Fairbairn-Sykes Commando knife

 

Recruits undergoing close quarter combat at the Commando Basic Training Centre, Achnacarry, Inverness-shire, Scotland.  9th of January 1943

After the fall of France in June 1940 the British established a small, but well-trained and highly mobile, raiding and reconnaissance force known as the Commandos. They were to carry on the war against the Axis after the evacuation from Dunkirk. The first Commandos were all volunteers selected from existing regiments in Britain.

Fairbairn-Sykes Commando knife.

The British Commando knife was first designed in 1940 by close combat legends William Fairbairn and Eric Sykes, who established and taught the combative training methods for wartime special forces such as the independent companies, SOE, Commandos, U.S Rangers and OSS.

Though known as the FS Fighting knife, this was not designed to be a knife fighting knife, but primarily designed to be used in silent killing actions such as sentry take-outs. The techniques of effective use were taught to various special forces at Highland training centres such as Lochailort Special Training Centre (STC) and Achnacarry, which was the Commando Basic Training Centre (CBTC) from 1942-1945.