Article on WWII Commando Unarmed Combat and close Combat Training

Hi

I was recently contacted by David Kentner, who has written an article on WWII Commando unarmed combat training that has just been published in The Globe & Laurel Magazine, which I think is an American publication.

Andy - In December 2009 I contacted you trying to see if I could find any information on a possible No 1 Commando unarmed combat course. There were several responses I knew to be misleading since I had been in correspondence with former Sergt Stanley Bissell who was an instructor at Achnacarry from June 1942 until the end of the war. From the information I received from him I knew that he had devised the unarmed/close combat system used there. I did not bring this up at the time since I felt that it would be inappropriate to bring such an argument up on your site. Recently due to an unique set of circumstances I was offered an opportunity to write an article on the subject for The Globe and Laurel magazine. This article will be published in the upcoming issue of the magazine which will be released on October 12th. I am advising you of this because some of your members may be interested in reading this article.

Yours truly,
David Kentner

I have attached scanned images of David's article, which The Globe & Laurel magazine have given permission to reproduce here.

Cheers Andy

The book mentioned in this article :

The Commander by Robert Henriques is still available on the secondary market.

Henriques was an officer in No12 Commando and this is an autobiographical novel. Many references can be gleaned from it including reference to another No 12 legend Phillip Pinckney.

A great read for all you bibliophiles out there

regs
John M

Hi Andy,

Andy Maines wrote:Hi

I was recently contacted by David Kentner, who has written an article on WWII Commando unarmed combat training that has just been published in The Globe & Laurel Magazine, which I think is an American publication.

Unless there is another, American, publication of the same name, Globe and Laurel is the official journal of the Royal Marines, published six times a year and essential reading for members of the Corps past and present who want to keep up with what is happening in the RM today.
Globe and Laurel has been in production since 1892. It is written by a small dedicated team based in the RM Headquarters in Whale Island, Portsmouth, who collate interesting copy and essential information to publish every two months. The Globe & Laurel team dispatch over 12,500 copies worldwide, to keep past, present and future Royal Marines up to date with what is happening in today?s RM Corps.

Excellent article - thanks for sharing.

nick

Thanks for gaining permission to reproduce the Globe and Laurel Article about Stanley Bissell - you will see I have already referred to it in the thread on Police Intakes, but can now introduce a link to this item that shows the article in full - Regards Mike.

For completeness - here is a link to the Police Intakes thread referred to in my posting above, of just a few minutes ago

http://www.commandoveterans.org/cdoForum/posts/list/0/3615.page#12886

Regards
Mike

Hello;

I recently interviewed a Lady in PLymouth who suggested that during WW2 she had 8 commandos training in unarmed combat living in her house. She said that they had rifles but never had a uniform. Have you ever heard of anything like this?

?Auxiliary Units & Special Duties Section?s? I wonder if these were the answer to my question?