Army Close Quarters Combat

Michael Anstice

North Korean forces crossed the 38th Parallel in June 1950 and invaded South Korea. American ground troops were immediately ordered in and, after Britain and its main Commonwealth partners pledged their forces to maintain South Korea's independence, these were integrated as the 1st Commonwealth Division. In October China entered the war.

Anstice was a troop leader in B Squadron 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards (5 RIDG). His Regiment, equipped with Centurion main battle tanks, was supporting the 1st Battalion The Black Watch, and deployed in a strategically important position along a complex junction of ridges – known as "The Hook" – which dominated the Samichon River valley.

On the evening of November 18 1952 the Chinese launched a massive attack on "The Hook" and 5 RIDG came under heavy and continuous shelling, mortar and small arms fire. The Black Watch were forced back and at one o'clock the next morning, their CO asked for a tank to lead his men back to the top of the "The Hook" and to give support and searchlight assistance in the confused and bitter fighting.

Several tanks had already been hit and Anstice, appreciating the extremely slim chances of getting a tank up the narrow track in the darkness, decided to go himself. One side of the track was open to a precipitous drop and, on the way up it, sustained shelling and accurate sniper fire forced him to close the hatch – making the ascent yet more hazardous.

With his tank immobilised, and under intense shell and mortar fire with fierce close-quarter fighting going on all around him, Anstice succeeded in getting the wounded man out of the driving compartment and into the turret. Then, with the wireless operator driving, he reversed his tank down the hill to a point where he could evacuate his casualty.

He then went back to another fire position and continued to engage the enemy. At first light the Chinese, unable to consolidate their position, withdrew. Anstice was awarded an immediate MC. His skill and courage in an action which lasted for some nine hours, the citation stated, was far in advance of what might have been expected of a very young and inexperienced officer.

Michael John Christian Anstice, the son of Vice-Admiral Sir Edmund Anstice, was born at Goodamoor (now Dartmouth Zoological Park) on October 5 1929. After Wellington and Sandhurst, he was commissioned in 1949 into the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards.

Muay Thai Knee Strike Alternative For Close Combat | Full Contact

The recent pop­u­lar­ity of mixed mar­tial arts has played a role in the surge of inter­est in self defense train­ing. How­ever, this sports based self defense plat­form has caused a bit of con­fu­sion about which tech­niques are actual mixed mar­tial arts moves, bound by rules, and which tech­niques are actual self defense tac­tics that can save your life.

Per­haps one of the most com­mon mis­con­cep­tions is that the Muay Thai knee strike is the best move for grap­pling in close quar­ters com­bat. True, it is pow­er­ful and packs some seri­ous knock­down poten­tial and it’s used by trained fight­ers in mixed mar­tial arts tour­na­ments all the time. How­ever, in real life self defense sce­nar­ios; you’re not fight­ing in a padded ring. You’re often in the streets, fac­ing an attacker that wants to hurt or kill you. For­tu­nately there’s an even bet­ter move for close quar­ters com­bat that can over­come some of the mis­takes with this mixed mar­tial arts favorite…

The biggest rea­son that using the Muay Thai knee strike can be a mis­take is that when you throw your knee, you might get your­self off bal­ance. The one thing that keeps you on your feet is your sta­bil­ity and when you’re in a real life self defense sit­u­a­tion, you have to every­thing pos­si­ble to stay on your feet. Addi­tion­ally, if you’re locked up with an attacker, you’re prob­a­bly not in a very good posi­tion to line your knee up prop­erly. Instead of using a knee strike, it would be bet­ter to first gain con­trol, and then use a self defense tech­nique that is going to help you inflict dam­age, allow­ing you to escape.

You would be much bet­ter off tar­get­ing the top of your attacker’s foot than you would be if you used a knee strike. There are sev­eral small bones on the top of the foot that are very vul­ner­a­ble and pretty easy to break. Most attack­ers won’t expect you to attack this part of their body.

To exe­cute this self defense tech­nique, bring your heel down on your attacker’s foot with as much force as pos­si­ble. You want to hit the area on the top of the foot where the shoelaces are tied. This will effec­tively crush those small bones in the foot, caus­ing your attacker to raise his foot as a nat­ural reaction.

With this self defense move, you’ve put your attacker on one leg. Now you will be able to man­han­dle him, mov­ing him to a posi­tion that gives you the upper hand. For exam­ple, you can bring your attacker to the ground by twist­ing him into a fol­low up take down. Another option that you can use instead of the knee strike is to step out­side and behind your attack­ers sup­port­ing leg and throw him over your hip. This will put him in the dirt.

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