ANOTHER LETTER BY PILKINGTON DATED OCTOBER 10, 1995. HE WRITES:
“Following the disaster of the Norwegian campaign, and then Dunkirk in 1940, Britain anticipated that Hitler would invade. Desperate measures were called for, because there was little left in the way of arms or ammunition, also the nation had suffered a blow to its spirit. “The Local Defense volunteer Force became, officially, the Home Guard, a body of willing but untrained men, mostly ex-servicemen from the 1914-18 war. In desperation the Government of the day called in two officers from the Shanghai Municipal Police. These were Captain W.E. Fairbairn and Captain E.A. Sykes. “I was introduced to these officers because I had already qualified in Jujutsu to a Brown Belt. Also I was about the only man who had been taught Kendo and Indian Lathi. Captain Fairbairn explained he intended to train a dozen men to become instructors in killing tactics, who would then go out to teach other men to become instructors in the Police, Home Guard, and Civil Defense Corps. These would become the defense of Britain in the event of the invasion. “I found that Captain Fairbairn was very much in charge. Captain Sykes had equal authority, and great ability. He was the finest rifle shot I have ever seen, as well as being very good with the .45 Colt 1911 Automatic pistol. Both officers were very skilled in unarmed combat also, Fairbairn was obviously the master of various disciplines and the first team of 12 potential instructors, including me, soon learned to respect both our tutors. “Captain Fairbairn was very strict, he insisted that the training he gave aimed at perfection. In retrospect, I feel both officers gave us all very good ability to impart knowledge to others. “Captain Fairbairn was a hard man, so was Sykes [now called Bill Sykes, but most certainly NOT to his face] but he had a lot more patience. They were two different men, of course. ‘Bill Sykes looked like a village person, round faced, he had a mild look, unlike Fairbairn who looked hard, despite white hair, horned rimmed glasses giving him the look of a schoolmaster. Bill Sykes was friendly, but never familiar, he would be a bad man to cross. Once or twice he did show temper, but then only for a few moments. “We all learned Fairbairn was married, but we never learned if Sykes was. Apart from his disclosing that before joining the police, he had been a representative for Remington Arms and Ammunition organization, we learned little about him. He did have medal ribbons on his tunic, as did Fairbairn, but I never tried to remember what these were for. “Sykes had a very good knowledge of Martial Arts, and like Fairbairn, he was physically very powerful, and a good boxer. In knife fighting, both Fairbairn and Sykes were excellent. I thought Fairbairn was the better of the two, he was a Master of the blade. Sykes was always relaxed, his moon face was pleasant but you never knew what was on his mind. He was full of surprises in training. “I did teach a few hundred people the killing arts, and I am grateful for the training I experienced with Fairbairn and Sykes, they were really masters of their craft.
FROM THE BOOK: “MAQUIS – THE ACCOUNT OF A FRENCH-AMERICAN OPERTIVE”
AUTHOR: GEORGE MILLER
Such training in these schools had saved his radio operator, he told me. When his circuit got “blown” the Gestapo had captured his operator, a young Frenchman. They searched him, but failed to find the small automatic hidden in a special holster. [Note: a Colt .380 in a crotch holster] The pistol following the rule of his master was ready cocked and at “safe.” When they had handcuffed him they took him away in a car. There were three Germans in the car. One beside him in the back seat. The radio operator had never fired a pistol except in England at the school where he had been taught like us to snap shoot at cardboard targets. He was afraid that he would miss. But he was more afraid of what would happen when he arrived where they were taking him. Despite his manacles he opened his buttons, pushed down the “safe” lever on his [gun] and brought it to the point where it would draw freely. A glance around, he held his breath, drew, and fired as he had been taught. “Bang-bang.” Two holes sprang red in the back of the driver’s neck. The car overturned. He shot the other two.
ELSEWHERE MILLER RECORDS:
We were taught to use the forward-crouching stance and the quick, snap shooting method. Some of us got so accurate with the pistols that we were like King George V knocking down driven grouse. The French-American danced. His legs were tense and springy, but above the waist, except for his straight right arm, his body was loosely balanced. As the targets popped up, or darted from one screened side of the range to the other, his stiff arm leaped to the horizontal and the automatic, a blue, shining continuation of his arm, spoke “crack-crack,” and again “crack-crack.”
FROM THE BOOK: “AMATEUR AGENT”
AUTHOR: EWAN BUTLER.
EWAN BUTLER, AN SOE AGENT, RECALLES HIS TRAINING AT THE HANDS OF E.A. SYKES. BULTER GIVES A PARTICULARLY GOOD ACCOUNT OF THE SOE ASSAULT COURSE AT ARISAIG, JUST WEST OF LOCHAILORT:
This system involved what was called the “battle crouch position.” The gunman crouched slightly, held the pistol in line with the center of his body. Soon is became a second forefinger to him. After several periods on a more or less orthodox range, the students were shown quite an elaborate little village, which lay at the foot of a steep bluff. At the top of the cliff a soldier stood beside a set of levers, which looked somewhat like those in a railway signal-box. The village, we were informed, was full of Germans. It was our business to kill them all. We were given two Colt .45 automatics, already loaded and two spare clips of ammunition apiece. Then, one by one, we were to attack each house in turn. The door of the first house sprang open in response to a brisk kick, and the signalman on the top of the bluff went into action. The houses were fully furnished and fully occupied. No sooner had a dummy, impelled by wires, leaped out of bed to tackle the intruder and been shot for his pains, than a trapdoor opened, “men” emerged from beneath tables, bottles and chairs came hurtling disconcertingly at the gunman’s head. Pistols blazing, one dispatched, as one hoped, all the occupants of the first house, and dashed to the second, where a fresh set of hazards presented itself. By the time I had gone through five houses in a matter of forty-five seconds or so, and had been told that I had scored a creditable number of hits, I was inclined to feel quite pleased with myself. Then came the chilling thought that the dummies, however lifelike their movements, had not been armed.
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