“Mad” jack churchill Jack Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill was born in Hong Kong in September 16, 1906 his parents were of English descent. In 1926 graduated from Sandhurst military academy and joined the army. His first ten years in the army, jack decided to ride his motorcycle across the entire Indian subcontinent because he felt like it. He then decided to learn how to play the bag pipes. After that Jack retired from the army. During his time away from the military he worked as a newspaper editor, a professional male model and a movie extra. While practicing his bagpiping and archery in his free time. In 1939 he represented England in the Archery World Championships. (Barclay) In 1940 jack re-enlisted and was deployed to France to help the rest of the British Expeditionary Force to reinforce the Maginot line. After Churchill arrived Hitler launched an attack on France. The British troops were being pushed back towards the sea, doing whatever they could to stall the advances. Jack Churchill had other plans. He refused to give up ground, and launched small-scale guerilla raids on German positions and supply depots. He rode his motorcycle in to battle only with his Scottish broadsword and bow, catching the Germans off guard. During the battle Churchill was shot in the neck by a German machine gunner, jack didn’t stop he wasn’t even phased when he was shot he just continued to fight. Jack ended up awarded the military cross for bravery when he rescued a wounded British soldier. (Smith) When he returned to England Churchill signed up for a new organization known as the commandos, he didn’t even know what a commando was. After a grueling training with Special Forces, Churchill was put in command of the number 2 commandos. Churchill’s team took part in an assault of Vaasago, Norway. They were responsibly for taking out artillery batteries on the island of Maaloy. During the landing at Salerno, jack won another bravery award. His squad took out another artillery battery that was pinning down a nearby British force and in the middle of the night even though they were outnumbered 50 versus 150 Germans. Churchill’s team surrounded the town of Piegoletti and charged shouting “commando” and took them by surprise. They ended up taking 136 prisoners. That’s not even the most impressive thing he did. One night he single handily took 42 prisoners and captured a German mortar team. He did this with just his broadsword by going from guard post to guard post and pointing his sword in the guards face and taking their weapons. When his squad was deployed to Yugoslavia during a battle all of his men were either killed or wounded he knew he wasn’t going to escape Jack started playing sad songs on his bagpipes until he was knocked out by a frag grenade. He was then taken to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. One night in September of 1944 after an attempted escape by crawling through a drainage pipe he was later captured. Finally one night in April 1945 when the lighting went out in the camp jack dropped his shovel escaped and walked 150 miles through the treacherous terrain of the Alps. He met up with a U.S. armored column and was sent back to England. The war was over by this point. In 1959 he retired from the army Churchill went on to serve as an instructor at land-air warfare school in Australia and become a hardcore surfer. Jack died of old age in 8 March 1996 at the age of 89. (Thompson) This person is important to me because when most people would have seen the situation and given up. He saw a challenge, a thrill, and an adventure. And inspires me to go above and beyond your limit and when someone says that I can’t do it to take it as a challenge. By: Dylan Leneski Work cited Ben Thompson, jack Churchill, badassofthweek.com, 1st, web, 05/29/13, picture Robert Barr Smith, fighting jack Churchill survived a wartime odyssey beyond compare, wwii.historymagazine.com, 1st, July 2005, web, 05/29/13 Shelly Barclay, biography: Jack Churchill,helium.com, 1st, 2/20/10, web, 05/29/13 .