings at Salerno in 1943, Jack entered the town of Piegoletti at night, accompanied only by Corporal Ruffel, and armed only with his Claybeg. Jack approached the enemy sentries one by one, shouted “Haende hoch!” and waved his sword about a bit, Ruffel guarded the prisoners. Jack and Ruffel returned with 42 prisoners-of-war. Jack said this wasn’t entirely due to his sword. “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’ and get on with it enthusiastically and efficiently whatever the … situation. That’s why they make such marvelous soldiers...”

Jack’s last remarkable piece of equipment was his Longbow. Jack had taught himself the art of archery before the war, and represented Great Britain at the World Championships in Oslo in 1939. At the outbreak of the war, Jack had ordered a Warbow at Purle’s in London, an 85Lbs Selfbow, made from Spanish Yew. He had also purchased hunting arrows, with aluminum broadheads, and had two spare steel bows as well.

When the British Expeditionary Force was sent to Europe at the onset of the war, Jack marched with his old Manchester Regiment, armed with his bows and arrows. When the BEF was driven to the coast by the Blitzkrieg, Jack offered determined resistance. One of his colleagues said “One of the most reassuring sights of the embarkation [from Dunkirk] was the sight of Captain Churchill passing down the beach with his bows and arrows.” Another officer recalls that Jack used to get around on a motorcycle (another one of Jack’s hobbies), with the sword and bows tied to the side of the motorcycle, the arrows in quivers behind the saddle, and a trophy German Officer’s cap atop the headlamp.

In May 1940, in the village of l’Epinette, Jack and some of his men approached a German post. Jack started shooting with his Warbow and killed at least one of the Germans, his men opened fire with their rifles and all five Germans ended up dead. We don’t know what the Germans made of various casualties with arrows sticking in them, though it was bound to have caused some surprise. We do know that Jack attached value to his expensive broadheads, on several occasions he came under fire as he tried to retrieve his arrows from the fallen foe, a touch of archery most of us will recognize, though fortunately have not had to do under enemy fire.

Jack Churchill went down into history as the last English soldier to fight with the Longbow, about 350 years after Britain stopped issuing them as standard gear. He also earned the nickname "Mad Jack". By the way, Jack survived the war. He attained his parachute wings at the tender age of 40, served in Palestine, and learned to surf while stationed in Australia as an instructor. He retired in 1959, and died a peaceful death in 1996 at the age of 90.

Sources:

Jack Churchill: Unlimited Boldness, by Robert "Rex" King-Clark, Fleur-de-Lys Publishers (January 1997).

Fighting Jack Churchill survived a wartime odyssey beyond compare, by Robert Barr Smith, World War II History Magazine, Sovereign Media (2005).