The above picture was given to me by Col Rex Applegate. He believed a combatant should always use primary armed threat neutralisation but must be prepared to take the enemy out by foul dirty tricks brigade best of battle proven unarmed combat means and methods, if compromised and in an unarmed kill or get killed life or death close quarters combat actions on.
He believed this picture was a fine example of the epitome of unarmed close combat and how the combatant must be prepared and willing to do anything it takes to win as there is no second place loser in military close combat and there is no survivor only a winner.
Depth of knowledge and proof of skills capabilities comes from long term close combat actions on outcomes and lifetime military close combat expert instructors ensuring the training is the most current and best of battle proven tactics and skills during their tenure commanding CQC/MSD. Long histories of victory over defeat in close quarters actions against enemy fighting styles has proven the superiority of allies’ close combat training and has seen foundation, fundamental and primary threat neutralisation close combat threat neutralisation stand the test of time. Combining such battle proven principles, tactics and skills with the most current military combative trade-craft threat neutralisation means and methods of objective achievement arms the combatant with the very best capabilities to defeat formidable enemies.
There is no substitute for battle proven capability and high-level military CQC instructor expertise when it comes to military close quarters kill or die actions on.
Having a lineage of training and qualification from leading military close combat experts past and present combined with a long record of service as a military CQC/MSD Chief Instructor shows depth of knowledge and expertise.
Having such connections with the past and present is important in the military CQC tradecraft for the development, testing and proving of best means and best chances of threat neutralisation.
While not all ancient practices may be primary practices today, the best of battle proven that have stood the test of time certainly are.
The Todd Group have direct instructor qualification lineage from Baldock, Nelson and Applegate and from these and other allied instructor connections have been privy to skills and systems of other leading former military instructors in Fairbairn, O’Neill, Calvert and others, not to mention connections and qualification achieved from several of the next generation of military Master-Instructors.
The following some information on the history of our European military armed and unarmed combat.
It is true that every early civilisation had methods of fighting, but the history outlined here is of European military specific battlefield armed and unarmed combat. Ancient Egyptians practiced close combat over 6000 years ago. Records of the Celts reveals their practices of close combat date back a century before Bodhidharma who is regarded as the founder of kung fu. Competitive forms of deadly combat were being contested before and at the ancient Olympics as early as 688 BC. Training at this point in time was battlefield kill or die specific and evidence can be found in ancient Celtic engravings and etchings showing combat training in various armed and unarmed practises as well as battle fitness training exercises. Christianity destroyed much of the records of ancient European close combat in belief that it was non-Christian. The ancient Europeans had the ultimate tests of effectiveness in life or death close quarters actions on battlefield engagements as well as in deadly outcomes competitive battles. Swords being utilised in combat had been depicted in detailed drawings as early as 1200 BC and for over 300 years the Roman Empire conducted gladiatorial combat where combatants would kill or be killed.
It was the advance of weaponry that eventually saw the decline of many unarmed practices. European close combat has largely been forgotten due to the secrecy it was surrounded by through history. Ancient artefacts like challis’s and sword scabbards dated back to the fourth century BC and depict soldiers practising close combat. Greek Pankration dates back to the first Olympics in the seventh century BC.
The Galatian Celts were employed in early close combat skills training to combat the Greeks as they fought their way through Greece into Anatolia. Many Greek soldiers who trained in early close combat and fought the Galatian’s were Celtic mercenaries. When Alexandra the Great’s Empire extended to India, the considered birthplace of eastern martial arts, his soldiers left behind the basics of their close quarters fighting skills. These early European warring factions practiced every detail of close combat as their lives depended upon such skills and training. The early Europeans produced countless weapons to supersede enemy weaponry and fighting skills capabilities.
Leaping forward to the 1st and 2nd world wars and same or similar primary skills were included in allies’ military unarmed combat and military self-defence training combined with current skills to best arm combatants with best means of defeating enemies.
British Major William Fairbairn, considered one of the experts of European modern military close combat, was proficient and well versed in the early European methods of military close combat and combined with his US counterpart Colonel Rex Applegate they were given the responsibility by their prospective governments to learn all they could of fighting methods of the world both enemy and allied.
Fairbairn analysed the methods and practises from the late 1800’s onwards and as such he became well versed and proficient in some Eastern styles giving him a vast knowledge in the mastery of fighting arts of the world and how to combat them. This insured his programmes; practices and principles were the best of battlefield means of enemy threats neutralisation. It was with this vast wealth of knowledge that Fairbairn, Sykes and Applegate and their instructor cadres trained some of the most elite covert operatives of the Second World War.
With military close combat’s history dating back to the ancient Europeans and the Celtic warriors through to the great wars and all conflicts until the present, military close combat has a history of success in conquering enemy fighting styles by best of battlefield European military CQB/CQC/MSD.
The Todd Group formerly the Baldock are the oldest and only training providers of our European military close combat packages with direct instructor qualification lineage to some of the leading Chief instructor experts from WWII.
Military CQB/CQC/MSD is a living military tradecraft constantly kept at the forefront of enemy technique capabilities by the best of battle proven over kill covert or deliberate overt enemy incapacitation or elimination.
There is nothing competitive or traditional about European military close combat as it is a deadly tradecraft that provides role and duty specific means of disarming, disabling and disposing of formidable enemy combatants.
Some of the ancient European combat sports origins that were derived from military unarmed combat share some of the same or similar basic fundamentals of European military CQC in stances, footwork, guards, holding ground and other principles and practices.
The work of our evolutionary pioneer former instructors and their predecessors is being continued today by the Todd Group.