User blog:SPARTAN 119/"Mad" Jack Churchill vs Hiroo Onoda

"Mad" Jack Churchill, the WWII British Lt. Colonel who carried a claymore and a longbow into battle

VS

Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese Soldier who refused to surrender until 1972

WHO IS DEADLIEST?!

=Combatants=

"Mad" Jack Churchill
Lieutenant Colonel John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming "Jack" Churchill, DSO & Bar, MC & Bar (16 September 1906 – 8 March 1996), nicknamed "Fighting Jack Churchill" and "Mad Jack", was a British soldier who fought throughout World War II armed with a longbow, arrows and a claymore. He once said "any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed."

Born in Hong Kong to English parents and educated at King William's College on the Isle of Man, Churchill graduated from Sandhurst in 1926 and served in Burma with the Manchester Regiment. He left the army in 1936 and worked as a newspaper editor. He used his archery and bagpipe talents to play a small role in the film The Thief of Bagdad.

He was not related to Winston Churchill.

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 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.

In September 1944, he and a Royal Air Force officer crawled under the wire through an abandoned drain and attempted to walk to the Baltic coast. They were recaptured near the coastal city of Rostock, a few kilometres from the sea. In late April 1945 Churchill and about 140 other prominent concentration camp inmates were transferred to Tyrol, guarded by SS troops. A delegation of prisoners told senior Germany army officers they feared they would be executed. An army unit commanded by Captain Wichard von Alvensleben 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 95 kilometres (150 miles) to Verona, Italy where he met an American armoured force.[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 sudden end of the war, saying: "If it wasn't for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years."

Hiroo Onoda
Hiroo Onoda inlisted in the Imperial Japanese Army in 1941 and was sent to Lubang Island in the Philippines in 1944 in order to sabatoge the allied operations on the island. When the allies began to advance onto the island, Hiroo and a few of his fellow soldiers followed him as they fled to the hills. Once Japan surrendured in 1945, efforts were made to convince all Japanese troops that were holding out to surrender themselves but all attempts by the allies to convince Hiroo and his comrades failed and were thought by them to be propaganda. For the next 29 years he and his comrades held out agianst all attempts to attack or convince them to surrender. Constant raids on local towns and firefights against local police eventually wiped out most of his comrades. Eventually, Hiroo was the only one left and fought off constant attacks from local police. Finally, his former commander was brought to the island and told him that the war had ended 29 years ago. Despite all, he was pardoned and went back home to Japan after holding out in the jungle for 29 years.

=Weapons=

Claymore (Jack)
Jack Churchill's claymore was not the Scottish two-handed sword of William Wallace fame, but rather a 17th-18th century sword of the same name. The weapon had a broad blade, unlike a rapier, and thus could be used for both cutting and thrusting. The weapon had a blade of three feet in length.

Shin Gunto (Hiroo)
The Shin Gunto was a WWII-era Japanese sword similar in appearance to a katana. The blade was mostly used for ceremonial purposes, and some were mass produced, though some had traditionally-made blades. However, the sword was more than sharp enough to be a lethal weapon in the hands of a skilled user.

119's Edge
Even, both swords are about the same length, and can be deadly in the right hands.

Webley Mk IV Revolver and Longbow (Jack)
The Webley and Scott Revolver was a .455 caliber revolver used by the British Army from 1887-1963. The weapon had a range of about 50 yards, and a muzzle velocity of 190 meters per second, with a six-round top-break chamber.

Jack Churchill also carried an English longbow into battle, and in one engagement, killed a German sergeant with the bow, becoming the only British soldier known to have done so in the war. A skilled archer armed with a longbow could hit a human-sized target at over 100 meters.

Type 26 Revolver (Hiroo)
The Type 26 Revolver was a Japanese double action 9mm revolver with a six-round chamber. The weapon was known to have a heavy trigger pull, and thus a slow rate of fire.

119's Edge
Jack Churchill's Webley Revolver and Longbow for the Webley's larger round and greater stopping power and bow's range, accuracy, and silence.

Lee-Enfield No. 4 (Jack)
The Lee-Enfield was a British bolt-action rifle with a magazine holding ten .303 rounds. The weapon had an effective range of 503 meters and a muzzle velocity of 744 meters per second.

Arisaka 99 (Hiroo)
The Arisaka 99 is a Japanese 7.7mm bolt-action rifle of the Second World War. The weapon had a muzzle velocity of 730 meters per second. The rifle has a five-round magazine.

119's Edge
Jack Churchill's Lee Enfield for its superior capacity.

Sten (Jack)
The Sten was an all-metal British 9mm submachine gun designed to be cheaply and easily made- it could be manufactured in a home garage. The weapon had a rate of fire of about 500 rounds per minute, and a range of about 100 meters. The weapon had a muzzle velocity of 365 meters per second.

Type 100 (Hiroo)
The Type 100 is a Japanese WWII-era 8mm submachine gun. The weapon had a rate of fire of 800 rounds per minute and a 30-round magazine. The weapon had a muzzle velocity of 335 meters per second.

119's Edge
Even, as the Sten has a larger, more powerful round, but the Type 100 had a faster rate of fire.

Mills Bomb (Jack)
The Number 36 grenade, or Mills Bomb was a British hand grenade of the First and Second World War. The weapon had a baratol charge and a four-second fuse. The weapon had a danger zone of up to 100 yards, meaning it had to be thrown from behind defensive positions.

Type 99 (Onoda)
The Type 99 was a Japanese grenade used in the Second World War. The grenade had a 58 gram picric acid charge, and a five second fuse activated by pulling the pin and then striking the grenade against a hard surface such as a rock.

119's Edge
Onoda's Type 99, as it can be used in or out of a defensive position. =X-Factors=