The advent of World War I (the war to END all wars) brought warfare into a new and foreboding era of man-to-man murder and slaughter. Air power, mechanized warfare, chemical warfare, and the widespread use of machine guns changed the face of battle almost completely. However, the one fact remained that in the end it was STILL man against man in a desperate, brutal and deadly fight for survival. The static and stagnant lines created by entrenched warfare required new and innovative tactics and strategies. Among these was the advent of “raid” groups. Small groups of lightly armed men who ventured into “no man’s land” for the purpose of reconnaissance, probing, intelligence, prisoner capture, and psychological “demoralization” missions. The nature of the fighting in these conditions became popularized as “trench warfare.” This was a knife-to-belly hand-to-hand combat. All manner of convenient, specially designed and improvised close combat weaponry was employed. While technological advances were being made in all other forms of warfare, this particularly nasty and vicious man-to-man fighting reverted to the most barbaric, primitive, and bloody “methods” imaginable. Just as it has been since Cain killed Abel and as it will be until the last two humans clench their fists or sixteen stones in furious rage during the final tumult of the Apocalypse.

Encouraged by this, most military forces researched, developed, and implemented fairly comprehensive and rigorous training methods specific to hand-to-hand combat and “trench fighting.” The bayonet, knife (especially the trench knife), and hand-to-hand combat became major training doctrines along with advances in general physical conditioning and battle readiness. Unarmed melee methods were drawn from any and all man-to-man combat sources. Boxing, wrestling, Savate, jujitsu, and any number of street gouge tactics and “rough and drop” kicks were employed. Those charged with the task of developing such training programs were well AWARE of the fact that NO SINGLE “approach” to combat was ENOUGH in a REAL man-on-man battle to kill or be killed!

Punching, kicking, hitting, shoving, stomping, biting, tearing, throwing, tripping, choking, strangling, breaking bones, and using ANY and ALL weapons of convenience to hand-to-hand combat were EMPHASIZED! The above should satisfy and meet the “definition” of any of the MIXED martial tactics and techniques (even if muay thai or, more accurately, Siamese boxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu were not included). And to be fair, I do have books in English from the late 1920s and early 1930s that detail Siamese boxing quite well. As an aside, one manual details the “favorite” attacks of Siamese-style boxers as targeting the liver with brutal kicks and the throat while grabbing hair with one hand and punching the throat with the other fist (gloves were NOT worn in this time). The liver attack was lethal in many cases due to the widespread malaria epidemic which left the spleen swollen and distended even if it survived and made it a deadly focal point of attack. DEATHS occurred DAILY in these matches and were considered just a routine “trade” hazard.

The years after World War I saw an increase in self-protection “systems” designed and “commercialized” for the average citizen. Law enforcement organizations also began paying more attention to this area of ​​training. This was just part of a move to increase the professionalism of law enforcement personnel in general. Virtually ALL of these “systems” advocated a comprehensive and well-balanced approach to personal combat. Elements of boxing, wrestling, foot fighting, and jiu-jitsu as a “mixed” toolbox of self-defense tactics became quite popular. Even methods that were primarily associated with western boxing and wrestling maneuvers recognized that a well-rounded combatant MUST be able to BOTH hit effectively and grapple. Other methods promoting “jiu-jitsu” as a singular response to grappling and self defense advocated a “jiu-jitsu” WHICH was quite comprehensive in its curriculum of punches, punches, kicks, and grappling methods. It would be VERY nice to remember here, that despite all the “talk” about WE Fairbairn, during this period the Shanghai Municipal Police academy trained their recruits in BOXING – WRESTLING AND JIU-JITSU! Or as one SMP veteran put it……………………………. “our training in this area was a MIXED BAG of physical skills” ! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!

There was virtually NO “authority” or “expert” in this field who would NOT advocate a “MIX” of punching/kicking and grappling either as a combined “method” or as found singularly as in “real” Japanese jiu-jitsu. When it was “for all the marbles” NO ONE would be so myopic as to deny ANY and ALL possible methods of attack and defense. As far as a “living life” training goes, the jiu-jitsu (NOT Kodokan Judo) “free practice” of this period allowed for pretty much ANYTHING. It includes atemi to almost ALL kyusho points, including the testicles, the base of the skull, etc. The ONLY “advice” offered was NOT to hit so HARD as to KILL your sparring partner, SAVE that for “battles” against OTHER jiu-jitsu schools!

ONLY in the arena of combat sports did this division of methods, pitting one against another, become a somewhat popular pastime. The pairing of fighters against boxers, either against jiu-jitsu men, or Savate fighters against boxers (Biddle fought such a match while in Paris) was done under a constantly changing set of rules, for which became practically impossible to really determine. which “method” was superior, and even then, as some sportswriters at the time pointed out, what did ANY of this have to do with REAL fighting when NO rules applied? Even Jigoro Kano’s nephew got involved in promoting this type of match between Western boxers and native Japanese judokas. They were called “JU (as in Judo/Jujutsu) – KEN/KENTO (as in fist or fist fight)”. Even Choki Motobu, when asked if his Kempo-Karate was “superior” to boxing (after his KO of a Western-style boxer) said that for his “method” to be used against a boxer, specialized training would be needed. specific to that type of combat. you have to undertake Judokas interested in these JU-KENTO bouts sought SPECIFIC instructions on HOW to make Judo work against boxing. An entire book on this subject was published in Japan in the early 1930’s. It is VERY important to remember that ALL of these matches had strict rules and regulations for participation! Few if any of these mandates would have had much bearing on what one might do in a true Pier-Six street fight. As an example: judokas were almost ALWAYS prohibited from using any ATEMIWAZA method (punching, punching, kicking, headbutting and smashing). However, judo “experts” of the day have often argued in their writings that ATEMI would be the MOST preferable method of attack and defense in a serious matchup.

The bottom line here is simply this: for use in a REAL violent assault, NO ONE except a total FOOL would suggest an attitude or method that comes close to anything LESS than the ALL INCLUSIVE “anything goes” doctrine. As far as “sports combat” goes, NOTHING was ever, or ever could be, conclusively proven to be superior to anything else. At one time or another, ANY of these various “methods” had BOTH large and impressive WINS and equally impressive FAILS.

In the next installment, we will look at the World War II era and define the true meaning of the term “combatants”.

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