Defendu
A self-defence system that W. E. Fairbairn described in 1926 as a Shanghai police textbook. During the Second World War, Fairbairn taught close combat to British and American units.
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About Defendu
Defendu is a self-defence system that William E. Fairbairn described in the book Defendu (Scientific Self-Defence). It was published in Shanghai in 1926 as the official textbook of the Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore police. Fairbairn was then an instructor with the Shanghai Municipal Police. In the 1925 foreword he writes that the system is entirely new and original and is not to be confused with jujutsu or any other known method. According to him, some holds combine several methods, but most are original. The book covers defence against various holds, disarming an attacker with a pistol or knife, police holds and restraining a detainee, throws, chops with the edge of the hand, the baton, the walking stick and falls. The foreword states that the system requires no athletic ability and teaches drastic and unpleasant ways of defence and attack against the brutal methods of a certain class of people. During the Second World War, Fairbairn taught close combat to British units and to the American intelligence service OSS. In the wartime manual Get Tough! he writes that his methods owe something to judo and Chinese boxing, but are based mainly on his experience from one of the roughest port districts in the world. With Eric A. Sykes he designed the Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife.
History
The book Defendu reprints documents on Fairbairn's training. A photograph from 1908 shows him in Shanghai with the jujutsu professor Okada. A Kodokan certificate admits him as of 8 December 1918 as an instructor of the Shanghai Municipal Police, and another certificate awards him a brown belt, 3rd kyu, in judo in January 1919. The 1926 title page also lists him as a member of the Kodokan with a brown belt of the 3rd degree. Green (2001) writes that the Shanghai police received instruction in Chinese fighting from 1909 and that in the twenties, at Fairbairn's urging, the police officers learned a combination of Japanese throws, British punches, Chinese kicks, Sikh wrestling and the American fast pistol draw.
Read more
A letter of recommendation from police commissioner K. J. McEuen of 4 March 1925 introduces Inspector Fairbairn, a training instructor of the Shanghai Municipal Police, who is going on eight months' leave to England to publish a book on the Defendu system. The foreword is signed in Shanghai in 1925 and states that the preparation of the system took several years. The book was published in 1926 by the publisher North-China Daily News and Herald. According to its foreword, the later book Scientific Self-Defence refers to Defendu as an earlier work for the police of the Far East. During the Second World War, according to Green, the United States, Britain and Canada hired Fairbairn, Dermot O'Neill and other former Shanghai police officers to teach close combat to commandos. The foreword of Get Tough! states that the method is approved standard instruction of the British armed forces and that commandos, paratroopers and the Home Guard trained in it. According to the CIA museum, Fairbairn was lent to the American intelligence service OSS as an instructor.
How it differs
Defendu of 1926 is a police manual with restraint holds and handcuffs. Blanton (2008) states that it covers self-defence, disarming and arrest, whereas Get Tough! of 1942 was written directly for the British Army. The foreword of Get Tough! does not refer to Defendu. Rex Applegate, in the foreword of the book Kill or Get Killed (1943), thanks Major Fairbairn and Captain Sykes for his education in close combat. A thesis by Lorah (2010) states that Applegate modernised the techniques of his teacher Fairbairn for American soldiers. Blanton writes that the roots of the older army manual FM 21-150 reach back to the techniques of Fairbairn, Sykes and Applegate from the Second World War, whereas Modern Army Combatives has been based on Brazilian jiu-jitsu since 1995.
Technique
The 1926 book Defendu divides into defence against holds at the wrist, strangles, embraces, holds at the hair, coat and belt, disarming an attacker with a pistol and a knife, police holds including a hold for applying handcuffs, throws, chops with the edge of the hand, fighting with a baton and a walking stick, a knot for tying up a detainee, and falls. The foreword stresses protecting vital parts of the body. The wartime manual Get Tough! groups techniques into strikes, including the edge-of-hand chop, the blow under the chin, the sideways boot kick and the knee, then escapes from holds, holds, throws, fighting with a knife and the smatchet, and disarming an attacker with a pistol. Defendu already contains the edge-of-hand chop.
Training
The foreword of Defendu promises that a sense of safety and self-confidence comes after only a short study of the system and that it does not require athletic performance. In Get Tough! Fairbairn advises choosing roughly ten methods by height, weight and build and practising them with a friend at least ten minutes a day. One practises slowly and smoothly first, then faster, and a strike is never delivered with full force in practice. The foreword warns that almost every method, used without restraint, will lead to the opponent's death or maiming, and adds that in war one cannot afford oversensitivity. According to the National Park Service, Fairbairn taught OSS agents at camp B-2 in today's Catoctin Mountain Park. His fighting, called gutter fighting and later known as the Fairbairn technique, combined jujutsu and street fighting. The camp had sawdust pits for practising jujutsu, wrestling and knife fighting and a house for close-range shooting.
Today
The American field manual FM 3-25.150 of 2002 and the current training circular TC 3-25.150 of 2017 mention neither Defendu nor Fairbairn. Under the heading Defendu, the English Wikipedia describes a close combat system that, according to it, Fairbairn and Sykes developed in the twenties and that was later taught in expanded form in SOE and OSS. The 1926 book, however, names Fairbairn as the sole author and does not mention Sykes. According to the CIA museum, the Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife was introduced in 1941 and its authors gained experience of close combat with the Shanghai police.
Did you know
The foreword of Get Tough! states that American Marine Corps units stationed in China from 1927 to 1940 learned the method directly from the author when he was deputy commissioner of the Shanghai police. Green (2001) writes that the superhuman abilities of James Bond in applied violence apparently come from a demonstration by former Shanghai police officers near Ottawa in 1943. On the title page of Defendu of 1926 the Kodokan is listed as Tokyo Jui-jitsu University. The later book Scientific Self-Defence states that Fairbairn holds a black belt of the 2nd degree of the Kodokan and studied Chinese boxing under Tsai Ching Tung, a former instructor of the retinue of the Dowager Empress in Beijing.
Frequently asked questions
Who created Defendu and when?
The system was compiled by William E. Fairbairn, an instructor of the Shanghai Municipal Police. He signed the book's foreword in 1925 and states in it that the preparation took several years. The book was published in Shanghai in 1926.
Is Defendu the same as Fairbairn's wartime instruction in Get Tough!?
Not quite. Defendu is a police manual with restraint holds and handcuffs, Get Tough! of 1942 was created directly for the British Army according to Blanton (2008) and also includes knife fighting. The foreword of Get Tough! does not refer to Defendu.
What belt did Fairbairn hold in judo?
The Kodokan certificate printed in Defendu awards him a brown belt, 3rd kyu, in January 1919, and the 1926 title page gives the same. A black belt of the 2nd degree is stated only in the later book Scientific Self-Defence.
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