Read a Thrilling Excerpt from Paul Kirchner's New Book, More of the Deadliest Men Who Ever Lived!

Over the next few weeks, Paladin will be presenting several excerpts from Paul Kirchner's new book, More of the Deadliest Men Who Ever Lived, a follow-up to his best-selling The Deadliest Men (Paladin Press, 2001). In this exciting new book Kirchner profiles more than three dozen deadly men and women.

The first in our series is “Mad Jack” Churchill, a colorful and adventurous British military officer who stormed beaches while playing the bagpipes, who took 42 Germans prisoner at swordpoint, and who may remain the last soldier in a European army to kill an enemy with a longbow.

“Mad Jack” Churchill (1906-1996).

Born September 16, 1906, into a family of distinguished pedigree, Churchill attended Britain’s Sandhurst military academy, receiving his commission in 1926. He served in India and Burma for the next six years. An avid motorcyclist, he decided to ride his Zenith 1,500 miles from Poona to Calcutta. There were no roads through much of Burma, so he followed the railway line. To cross rivers on the railroad bridges, he had to steer the motorcycle by hand along one rail, while carefully stepping from one crosstie to the next; there was nothing between them. The trip was briefly interrupted near Indore, in central India, when he collided with a water buffalo, but after the necessary repairs were made he was able to complete the journey.

It was during this period, while staying with the Cameron Highlanders, that Churchill learned to play the bagpipes. In 1938 he won second place in a military piping championship. He also trained himself as an archer and qualified as a member of the British team at the World Archery Championships in Oslo in 1939. War was brewing when he returned from this event. Between September 1939 and May 1940—the so-called “phony war”—Churchill served in the British Expeditionary Forces with the 2nd Manchesters. Before embarking, he had Purle of London make him an 85-pound bow of Spanish yew and a quantity of broadhead aluminum hunting arrows. The arrows were expensive, and the money came out of Churchill’s pocket, as it had been several hundred years since the War Office had taken responsibility for archery supplies.

At the end of 1939, Churchill served a tour with the French army along the Maginot line. As Donald Featherstone put it in The Bowmen of England, “Frustrated by the official policy of not provoking the enemy, Captain Churchill decided on a symbolic gesture that he thought would not only give him great satisfaction but might also create a certain alarm, despondency, and bewilderment in the enemy lines.”1 On December 31, while on patrol in no-man’s land, he stealthily made his way to about 50 to 80 yards from the German positions and fired three arrows in quick succession. “There was a sudden commotion in the enemy’s position, and from the shouting and the confusion it sounded very much as if perhaps one of my broadheads had found a better mark than an inoffensive stag or bushbuck. Anyway, it is pleasant to think so.”

On May 27, 1940, Churchill was in command of a mixed force holding the village of L’Epinette against the German advance during the retreat to Dunkirk. From a vantage point in the loft of a small granary, he had a clear view of five Germans sheltering behind a wall some 30 yards away. Quietly summoning two infantrymen, he instructed them to wait until he had fired an arrow at the center man and then shoot the others. After taking careful aim, Churchill loosed a shaft, which struck the German in the left side of his chest, killing him, just as the others fell to rifle fire. Churchill ran to the body in the hope of retrieving his arrow, but it broke as he tried to pull it out. The enemy then opened fire from a nearby position, forcing Churchill to dive for cover and withdraw.

During the retreat from L’Epinette, Churchill continued to fire Parthian shots with his bow. For successfully extricating the remains of his company through the German lines at night, he was awarded the Military Cross.An old friend of Churchill’s, Rex King-Clark, also with the 2nd Manchesters, recalls seeing Churchill a day or two later, on his motorbike. His longbow was tied along the frame, and his arrows were stored in the baskets alongside the rear wheel. Over the headlight was hung a German officer’s cap he had taken as a souvenir at L’Epinette. The 4th Infantry Brigade diary covering the period of the Dunkirk evacuation notes, “One of the most reassuring sights on the embarkation was the sight of Captain Churchill passing down the beach with his bows and arrows! His actions in the Saar with his arrows are known to many.”

