The history of European Military formalized armed and unarmed combat as researched by its legitimate and loyal subjects.
Readers will be able to say I read these details first in AMA (AMA – Australasian Martial Arts was the former name of Fight Times magazine), before all the wannabe unarmed combat experts in their own minds take hold of the following information and say it is their own when trying to impress naive course goers of their wide knowledge and ability and of course, qualifications in military close combat. It wouldn’t be so bad if they had the backgrounds and if they could be correct copycats when relaying fact and material. But knowing human nature as I do, the facts tend to become stretched and bent out of shape often to include other’s philosophies or to ensure their roots are part of the family tree when by doing so the entire report becomes a lie not worthy of the breath it takes to inflict such untruths on any audience. We can all be right or wrong in our ideas and research but at least it is of our doing and that we have completed the work to compile a conclusion not bastardised the work of others.
This report and the reports to follow are the work of current and former military elite forces close quarter battle master chiefs and will provide you with non-fictitious principles, tactics, methods and information. I hope you enjoy these reports into the military science of close quarter battle. Part two will cover the evolutionary pioneers of the last century and the modern day masters.
Origins of C.Q.B.
Many martial artists believe Western military close combat is derived solely from Eastern Martial Arts. This is a gross misconception that the following material will reveal. The misconception is often born out of a lack of knowledge of early European close combat and the use of titles such as “unarmed combat” by martial artists teaching Asian martial arts methods not military methods. It is true that all early civilizations had methods of fighting but the military European methods we refer to in this work were structured European methods of military combat that have evolved over the centuries to the point of where we find our modern day military close combat today. 18th and 19th century military close combat chiefs of staff were well versed in the history of their trade and the systems of other cultures or enemies. On the other hand, Eastern practitioners did not have the same access to European highly guarded methods of close combat of that era. Logistics, time frames and security were some reasons for this.
Much English technique recordings were lost or destroyed over time and also there was deliberate withholding and destruction of information. Much of the technique was lost due to the fact of the advanced state of European ballistic firearms.
The Asian arts often continued as they were way behind the Europeans when it came to military weapons and were often still employing traditional martial arts on the battlefield.
Ancient Egyptians practiced unarmed combat six thousand years ago, 1200 years before Kung Fu’s founder Bhodidharma entered the Shaolin Temple. The Celt’s records show their unarmed combat was a century ahead of Bhodidharma and boxing was being contested at the Ancient Olympics as early as 688BC.
Interesting to note, British edged weapons have been developed by military instructors through the centuries and this was the case in the 1930’s with work on daggers by Fairbairn, Sykes and Applegate and still is today with Colonel Applegate and other military CQB Master Instructors such as Tank Todd designing specialist military daggers for elite units.
Ancient Celt engravings show combatants training with hand weights impressing the organized nature of unarmed combat practices. The Celtic combat ways have been described as pre-Christian and much information was lost to Christianity. The ancient European arts had the ultimate test of effectiveness – life or death battle and in the modern day equivalent, the equation is once again the same.
Swords in combat have been found recorded by detailed drawings as early as 1200BC.
For over 300 years the Roman Empire conducted Gladiatorial combat where combatants must kill or be killed. It was the advance of weaponry that saw the decline of the medieval knight and chivalry. The European warring arts were as brutal if not more brutal than any methods of close combat you would find anywhere in the world.
People speak of Jiu Jitsu and Samurai Swordsmanship, of Karate and Ninjutsu as if these Eastern arts were the first and foremost methods of combat. Anyone who has studied early European Combat or has seen the Rob Roy or Braveheart movies would get a picture of the level of commitment of combatants of this era could identify with the fact that these combatants, armed or unarmed, were of robust stature and were committed to war.
Gladiation knights in armour were all early combatants armed with their methods of combat and chosen weapons, whether it be swords, bows, daggers, clubs, flail type weapons or spears. The unarmed training consisted of skills that were brutal and unannounced. They were all designed around the principle of getting your enemy down and keeping him down permanently. Blinding, biting, breaking his bones were just for starters if weapons or improvised weapons were not at hand.
