GERBER MARK II: NOT FOR BABIES

​The British Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife was developed as a tool to compliment their (Fairbairn and Sykes') gutter fighting technique known as the Defendu system. The Defendu system of fighting combined wrestling, boxing, Jujitsu, Kung Fu and Savate, and promoted absolute foul play to neutralize the enemy as promptly as feasible by any means necessary. This close combat system (think Jason Bourne) was perfected by Fairbairn and Sykes from personal, experiential knowhow immediately prior to WWII in 1939. Fairbairn had served with the Shanghai Police in the red light opium district which was haunted by ruthless gangs and considered one of the most dangerous places in the world at that time. It is believed that Fairbairn himself engaged in over 600 fights, and though he received countless stab wounds over his 20 years on the beat, his survival suggests many more victims succumbed to his superior skills. Sykes on the other hand was a marksman and was also working in Shanghai with the British Secret Service, and so in 1941 they were commissioned to establish the Commando School in Scotland to train British and allied commandos and aid resistance movements in their newly crafted art of close quarter combat. 
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Once the school had developed it’s own instructors, Fairbairn was tranfered to Canada to open Camp X and Sykes was moved into the Special Operations Executive to train special agents for clandestine duties behind enemy lines. Following his term at Camp X, Fairbairn was rejoined by Col. Applegate to form the United States Camp B, now known as Camp David. Through Col. Applegate and other instructors the Defendu system was taught to U.S. troops including the Marines and Rangers, as well as OSS operatives and later to the FBI and CIA as the foundation to their basic training. Though the famed FS knife has survived until this day and is still issued to the Ministry of Defense by Egginton in Sheffield (all black, zero-markings), it was not wholly favored by American troops who preferred the clip-point blade of the Ka-Bar configuration: the original FS knife had a needle point which was prone to snapping off (or becoming lodged) in bone or if dropped, so various subsequent evolutions have sought to address this problem.

In 1966 Gerber Legendary Blades, with the design assistance of US Army Captain Bud Holzman, took the FS knife and successfully corrected a couple of its fail points to forge the Mark II. By widening the tip into a spear point, it made it more robust and was thusly chosen for carry by US troops in Vietnam, seeing service alongside the revered Ka-Bar. In today’s beautiful version Gerber utilizes an aluminum handle, a guard to prevent your hand slipping into the blade and a skull punching pommel so in all senses it it is truly a combat knife and one of the few to have survived the tests of time and proven it’s holistic worth in close combat warfare. Like the Ka-Bar it is the forebear to the modern tactical knife and deserves pride of place in every collectors showcase, or, if you are a follower of the binary code then this indeed qualifies as a possible “one” knife. And it’s available today, proudly made in America with American steel AND by the original manufacturing company, Gerber. Considering the brevity of American History, Gerber is to our American warriors what the sword in the stone was to the English knights.  http://www.gerbergear.com/Knives/Fixed/Mark-II-Knife_22-01874
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