• • •

At the end of June 1940 a call went out for volunteers for the newly formed Commando units. Winston Churchill, no relation to Mad Jack Churchill, wanted a “butcher and bolt” raiding force to assault, disrupt, and reconnoiter the Germans in the occupied countries. “Jack was probably the first volunteer; this was just his cup of tea,” wrote King-Clark.

In training camps in Scotland, Commandos were trained in survival, land navigation, close quarter combat, silent killing, signaling, demolitions, and amphibious and cliff assaults. They learned to use every type of weapon they would be likely to encounter.

On December 27, 1941, Churchill led two Commando squads (or “troops” in British terminology) of 50 men each in an attack on Maaloy Island, near the mouth of Norway’s Nord Fjord, in what was called Operation Archery. If that was any reference to Churchill, it was passé, as he had retired his longbow in favor of a claymore sword. To a general who asked him about the blade, he explained, “In my opinion, sir, any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed.”

Churchill played “The March of the Cameron Men” on his bagpipes as his landing craft approached the shore. He was determined to be the first man into action. He was stowing his bagpipes when his boat touched land and two Commandos pushed past him, but he quickly leapt ashore and ran ahead, his sword in one hand and pistol in the other. The Commandos met only token resistance. However, while Churchill was celebrating their success with a case of Moselle he had found in the German commander’s hut, a demolition charge exploded nearby and broke the bottle in his hand, causing a piece of glass to gash his forehead. The wound was painful but not serious, and got him much sympathy when he returned home. Churchill later claimed to King-Clark that it began healing too quickly and had to be touched up with his wife’s lipstick to keep the “wounded hero” story going.

It had always been Mad Jack’s view that a bold, small force, with the benefit of bluff, could often succeed where a larger, slower-moving force would fail. Whenever possible, he preferred to operate with a few men in whom he had complete confidence.

On September 15, 1943, during the Salerno landings, Churchill was ordered to make a raid into Pigoletti, a village strongly garrisoned by the Germans, with the object of taking prisoners. Churchill and a Corporal Ruffell soon got far ahead of the rest of his troop and entered the village street, Churchill ahead, Ruffell about 20 yards behind. As two German sentries approached him, Churchill brandished his sword and shouted, “Hände hoch!” (Hands up!)

They immediately obeyed. Looking around, Churchill saw an 81mm mortar emplacement in the middle of the square, with its crew sleeping around it. Ordering Ruffell to keep the sentries covered with his submachine gun, Churchill woke up the mortar crew and demanded their surrender at swordpoint. There were 10 of them, but, taken by surprise and befuddled with sleep, they raised their hands.

As other Commandos entered the village and took over the guard duty, Churchill looped the slipknot of his revolver’s lanyard around one prisoner’s neck, stuck his sword against his back, and made the rounds of the sentry posts. As they approached each post in the darkness, the sentry would call out his challenge, the prisoner would give the password, and then Mad Jack would put his sword to the sentry’s throat and take him prisoner. Repeating the process, he captured the entire garrison.

With the assistance of two Commandos, he marched his 42 prisoners down to the brigade area in Mercatello, forcing them to carry their own weapons. As he explained to King-Clark, “I always bring my prisoners back with their weapons; it weighs them down. I just took their rifle bolts out and put them in a sack, which one of the prisoners carried. The prisoners also carried the mortar and all the bombs they could carry and also pulled a farm cart with five wounded in it.”

Churchill was recommended for a Victoria Cross for his capture of the German troops, but it was downgraded to a Distinguished Service Order. The nature of the achievement may have been too individualistic for official recognition. It was, Churchill conceded, “a bit Errol Flynnish.”

In January 1944, No. 2 Commando was given the task of reducing the pressure on Marshall Tito’s Partisan forces by tying up elements of the German 118th Mountain Division in Yugoslavia. From the Commando base on the island of Vis, Churchill launched an attack on the German garrison on the nearby island of Hvar on January 26. Commando veteran Bob Bishop wrote, “After thoroughly shooting up the place, we returned to Vis with prisoners, who appreciated greatly that their captors were British and not Partisans. Not being one who would change a winning system, Colonel Jack twice returned to Hvar and twice repeated the process within five days.”

Churchill also authorized raiding parties on passing German ships—in effect, piracy. These raids were popular with the men because the vessels were well provisioned with food.

