Churchill resumed his commission after Poland was invaded. In May 1940, Churchill and his unit, the Manchester Regiment, ambushed a German patrol near L'Epinette, France. Churchill gave the signal to attack by cutting down the enemy Feldwebel (sergeant) with his barbed arrows, becoming the only known British soldier to have felled an enemy with a longbow in the course of the war.[1] He volunteered for the Commandos, unsure of what Commando Duty entailed, but because it sounded dangerous, after fighting at Dunkirk.
Churchill was second in command of No. 3 Commando in Operation Archery, a raid on the German garrison at Vågsøy, Norway on December 27, 1941.[2] As the ramps fell on the first landing craft, Churchill leapt forward from his position and played a song on his bagpipes, before throwing a grenade and running into battle in the bay. For his actions at Dunkirk and Vågsøy, Churchill received the Military Cross and Bar. Perhaps Churchill's most impressive military exploits came in early 1942. It is claimed that he and five other Commandos took down a whole German outpost of around 300 men. The mission took them three weeks, in which time they hid in the dense undergrowth surrounding the outpost, surviving on a diet consisting merely of Marmite and Salami.
In July 1943, as commanding officer, he led 2 Commando from their landing site at Catania in Sicily with his trademark claymore slung around his waist and a longbow and arrows around his neck and his bagpipes under his arm.[3] This was again repeated at the landings at Salerno. Leading 2 Commando, Churchill was ordered to capture a German observation post outside of the town of La Molina controlling a pass leading down to the Salerno beach-head. He led the attack by 2 and 41 Commandos, infiltrating the town and capturing the post, taking 42 prisoners including a mortar squad. Churchill led the men and prisoners back down the pass with the wounded being carried on carts with huge wheels, pushed by German prisoners. He commented that to him it was "an image from the Napoleonic Wars."[4] He received the Distinguished Service Order for leading this action at Salerno.[5]
In 1944, he led the Commandos in Yugoslavia, where they supported the efforts of Josip Broz Tito's Partisans from the Adriatic island of Vis.[6] In May, he was ordered to raid the German held island of Brač. He organised a motley army of 1,500 Partisans, 43 Commando and one troop from 40 Commando for the raid. The landing was unopposed, but on seeing the eyries from which they later encountered German fire, the Partisans decided to defer the attack until the following day. Churchill's bagpipes signalled the remaining Commandos to battle. After being strafed by an RAF Spitfire, Churchill decided to withdraw for the night and to re-launch the attack the following morning.[7] The following morning, one flanking attack was launched by 43 Commando with Churchill leading the elements from 40 Commando. The Partisans remained at the landing area. Only Churchill and six others managed to reach the objective. A mortar shell killed or wounded everyone but Churchill, who was playing "Will Ye No Come Back Again?" on his pipes as the Germans advanced. He was knocked unconscious by grenades and captured.[7] He was later flown to Berlin for interrogation and then transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp.[citation needed]
In September 1944, he and an RAF officer crawled under the wire through an abandoned drain and set out to walk to the Baltic coast; they were recaptured near the coastal city of Rostock, only a few miles from the sea. In late April 1945 Churchill was transferred to Tyrol together with about 140 other prominent concentration camp inmates, guarded by SS troops. A delegation from prisoners made contact with senior Germany army officers and made known the identity of the high-status prisoners and the fear that they were to be executed. A regular German army unit under the command of Captain Wichard von Alvensleben then moved in to protect the prisoners. Outnumbered, the SS guards moved out, leaving the prisoners behind.[8] The prisoners were then set free. After the departure of the Germans Churchill walked 150 miles to Verona, Italy where he met an American armoured column.[citation needed]
As the Pacific War was still ongoing Churchill was sent to Burma,[9] where the largest land battles against Japan were still raging, but by the time he reached India, Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been bombed, and the war abruptly ended. Churchill was said to be unhappy with the abrupt end of the war, saying: "If it wasn't for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years!"[9]
