This system was built on Defendu, but modified for military applications, rather than police and riot control. Fairbairn and others expanded on this system to create the Close Quarters Combat system that was then taught to the troops. Fairbairn was called upon by the British to help train Allied troops in World War II. The system was know to be very effective and also easy to learn The Shanghai method was used and documented in some 2000 real life encounters by the police, with approximately 700 encounters involving the use of lethal force. This method gave the Shanghai Police department a fast and reliable means of training their officers to combat local gangsters and violent criminals. Also included were point shooting, police batons and other weapons and tactics. His methods of self-defense and close quarters combat incorporated simple, but effective movements from Savate, Judo, Jutitsu, knife fighting and various Chinese martial arts. Fairbairn's CQC-system is also described in Rex Applegate's book Kill or Get Killed. As Taught To The British Commandos And The U.S.
This book was later published in a civilian edition, missing the chapters on bayonet-fighting and rifle sighting, under the name Get Tough! How To Win In Hand-To-Hand Fighting.
T he militarized version of Defendu is described in the military manual All in fighting 1942, used as a supplement during WW2 CQB-training. The book was re-printed as Scientific Self Defence in 1931. From 1907 to 1940 he developed, refined and tested a close quarters combat system that became informally known by some as The Shanghai method. Defendo was developed by Fairbairn in Shanghai from about 1920 and forward. This is my apprehension of the historical path and roots: The first H2H instructor at Camp X was an Olympic wrestler( Relekowsky), and examples of the syllabus Fairbairn taught have been available for years, in David Stafford's book on Camp X, as an example, or in the more recent How To Be A Spy book(Dennis Rigden)which has not just the H2H syllabus, but sections on camouflage, theatrics, guerilla tactics, etc.Ĭlick to expand. His claim that boxing is the basis of the H2H taught at Camp X is questionable. There is no connection with Underwood's Defendo, and less with Fairbairn. I will absolutely agree that Bill Wolfe's Modern Defendo is predominantly HKD, boxing and greco-roman. These techniques were omitted due to impracticality for the task at hand, and time constraints in teaching. Defendu covers a lot of control and restraint techniques that are not in the WWII syllabuses from Fairbairn and Applegate. It is preserved in his book Defendu(1926) and Scientific Self Defense(1931). Defendu was the style that Fairbairn taught to the Shanghai police. Jonathan, I'm going to disagree with you,but only on a technicality.
I would rate them Defendu 1st, Modern Defendo 2nd and Defendo/combato 3rd. Wolfe's system is a mix of hapkido, boxing, greco roman wrestling and a few other things.
I have a theory that Wolfe was exposed to Defendo through the Canadian Army but I have no proof on that one. Modern defendo is also a good system but is totally seperate from the other two. My take on Defendo is that Bill Underwood was amazing but that stuff is a little hard for us normal folk to pull of. Their systems were designed independantly, however. Underwood was a canadian and quite possible taught at Camp X around the same time as fairbairn.
A google search will turn up alot of good material from him.ĭefendo/Combato was designed by Bill Underwood around the same time Fairbairn was forumlating defendu. Defendo and Combato are the same thing unless you mean modern Defendo ala Bill Wolfe.ĭefendu (Gutterfighting) is Fairbairn's system and one of the best Combat systems ever.