In 1939 Captain Jack Churchill of the Manchester Regiment was a member of the British team competing in the World Archery Championship at Oslo. With war in the offing, the party arrived back in England after some difficulties and he went, almost immediately, with the advance party of the British Expeditionary Force to the Continent. Before embarking, Captain Churchill had made by Purle of London a hundred-pound yew bow together with hunting arrows; he also equipped himself with two steel bows which were later broken whilst sticking out of the back of a lorry that was backed against a wall.
During the days of the ‘phoney war’ of 1939, Captain Churchill took every opportunity of practising with his bow by shooting at targets. In December 1939 the 4th Brigade of the 2nd Division of the B.E.F., consisting of the Norfolk Regiment, the Royal Scots, the Warwickshire Regiment, and the machine-guns of the Manchester Regiment, took over part of the Maginot Line. It was a bitterly cold winter and snow lay on the frozen ground, so that patrols formed of groups from all battalions were sent out in front of the Maginot Line wearing white nightgowns and with elephantine legs encased in layers of straw and sandbags. Frustrated and irritated by the official policy of not provoking the enemy, Captain Churchill decided upon a symbolic gesture which he thought would not only give him great personal satisfaction but might also create a certain alarm, despondency and bewilderment in the enemy lines. On the 31st of December 1939, whilst out with a patrol amid the undulating, snow-covered countryside of no-man’s-land, he stealthily made his way to between fifty and eighty yards from the German lines and, drawing his bowstring back to his cheek, let loose an arrow which he heard bite into a frost-hard ground with an audible ‘clack’. There was no reaction whatsoever, so Churchill again drew his bow and loosed a second arrow – this time a German voice called out and there was obviously some consternation caused in the enemy defences, although he did not have the satisfaction of knowing whether or not his arrow had hit anyone. Although elated by his gesture, the archer regretted not being able to retrieve his arrows. The shafts cost him 105. 6d. each and the War Office had no financial responsibility for such ammunition!
On the 27th of May 1940, whilst in command of a mixed force holding the village of L’Epinette, near Bethune, during the retreat to Dunkirk, Captain Churchill, who had been slightly wounded on the 25th, became the only European for centuries who, in the action of war, had killed an enemy with the longbow. Climbing into the loft of a small granary, through a vertical opening in one wall, normally used for hauling up sacks of grain, he saw, some thirty yards away, five German soldiers sheltering behind the wall but in clear view of the granary. Quickly and quietly Captain Churchill fetched up two infantrymen and instructed them to open rapid fire on the enemy but not to pull the trigger until he had loosed an arrow at the centre man. Captain Churchill lifted his bow, took careful aim and loosed the shaft. At the same time as the bow string twanged, the air was shattered by the rapid fire of the two infantrymen. Captain Churchill was delighted to see his arrow strike the centre German in the left of the chest and penetrate his body; the remaining Germans of the party slumped to the dusty ground. With the idea of retrieving his arrow by pushing or pulling it through the wound, Captain Churchill swiftly ran to the body but was unable to extract the shaft. In his haste he broke the arrow, leaving its barbed head in the German’s body. At this moment enemy machine-gun fire was opened down the line of the road and everyone dived for cover.
Sheet 21 of the War Diary of the 4th Infantry Brigade, dated the 30th of May 1940, bears the following paragraph:
‘One of the most reassuring sights of 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 and his disappointment at not having had the chance to keep in practice had tried him sorely. His high example and his great work with his machine-guns were a great help to the 4th Infantry Brigade.’
Five years before the first atomic bomb exploded and nearly 600 years after the Battle of Crécy an English archer had incongruously and briefly returned to the ancient battlefields of France.