Scientific Self-Defence

New York, London: D. Appleton-Century Company Inc., 1931. — 165 p.W.E. Fairbairn's Scientific Self-Defence, published in 1931 as a slightly modified reprint of Defendu (1926), outlines the brutally effective close-quarters combat program developed during Fairbairn's renowned service with the Shanghai Municipal Police. Fairbairn's straightforward techniques for defending against various holds, dealing with assailants armed with guns or knives, applying truly effective holds and throws, using the club and walking stick for self-defense, and other areas of close-in fighting have had an extraordinary influence on the development of the combat arts. His immense impact on generations of fighting men – from an elite cadre of instructors who trained soldiers in realistic hand-to-hand combat during World War II to today's practitioners of hard-core self-defense – can now be studied directly from the source in this quality reprint edition of Scientific Self-Defence.Captain W.E. Fairbairn taught unarmed combat to the famed British Commandos and the U.S. armed forces during World War II. Before the war he served as assistant commissioner of the Shanghai Police Force. He was the inventor of the Fairbairn Commando Knife and the author of the classics "Get Tough" and "Shooting to Live".