Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife. F-S knife.
Field service knife. Length - possibly six inches and six inches.
Some blades were nine inches. The secret of this knife is not because of
the cutting edge, but because of the point. This one's a bit blunt. Normally it's a needle point and you don't
need any weight or thrust when you're going to use it. If I'm going into somebody and I'm going to
use this, I don't have to push it forwards. Just grab him and pull him onto the knife.
You got it? Now then, you don't hold the knife this way.
Wrong. It's held between the thumb and the forefinger so that the palm of the hand can
go round it. And if you're going towards a person, you
don't just walk towards it, you change hands very slowly so that he doesn't know which
hand you're going to have the knife in. Right? But mostly, if you're going to do a job on
a sentry, you don't do what they say - lift his chin up and cut his throat like that. Yes, lift his chin up, but put the knife in
by the jugular vein, which is both sides of the throat, push it through, punch it forward. You rip out the lot. Bit of a messy job, but that's it. There is a way of stopping a knife and I'll
tell you this. When I was at Achnacarry, a bloke in my section
disputed the fact that it could or couldn't be done. And I said it could. And he said: "No, you can't. If a bloke's
coming at you with a knife and he's like that," he said "you'd have to be very, very quick
to do it." I said: "Look, with training and practice
it's possible." Well it came to such a point that evening
talking about it that somebody said (with the sheath on) prove it. So this bloke took the knife and I stood there.
And he came at me like this, the way they said not to do it. And as his arm went up I knew he was going
to come down, so I blocked it with my elbow (you never grab it). Blocked it with the elbow,
right? The other hand comes round the back there
and then you take a pace forward...whooph...down. And I broke his arm. I said: "See, it does work!" But the upshot was in the morning we had to
go and see Charlie Vaughan who was the commandant of
the Commmando Training School. And Charlie said to this bloke who's got his
arm in a sling (he'd been seen by the medics) he said to him: "You don't think our methods
of training work." And this bloke went:
"Well...yes sir...well..but...er...um." And Charlie looked at me and he said:
"You think our methods of training are good." And I said: "Yes sir. I've just proved it." He turned round to this bloke with the broken
arm and said: "You can pack your kit and get off the camp. You're RTU'd."
[returned to unit] He's got no faith in the training,
leave it out. But that is a Mark 3 knife, right? And these channels are not for what people
say - to let the blood run through - it's just a gripping effort. Used right, used well, it's a good weapon
for close-quarter combat.
This is the moment that I decided I am afraid of this man.
Reminds me of my grandfather. When I was a teenager I was proud of some new self defense stuff I learned in one of my martial arts classes. I showed him how to deal with a knife attacker and he stopped me saying I was doing it wrong. Then he showed me what he had learned and used in the army.
That is when I found out there is a difference between subduing an attacker and just plain murdering them. He also rolled up his sleeves (he always wore long sleeves) and showed me so.e scars and said when knives are involved, expect to get cut.
Interesting guy, wish I had known more about his time in the armed forces.
Heh. I recorded this video (used to work for the museum). Was NOT expecting him to get up and swipe like he did - hence the bad camera angle... considering he hobbled in with the aid of a walking stick!
Looks like Gareth from The Office was right all along... couldn't find the clip, but:
Do you know what Nemesis means?
Someone's going to mug this 'helpless' old man and have a bad time.
But what if your attacker is armed with fruit?
I was hoping that at the end of the video, the camera would turn around to reveal a crowd of horrified kindergarteners.
Oooh. They don't like it up 'em.