Get Tough! by W. E. Fairbairn

. E. Fairbairn is one of the true legends of modern day military hand-to-hand combat, close quarters combat tactics, as well as self-defense methods. In his days he was an instructor to the English army, and developed his methods amongst other things on ju jitsu.

Fairbairn taught at the "Shanghai Municipal Police" prior to World War 2 , and Shanghai at the time was a place widely known for it's gang related problems and violence. Fairbairn is also famous for developing the very well known and respected combat knife used by the British commando forces during and after WW2: The "Fairbairn-Sykes" stilletto knife. In addition to all this he was a widely known teacher and researcher of sivilian self-defense methods - writing many books on the subject. Amongst these books is one about self-defense for women.

Even if Fairbairn in "Get Tough" also recommends his methods to sivilians, it is primarily army close combat we are talking about here. The objective is often to "take out" the enemy or opponent as quickly as possible. In military terminology, the term "take out" does not involve a date or dinner appointment in case you ever wondered. We are talking about maiming or killing here.

Amongst the things being presented are locks, escapes and various methods of arrest. Other things are using a knife and "smatchet" (a small matchete/combat knife). Further you will find the use of strikes, kicks and stomps - very often direct and hard methods.

Some may be shocked by a few of the raw and potentially lethal methods. But let us not forget the time and conditions during which this book was written - 1942. The author himself makes a point of stating this fact - that England was at war. The drawings inside the book only adds to this fact. The opponent is dressed in German wartime uniforms, while the defender is dressed in British uniforms

By and large this is an important and great book. Not only does it contain historical elements that should be of interest - it also has some very functional forms of close combat and self-defense methods described in detail. The fact that Fairbairn is a source of inspiration and is used and referred to up to this day is a proof of this functionality. This goes for sivilians as well as army personel. In short: Get this book! You can search the original version on Abebooks, or get it new from Amazon.

It should be added that Fairbairn developed something he called "Silent Killing Syllabus". This was written in 1944 as  a result of feedback received from army personell engaged in combat operations during the war. These notes from Fairbairn can be found in : "SOE Syllabus: Lessons in Ungentlemanly Warfare", written by Denis Rigden. You can read more about Fairbairn in this book: "Pioneers of American JuJitsu: American JuJitsu Before WW2".

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