William Ewart Fairbairn, retired as a ranking officer of the Shanghai Municipal Police force and his partner Eric Anthony Sykes, a private arms dealer who served as a “Volunteer” in the SMP and who headed the “Sniper” unit of the famed Shanghai Riot Squad promised the War Office that their training and methods could in short order make “Any one man the equal of ten”.
Initially dismissed, these two men went on to PROVE the veracity of their words and convinced the power that be as to absolute effectiveness of their methods.
So the methods that these men had developed during decades of very dangerous work in Shanghai now became a highly valued and integral part of training for all British forces and Special Operations personnel.
Despite the often heard “Argument” that we have somehow “Evolved” beyond these methods, we will in future articles put this notion to rest.
Certainly NOT the only “Experts” involved in this field! An example would be A.J. Drexel-Biddle who studied and trained extensively in boxing, Savate, jiu-jitsu, swordplay, knife-fighting and various bayonet methods.
So much attention was given over to the training of US and Allied forces in methods that would enable the average soldier to meet the Japanese fighting man on a somewhat equal footing.
The Axis did the same of course, Japan being the obvious factor in this regard, BUT even Adolf Hitler proclaimed the absolute need for boxing and jiu-jitsu in military training as it imparted courage and daring to the average soldier to close with his enemy! In the US there were a PLETHORA of varied methods and training systems.
ANY attempt to narrowly define the methods extant in this era is FOOLISHNESS! Though the contribution of Lt. Colonel Fairbairn is GREAT, as is the influence of Colonel Applegate, there were DOZENS upon DOZENS of different close-quarters battle systems developed.
From wrestling, boxing, savate, judo, jiu-jitsu, Chinese boxing, and even football and rugby methods were NOT only drawn upon, but entire “Systems” were advocated based on these individual methods.
It may come as a surprise to many, but here in the US, even Japanese KARATE was used! Many of these “Unarmed combat” courses were highly complex and technical as they were rooted in the favored methods of the men tasked with their “Creation”.
Wrestlers tended to rely on that method, Judo men on that system, Boxers on their expertise and so on and so on.
Each method also could claim stunning success in actual combat! True after action reports showed that ALL of these methods had merit and COULD be used effectively in the rigors and stress of real battle.
These courses in “Unarmed combat”, “Hand to hand combat”, “Combat judo” and so forth again sought to COMBINE the most advantageous holds, throws, trips, locks, strangles, blows, strikes and kicks from all the varied methods available.
The O’Neill method is a classic example of a system specifically tailored for both the training environment available as well as the NATURE of the combat engagement expected.
There were even attempts made to instruct the military in actual Koryu Jujutsu systems here in the US! However the MOST effective systems still sought to MIX ALL the varied methods of physical combat.
As the war progressed more and more after action “Intelligence” gathered from the reality of actual battle helped shape and determine training priorities.
Many methods of close-combat began to be “Trimmed” down to those fundamentals that proved MOST effective OVERALL and most applicable to ALL TRAINEES across a wide and varied spectrum of physical attributes and skill.
Many are familiar with the Navy V-5 programs and the training at Benning, but lesser known is the very EXTENSIVE training at places such as Fort Meade and at the Hawaii Jungle Warfare complex, just to name two! Here at these locations, and such training was conducted from Brooklyn to California, a very complete and MIXED program of “Combatives” was taught.
From the CIC training center in Chicago to the Army training camps in Colorado, from Parris Island to the Ranger/Commando schools in the Hawaiian Islands, from the training bases in England prior to D-Day to the “Killing” school in Palestine, the METHODS taught ran the FULL gamut of man to man tooth and nail “Combatives”.
Future newsletter articles will go into depth on history, training and method covering armed and unarmed combat as well as topics on various subjects from Shanghai to “Shangri-La”(for those still wandering around in La-La land).
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