21 Mar 10 Learn something new no.7 – Last military action involving the longbow | #LearnSomethingNew
Courtesy of http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/
I strongly advise everyone to read this true story of Lieutenant Colonel (Mad) Jack Churchill – it is quite remarkable.
The last person to kill an enemy with a longbow in action against the enemy
It may be tempting to think of the Longbow as something used at Agincourt in the reign of Henry V, but the longb0w was used at least once in World War II By a British Officer, successfully killing a German soldier with it. The bowman, one Lieutenant Colonel Jack Churchill, known as ’Mad Jack’ Churchill was the sort of eccentric Englishman we like to think of as typical, but clearly they are atypical. Nevertheless, they are so remarkable that they imprint themselves upon our vision of own national character. Mad Jack went into battle with all the weaponry of 1940′w warfare, as well as a Claymore sword, a longbow and arrows and often bagpipes. His assertion that any officer who went into battle without a sword was ‘improperly dressed’. In later life he learnt to surf and was the first person to surf the River Severn’s tidal bore.