A major operation to draw pressure from the Partisans was launched in June. On the night of June 3, 1944, Churchill led No. 43 Commando and 2,000 Partisans in an attack on the German-held island of Brac, off Yugoslavia. After fierce fighting to take a fortified hilltop, Churchill found himself isolated with a small party of Marines, three of whom were wounded, two seriously. He sent off two Marines to bring up reinforcements and told his radioman to take up a more sheltered position farther down the hill and try to call in artillery support.

Churchill gave an account of what followed. Note that he does not draw attention to his own active defense of the position, though he must have played the leading role.

This reduced my post to 6, including Col. Manners, Captain Wakefield, and a wounded Marine.

Enemy fire was now heavy, and a counter-attack seemed imminent. I was distressed to find that everyone was armed with revolvers, except myself, who had an American carbine. Colonel Manners was firing his revolver, as were some of the men. A mortar-bomb fell among us and killed Captain Wakefield and 2 Marines and wounded another. Soon Col. Manners was hit again, this time through the right shoulder. While I was trying to remove his equipment and small pack, a Marine—I think Mne Wood of the Intelligence section—suddenly joined me, and asked, “Can I help you, Sir?” While helping me to remove the Colonel’s equipment, he was shot through the head. About 20-30 enemy advanced toward us, but were stopped by rapid fire [presumably Churchill’s], and took cover perhaps 75 yds away. Some men on our flanks began to withdraw, but we shouted to them to stay. A small post to our left rear was holding well and firing, and called back. I believe Lt Beadle of Y Troop was commanding it.

I rolled over onto my back, and played “Will ye no’ come back again”, on the pipes, to indicate that we still held the hilltop, and hoping to attract [D Troop] 43.4 Soon afterwards we heard shots, and D Troop 43 under Capt Blake put in a timely appearance nearby. Our position was growing precarious.

The revolver ammunition was finished, but I still had one magazine (15 rounds) for the carbine. The enemy now appeared to have got round our right flank. The small arms fire was very severe, and the dead and wounded in my post were continually being hit. Col Manners was the only one still conscious.

Finally there was a flurry of grenades and a fragment cut a furrow in my helmet, slightly cutting my scalp, and stunning me. This must have preceded the assault, as on coming to, I found Germans prodding us, apparently to discover who was alive.

Churchill was taken prisoner. The Germans were quite excited, under the misapprehension that he was related to the British prime minister. His sword and pipes were confiscated and later put on display in the War Museum in Vienna. He was taken to Berlin and imprisoned in the Sachsenhause concentration camp. Along with an RAF squadron leader, Jimmy James, he determined to escape. They tunneled their way under the outer wall of the camp, and on September 23 they emerged in the gutter of the road outside. They set off to follow the railway line toward the Baltic coast. Unfortunately, as they approached the coastal town of Rostock in heavy morning mist, they nearly stumbled onto a work party, which chased them. Reaching a tall wire fence, they scaled it. Beyond that was another fence, which they scaled as well, only to find that they had broken into a prison camp.

Along with a group of other prisoners, Churchill was moved to Niederdorf in Austria. Planning to escape at the first opportunity, he gathered some survival supplies and kept them on his person at all times: a rusty tin can, some matches, and some onions. On the night of April 20, 1945, he at last got his chance when the floodlights failed while he was with an outside work party. He walked away, alone. For the next week, he survived by stealing vegetables from gardens and boiling them into soup in his tin can. After eight days, he made it through the Brenner Pass into Italy. He spotted an armored column on a road far below him and was able to make out the white stars that indicated they were American. Despite a badly sprained ankle, he rushed down the hillside and managed to stop the last vehicle, a tank. Dirty, disheveled, and out of breath, he looked like a scarecrow and could hardly talk. “But I still managed a credible Sandhurst salute, which may have done the trick,” he said.

As Churchill rode off on an American tank, he regretted that he did not have his bagpipes with him to mark the splendor of the moment. To his great frustration, the war in Europe soon ended. “However, there are still the Nips, aren’t there?” he asked his friends, hopefully. He got himself to Bombay, arriving just days after the atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Yanks had spoiled everything.

To order (or read more about) More of the Deadliest Men Who Ever Lived, please click HERE. Stay tuned for more excerpts from this hot new title from Paladin Press!