Anthony B. Herbert (1930–2014)

This manua provides clear, complete, concise instructions for individual hand-to-hand defense from armed or unarmed attack. It does not presume that the reader will devote his life to acquiring the necessary skill or will have available an expert instructor-rather, it concentrates upon the basic points of self-defense: the vital and vulnerable points of the human body and the characteristics of common weapons.

Since a hand-to-hand encounter is a last-resort measure, no reasonable person will enter into it lightly. For one thing, it usually requires instant resolve-and necessitates disabling an attacker.

The principles of this book teach the reader to recognize in the ever-varying appearance of real-life encouunters the relatively few basic sitautions that are involved. It substitutes sound knowledge for the experience that the reader almost certainly does not have, and could only acquire at great personal risk.

Colonel Anthony B. Herbert is one of he U.S. Army's most decorated combat soldiers, an acknowledged expert in hand-to-hand defense. A scholarly interest in the subject has led him to undertake extensive research for this book, his materials going back as far as the 18th century.

This unique manual can save your life. It contains clear and concise instructions for individual hand-to-hand defense from armed or unarmed attack. Individual chapters cover:

General practice of defense.
Natural weapons of the body.
Releases and counters.
Natural weapons attack in action.
Hand gun disarming.
Counters against knife attack.
Weapons.
Combat with the knife.
Bayonet fighting.
Stick fighting.
The kiyoga.
Razor fighting.
Special military situations.
Especially for women.
Physical and medical implications of blows.

I bought this book not expecting too much, but to my astonishment, it's a GREAT little book. Not too much text, but plenty of good illustrations thet anyone can follow and gain confidence in an instant that they can effectively and efficiently dispose of an assailant. This is an outstanding manual.

This is a very extensive book on the subject of Close Combat. It contains information on unarmed and armed combat, knife fighting and throwing, bayonet use, stick combat,use of improvised/expedient weapons and a detailed examination of just how (medically speaking) the blows you deliver cause the enemy to become disabled.

This book, as mentioned before, provides the reader with quite an extensive amount of information. The main problem with this book is while this great deal of information is presented, it is not properly explained. The author just presents the reader with an EXTREMELY poorly drawn diagram and writes somehing like 'bring fist to throat-TO KILL' and while that's all fine and good, the author NEVER tells us how to actually execute any of the blows he mentions (in fact, the fighting stance is only mentioned in passing and really leaves the reader little idea what to do with it).

Also, I don't think have of the moves in this book would kill, which is not to say they're not effective. I'm sorry, as painful as it is to be kicked in the genitals or elbowed in the spine, it just isn't going to kill you. Trust me, I've experienced both (one of which by a black belt in Karate). The author also assumes that one blow will finish of your attacker, even if its to a place like the knee.

Herbert borrows heavily from masters of Close Combat such as Fairbairn and Styers; he actually even uses diagrams that appeared in Fairbairn's 'Get Tough' and Styers' 'Cold Steel.' That's a good thing, because Herbert realizes that it is might be needed to put down an attacker with extreme, possibly even deadly force. He also kept a minimum fancy moves with throws, sweeps, locks, and foolish ground fighting, all of which would not work in a life-or-death encounter.

Overall, a pretty good book for those seeking self-defence/hand-to-hand combat tactics. Its not the best, and Herbert should have been much more detailed and not emphasized on the carrying of weapons for civilians to use. I'd like to give this 3 1/2 stars, but I think I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and round up instead of down.

This book is a compilation of 4 other books (which the author admits), two of which I am familiar with. Certain sections (bayonet, knife,stick)are just out and out copies from Cold Steel....except where Cold Steel uses photos this book uses drawings. Also, quoted is Cassidy's The Complete Book of Knife Fighting, though not so blatantly. The book also borrows rather heavily I would imagine from Black Medicine Vols 1and 2...I am not familiar with these two. So (...) you basically get a glimpse into four manuals.Some of the info was new to me and its hard to go wrong (...). My interest in this book stemmed from an article on the relevance of bayonet usage in the modern day. It was dismissive of the bayonet as a weapon but lauded the novel uses found in this book.....novel only if you haven't read Styer's Cold Steel.

There were a few significant technical errors in this book (like the old 'jam your fingers through the eyes and into the brain' move -- which does NOT perform as advertised), and the quality of the illustrations is somewhat childish, but it was good for a few laughs. The esteemed Colonel takes himself far too seriously! This book is a bargain compared to his hundred dollar travesty 'The Soldier's Handbook,' which amounted to little more than the information within this book combined with 'The Improvised Munitions Black Books' (which are government documents within the public domain), and a few tidbits gleaned from other government documents (or plagiarized from Minnery's 'How to Kill, Vol. 1'). Like I said, good for a laugh, provided you don't take it too seriously. It's kinda embarrassing when your 'secret deadly strike' does not work!

Its basically a manual that contains Cold Steel,Get Tough, Black Medicine Vol&2,Deadly Karate Blows by Brian Adams,Close Shaves,and Dragon Touch and Deal the First Deadly Blow FM21-150 all rolled up in one volume. It has pretty decent line drawings and is all Close Combat Techniques,nothing fancy, but will get you out of a jam if practiced religiously. Has a breif intro to the Dos and Dont's of H2H thats pretty good. Its a good primer if your looking to get into the Military H2H methods, and the price is right.

Contents

Foreword
Introduction
General practice of defense
I Unarmed defense
Natural weapons of the body
Releases and counters
Natural weapons attack in action
Hand gun disarming
Counters against knife attacks
II Armed defense
Weaons
Combat with the knife
Bayonet fighting
Stick fighting
The kiyoga
Razor fighting
Special military situations
Especially for women
Appendix
Physical and medical implications of blows… (plus d'informations)