A History Teacher Reacts | Simple History - "The Man who Fought with a Longbow and a Sword in WWII"

hey youtube welcome back to another history teacher reacts video with mr. Terry as I continued my quest for historical knowledge here on YouTube alright today we are watching another video from simple history I thought this one was kind of interesting and stood out to me which was it's titled the man who fought with a longbow and a sword in World War 2 and that brings in so many questions like why on earth would somebody be doing that and you know the 1930s and 40s we progressed a lot so I don't know I'm wondering if he was effective if he if he was effective really and yeah I have a lot of questions you know how this is going to be so the simple history people seem to put find these kind of really interesting stories just kind of these outlier scenarios of people doing heroic things or strange things or something like that and it's been pretty fascinating so alright well we'll go ahead and check this out there'll be a link to the original video down below if you liked it make sure you head over there so you can give them a like and subscribe and love to have you subscribe here so you can continue on and we can continue to learn more and more history that's out here on YouTube alright with that let's go and get started this video is brought to you by Squarespace we really appreciate Squarespace for supporting the channel and making it possible to create more epic detailed and educational content for our fans if you want to easily make your own website that looks good like the support of the endless to use there's nothing to install sponsor straight answers that's for award-winning 24/7 customer service that's really also really easy to set up transfer your own domain name head over to Squarespace calm for a free trial and when you're ready to launch go to squarespace.com slash simple history to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain go mad Jack the man who fought with a longbow and a sword look what a weird thing huh John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill was born in Hong Kong and graduated from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in 1926 he would later earn the nickname mad jack or fighting Jack for fighting with a longbow bagpipes and a sword in World War two how do you fight with a bagpipe maids musical instrument how do you fight with a bagpipe all right stationed at Burma with the Manchester Regiment in the British Army during peacetime made mad Jack Restless it was during the interwar years in the 30s that he would master the bagpipes and ride his motorcycle across the entire Indian subcontinent while 1936 after moving to England mad Jack left the army and became a model and a movie extra he would also practice a new skill archery and became so good that he represented Great Britain at the world archery championships in 1939 when war arrived mad Jack returned to the British Army and the Manchester regiment as an officer and was shipped off to France Jimmy said that the British used to recruit heavily from their colonies and at this time India you know was it was a was it was a colony Hong Kong was a possession that they basically had kind of gotten from the opium wars so yeah they got a lot of their military from from recruiting there from there from their colonies there and provided a big bulk and a huge support for the military during the Battle of France in 1940 Matt Jack led small raids on the enemy as the British Expeditionary Force was on the retreat from the Germans relentless advance using a longbow and a Scottish broadsword as his weapon of choice English longbow had been around through the Middle Ages is a big part of like the Hundred Years War and was a very effective weapon but it's also like 700 years after that so I mean yeah it was a great bow there also they are really big I think they can be like 6 feet tall and they kind of became obsolete eventually it was difficult I mean it was it was nearly impossible to use Moberly you know like you couldn't be like a horseback Archer you know with with like an English longbow so that's why you saw like over in Asia develop with like like the Mongols and stuff more of a composite bow just a lot smaller and was much better for for horseback there so yeah because they I mean they're you would not be very mobile at all with a longbow lease English style long but which is I'm assuming what this guy was using he became the only soldier known to have felled an enemy with a longbow in the war when he landed a shot on the enemy Feldwebel with a barbed arrow well why he did this he replied any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed during the retreat to Dunkirk Matt Jack was shot in the neck when asked how it happened he replied German machine gun casually he would also bet a Military Cross for bravery after rescuing the wounded British officer from a German ambush so the Dunkirk you know the the flee from Dunkirk course has been talked about a lot was you know that movie Dunkirk was was basically all about that and how challenging it was to have this retreat by all these soldiers and I'm just imagining of all the people you know the thousands of people that they're trying to evacuate and they're try to bunker down you got this dude with a giant longbow and now he's carrying people sounds like you would stand out like a sore thumb there after Dunkirk mad Jack signed up for the commandos and when his training was complete he was sent to Vogue so Norway in 1941 as second-in-command of number three commando in operation archery good name for him as he left the landing craft mad Jack played march of the Cameron men on his bagpipes and then led his men ashore with his broadsword waving in the air the German garrison advances so weird those deleted prisoners were taken and the artillery batteries captured along with shipping destroyed on Malloy Island for this action Matt Jack received his second Military Cross in 1943 was effectively Matt Jack led two commando with the objective to destroy German artillery and observation posts in the town of pijl in T even though the town was well defended and outnumbered Matt Jack organized his men into six parallel columns who instead of using stealth tactics all shouted commando the German defenders as a result were confused into thinking the shouting which was coming from all directions in the darkness was a much bigger force so it sounds like this guy was almost better as a leader than I mean as an actual soldier more effective again it would be you know he said he shot down an officer with his with his bow but like it seems like that's where again a lot of his skill is he was leading this and I don't imagine if you're if you're in his regiment or whatever and you're yeah your commander whatever is using a sword and a bow I wonder if they were having a hard time taking him seriously or something like that maybe he was very charismatic he might it might have been like that but it sounds like you got some interesting tactics the one they were just saying you know yelling and stuff around the the Germans and making it sound like there were more people than they were pretty billion but again almost sounds like his tactics like that's a pretty you know rudimentary tactic it sounds like something that would have been used in like the Hundred Years War or something you know