James Bond’s Self-Defense Instructors: Fairbairn & Sykes
I have an odd question to ask. Who teaches secret agents and spies how to fight and how do they know what to teach them?
The initial gut reaction may be, “Well, the government teaches them!” But, where did the government learn such tactics? As strange as this question may seem, the British government found themselves asking this question during WWII. Their agents were easily flushed out and dispatched by the German’s spy hunting apparatus. Something needed to be done and a change needed to be made.
Winston Churchill wanted his clandestine services and special operation forces to fight dirtier. He sought a ‘dirty tricks squad’ of sorts to restore the equilibrium and improve the survivability of secret agents and spies. But, who could teach his agents these things? The traditional army didn’t seem like a good choice for such an odd source of knowledge like this.
Old Winston found his instructors in the oddest of places. They would come from a shadier part of the British Empire. In the 1930’s the most dangerous city in the world was Shanghai. It was the home to a criminal underworld that would terrify the toughest policeman. In 1936 Shanghai was Asia’s busiest port and according Christopher McDougal’s book Natural Born…
