Applegate, Sykes, Fairbairn et al

[dit dah]

Anyone here interested in WWII combatives?

For the last two years I've been teaching unarmed combat and have always been drawn to the above chaps.

 

[DutchIndo]

Kind of sort of unfortunately here in Calif. it's hard to collect them. I have a M-3 fighting knife I bought from a Paratrooper years ago. He supposedly jumped into Normandy with it . My friends joked he had a box full under his table and told the tale with every sale. It's a real M-3 knife so I'm happy. Years ago we were at a public show (Abn Re-enactors 82nd) and this old man came by our display. He wore a Camoflage jacket and wore a baseball hat. He seemed harmless enough nice old guy. He proceeded to tell us he taught knife fighting for the OSS. He told us some real neat stories he taught knife fighting up until Viet-Nam. He had us Re-enactors line up in pairs and showed us how to knife fight. We used rolled up programs not real knives ( I wanted to use my M-3 but they wouldn't let me for some reason !) It was eye opening but very scary. He said it takes a certain person to be good at it and he's right. He showed us various fighting knives the Sykes, Kabar, M-3 and some others I can't recall. The humorous thing I remember most about this was that a troop of Boy Scouts were watching us. Grown men trying to take each other out. We were not great role models that day !

 

[rmrdaddy]

Absolutely!

I have a PDF file on my PC of Col. Applegate's fighting manual.

 

[Jedburgh OSS]

Fairbairn was an amazing man, laying the groundwork in his field. He's one person in history I'd like to meet. Imagine the stories he could tell. Small-framed, lean, and unassumingly mild-mannered, he could easily take down men less than half his age when he was 50. I understand he was the first non-Asian, i.e., white man to earn a black belt in the martial arts.

 

[Harp]

We used rolled up programs not real knives ( I wanted to use my M-3 but they wouldn't let me for some reason !) It was eye opening but very scary.... !

In service, dogs and goats are used for kill practice, then the carcass is butchered for meat.
Same with wire/rope garotte.

 

[DutchIndo]

A friend of mine told me of Cadavers and finger saws in one elite unit (I won't mention them because I don't know if it's true).

 

[H.Johnson]

Yes.

 

[WH1]

I was fortunate to meet Colonel Applegate in the early 90's at the Eugene Knife Show. He was kind enough to autograph my copy of Kill or Be Killed (USMC edition) and I spent an enjoyable 1/2 hour talking with him about his teachings. A great man, truly a larger than life figure but very nice.

 

[5thprofession47]

BUMP...

I've trained in Combatives since 1999. I collect original first editions of WWII combatives books by Fairbairn, Biddle, Styers, and Applegate to name a few. In fact, I have provided Paladin Press with a few of my books and or the dust jackets from books in my collection like Scientific Self-Defence so they could reproduce them.