with a longbow and you know swords were kind of the the the best weapons of the time this is Garmisch the fifty men of number two commando took 136 prisoners Matt Jack who was assisted by a corporal Rafael took 42 German prisoners and captured a mortar crew using his broadsword Wow after marching the prisoners down to British lines he said I maintain that as long as you tell a German loudly and clearly what to do if you were senior to him he will cry yah hold and get on with it enthusiastically and efficiently whatever the situation okay after losing to his Lord sword in hand-to-hand combat earlier he later went to the town on his own to retrieve it on the way he met an American patrol going towards the enemy lines when they should have been going the other way so he told them that he come back for a bloody third time in 1944 mad Jack was in Yugoslavia and British seas all over the place right mainland Europe but Norway or whatever now I go into Eastern Europe and he's all over the place Wow so I mean they obviously I guess believed in him and putting him in these different situations okay I mean he got that medal earlier so commandos and now Yugoslavia syns attacking the vital hill called 0.622 on the island of brac in the Adriatic Sea against the Germans heavy casualties were caused and soon jack was alone and out of ammo with no hope left Jack started playing songs on his bagpipes until he was knocked unconscious by a frag grenade and captured by the German defenders well it's not a good way to hide playing on the bagpipes are loud that's a loud instrument so go in there and yeah playing that interesting interesting idea heard thought to do that it really is a mad mad Jack right he was first sent to Berlin and interrogated as it was thought that because of his real name he was a relative of Prime Minister Winston Churchill and afterwards sent to sockson house and concentration camp but in September 1944 mad jack and an RAF officer escaped the camp by crawling under barbed wire through an abandoned dream and set out to walk to the baltic coast but within captured now sent to a new camp in Mirador Austria Matt Jack escaped again on April 1945 taking the opportunity to get away when the lighting system failed in the darkness of night he walked a hundred and fifty miles through the treacherous terrain of the Alps surviving on vegetables that he had liberated from gardens a little earlier and with a sprained ankle he found a US armoured column and was sent back to England Jack was frustrated that the war in Europe was all but over so made his way to the Pacific campaign to join the battle against the Japanese in Burma but by the time he arrived the atomic bombs had been dropped on here like this guy really really wants to keep fighting right and when people would if they had the opportunity to you know leave the war and you don't have it now he's like ah it's disappointing whatever that the war is ending the fresh straight of the war is ending and I mean there happens to some people they find so much purpose with the military that really outweighs the the risk right the risk of your life and that that can happen and does you know happen sometimes so very very resilient that way Hiroshima and Nagasaki mad Jack was so unhappy black clothes have been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki mad Jack was so unhappy he said if it wasn't for those damn Yanks we could have kept the war going another ten years just what I was saying like he's disappointed the war's over he's disappointed he wants to fight for another ten years well everyone's celebrating here but you know the end of the war he's like no I want to keep fighting jeez after the war mad Jack continued to seek danger qualifying as a parachutist and transferring to the Seaforth Highlanders and later ending up in Palestine in 1948 as second-in-command of first battalion the highland light infantry during an ambush on a jewish medical convoy by arab forces mad jack with only 12 men and in full military dress marched under fire to the convoy to offer its evacuation I grinned like mad from side to side he said afterwards as people are less likely to shoot at you if you smile at them wait i grin like mad from sinusitis people are less likely to shoot at them if you smile at them that's an interesting thought I wouldn't go around trying that but uh this guy does not lack confidence holy cow this guy seems like he's destined or he's secretly got a death wish you know and I mean putting himself willingly putting himself and do so many deadly like situations like mad from side to side he said afterwards as people are less likely to shoot at you if you smile at them he would later coordinate the evacuation of 700 Jewish doctors students and patients from the hospital atop Jerusalem's mounts go mad Jack would retire from the Army in 1959 with two awards of the Distinguished Service Order subscribe for more World War two so he's involved okay in these early World War two are a bunch of campaigns in World War two that was amazing how all over he went even going to help in the Pacific campaign right right away and then getting involved will being stationed there in Palestine in the Arab Palestine are Jewish Palestine some of those first military conflicts are those Wars which are gonna happen a bunch and getting involved in those but yeah that's putting himself into a lot of situations but man of confidence right and looks like had some success so yeah what an interesting story as an outlier of so many characters that you do meet in in sort of World War two but yeah going back to the longbow and sword in World War two is you know he had become so interested in archery and apparently was useful but he getting parently had this leadership acumen that was pretty useful and getting some support there so yeah what a peculiar character right and history is full those and seems like wars are especially filled with some of these some of these kind of folks so and that's what they've done a lot of it seems like with a simple simple History Channel it's it's kind of neat that they're finding these outliers stories out there that are pretty fascinating so I think I think that's pretty good alright awesome well this was you know just enjoyable kind of interesting little video there and learning some kind of some a random kind of a peculiar story you know for the war so that was great there's a link again to the original video down below if we'd like to see it without my commentary or you know definitely give them a like and subscribe for the original content creators some other ways you can supports as well for this channel and like and subscribe is also appreciated we could also join our patreon all patreon pledgers regardless of their donation level right now are able to vote in a weekly poll for one of the videos that'll make it on this week so you can do that there will be a link down to down below in the description for that as well we also have a discord server there's also a link down below if you'd like to join a little history community out on the web and I would love to see you over there alright with that I think we'll go ahead and cut it here and we'll see you next time bye

Channel: Mr. Terry History

Views: 54,309

Rating: 4.9517817 out of 5

Keywords: react, history, ww2

Id: NsOU9hg47jM

Length: 15min 38sec (938 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 07 2019