As war became imminent, Churchill joined the Territorial Army and was soon called up to the Worcestershire Regiment, and became Company Commander. Following his brother, Peter, he joined the
Special Operations Executive (SOE). In December 1941, he was posted to Malta and the Middle East to train Italian partisans and was subsequently posted to SOE Middle East headquarters in
Cairo from where he was involved in clandestine, behind-the-lines work in Greece and Italy. His
nom de guerre was
Anthony Peters. On 21 September 1943, two weeks after the Italian Armistice, and a week after Germany invaded
Corfu, Churchill and Harrison were flown from Cairo and parachuted into Corfu by night in
Operation Acheron. They made contact with the Italian commander, Colonel Lusignani. Unfortunately, the radio equipment was damaged by the parachute drop, making contact with SOE Headquarters in Cairo difficult. Radio contact was made initially, but then the radio failed and further communication could not be made with Cairo for further instructions. On 25 September, after discussions with Lusignani, who informed him the Germans had broken through their defences and were advancing on the town and that the Italian forces would have to surrender, Churchill decided to exfiltrate himself and the radio operator from the island. With the Germans approaching, they spent several days dressed in peasant clothing evading capture before he could arrange their escape by sea. with
General Cadorna, Commander of the Partisan Movement in Northern Italy, to act as head of the British liaison mission to the Partisan Movement in Northern Italy, where he spent several months behind enemy lines. Incorrect details of their landing ground had been given, possibly deliberately by a local faction to claim credit for the landing of General Cadorna in their area, resulting in them arriving in the wrong location and all of the stores, apart from the wireless transmitters, but including his personal kit and 1 million lire which had been issued to him for the operation, were taken by the locals. The group of parachutists comprising Churchill, General Cadorna, Augusto De Laurentis (Liaison Officer to the Milan Committee), and Sergeant Nicola Delle Monache (Wireless Operator), had great difficulty finding the proper reception committee. A few hours after reaching the safe house, they found their cover was blown and the SS had burnt down the safe house, and so they had to leave in great haste to avoid an SS search party which had been sent to look for them. above Esine, which was unlikely to be discovered by German patrols. De Laurentis went to
Milan almost at once in order to reconnoitre, and about a fortnight later the ground was prepared sufficiently for General Cadorna to go to Milan also. This was successfully arranged with the help of the
Franchi organisation. Churchill remained with the Fiamme Verdi for about four weeks as it was considered unsafe for him to go too, but became convinced that nothing would be achieved unless he also went to Milan, and wrote to see whether this could be arranged. He received a reply from General Cadorna saying that, under no circumstances should he go as conditions were far too difficult and dangerous. In the same post, he received a letter from
Edgardo Sogno saying that everything had been prepared for him to go to Milan and that he should come at once. Churchill decided to accept Sogno's invitation and left for Milan on 14 September. During his first seven days in Milan, he had to change houses six times, though not entirely due to security reasons. •
Lionello Levi Sandri leader of the
Fiamme Verdi partisan brigade in Brescia who went on to become a European Commissioner. •
Edgardo Sogno who created the
Organizazzione Franchi partisan group which helped hundreds of Italian Jews and others seek safe haven in Switzerland and who represented the Italian Liberal Party at the CLNAI. •
Luigi Longo, a Communist politician who went on to become secretary of the Italian Communist Party. •
Ferruccio Parri leader of the
Action Party (Partito d'Azione) and president of the CLN (Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale), who went on to become Prime Minister of Italy in 1945. • Pierluigi Tumiati, head of the Milan
Franchi organisation Churchill was based in
Milan with partisans of different factions. He made trips to
Biella to meet Major Alistair MacDonald, leader of the Cherokee Mission and
Turin to meet other partisan leaders, narrowly missing capture on some of these visits. In mid-November, he received an insider tip from the police advising him that his position was becoming precarious and he should leave as soon as possible for his own safety. Accompanied by Pierluigi Tumiati, head of the Milan Franchi organisation, he took the train to Como on 2 December using the alias of
Giulio Kravic, an Italian Slovene, as a convenient method of explaining his foreign accent,. He then crossed the frontier over the mountains on foot and after meetings with SOE representatives John Birkbeck in Lugano and Jock McCaffery in Berne he returned to the SOE Italy base in Monopoli, where he remained until being recalled to the UK on 27 January 1945 to report on recent operations and be awarded the
Distinguished Service Order. He went back to Italy on 26 March and, after the surrender of German forces in Italy on 2 May, finally returned to the UK on 6 May. ==Post-war==