The early combatants knew also how to use their environment against their enemy. They would use the ground, a wall or a tree as a battering ram with their enemy’s head. They would use dirt, dust or sand to impair their enemy’s vision and they would use waterways to drown their enemies and fire.
These people were warriors of the land and knew how to use it to their advantage whether it was to set up or ambush or to gather medicines from it or make poisons. Just like military C.Q.B. today, as time evolved, so did the methods of combat and the weapons.
In Great Britain many of the unarmed combat practices have evolved through the centuries of warring and in the U.S. many practices date back to the frontier, the civil wars and far before to the pioneer settlers.
Western close combat was well established before the influence of the Eastern arts and although such pioneers as Fairbairn, Sykes, Applegate, Biddle, O’Neil and Nelson may well have studied, or had knowledge of, Eastern arts it was more a means of understanding the Martial Arts of other cultures that in some situations may have been considered threats or enemies so as to be able to ensure the methods taught to their country men and allies could combat any threat they came up against. These pioneers were of a high intellect and were doing something their Eastern counterparts weren’t, familiarizing themselves with foreign fighting systems.
If you look closely at true military close combat you will soon recognize that it is a science and a system of its own and that it does not possess the ritual and tradition of the Eastern arts as it continues in the same manner as it was trained in and used by its predecessors, that being the combating of the enemy. European close combat has largely been forgotten due to limited records of techniques, however history does record on the scabbards of Celtic swords and other precious items, engravings that date back to the 4th Century BC. These engravings depict subjects involved in close combat, Greeks practising their combat method of pagration. Celtic engravings of close combat have been found as early as the 4th Century BC and pagration was around at the time of the Olympics in the 7th century BC. The Galation Celts would have employed their early close combat to fight the Greeks as they fought their way through Greece into Anatolia.
Many Greek soldiers who fought the Galations were Celtic mercenaries. An interesting revelation is that when Alexander the Great expanded his empire to stretch as far as India, the considered starting place of Asian Martial Arts. It is now considered by martial arts historians that his army left behind them the basics for the development of the Asian arts. The Celts in these early times had a great mastery of close quarter fighting and weaponry. They could not be considered as civilized or as soft as the human race today. Ritual, tradition, good health practices or breathing may not have been their forte, but being a warrior was. There is so much we don’t yet know of these ancient combat ways but hopefully this will open up readers ideas to the origins of true close combat and formulate dialogue on this, one of the most forgotten battle proven and secretly guarded fighting systems that is known to man and has stood the test of time.
In conclusion, although modern day close combat methods appear to date back only to the great wars and recent conflicts and because of the modern nature of their application weaponry and their regular upgrading, mostly it is forgotten that they have European roots that were the forerunners to the Asian arts. It is the nature of military close combat experts in history, past times and present, to be proficient or aware of systems of other cultures for knowledge or methods of battle countering such systems that makes them the true experts they are. It was not common for other cultures to have access to Western military elite forces methods or in many cases even know of them, so many of the Asian arts do not possess the close combat skills of the European warring cultures. It is interesting to note how great pioneers like Captain Fairbairn and Colonel Rex Applegate’s mission was to learn all they could of close combat, past and present and how they have passed this legacy on to current military elite forces Chief Instructors like Tank Todd and it is this continued approach that ensures the work of our close combat association is ongoing and always developing.
Interested in Close Combat Training? Todd Group Depots are located throughout New Zealand and at various overseas locations.
For more information on Todd System of Close Combat see the following books, dvds and cds:
- Close Combat Books
The Do’s and Don’ts of Close Combat – Tactical C&R – Control and Restraint – No Nonsense Self Defence – Military Close Combat Systems Phase One – Combative Masters Of The 20th Century - Close Combat DVDs
Self Defence of the Elite – 80 Years of Combative Excellence – Primary Option Control & Restraint – Military Unarmed Combat – Phase 1 - Close Combat CDs
Technique To Command – Combative Code of Conduct
