Close Quarter Combat

“We got to about 100 yards from their trenches, when the general passed the word that the brigade would fix bayonets and charge…we made a dash for it. The men were falling on each side of me. I was doubled up. Only half of us made it. When I got to their trenches I made a sort of dive at it with my bayonet leading, and it stuck in one of them, in the chest…We stopped in the trenches a while to get our wind, and we shook each other by the hand.” (Private, Northumberland Fusiliers, 1914).
The 20th and 21st centuries have seen the development of deadly long-range weapons, and the overall lethality of weapons has increased substantially. However, throughout the modern era, soldiers in all wars have still fought the enemy at very close ranges. Close Quarter Combat is an anecdotal history of close-range fighting since 1900.
Close Quarter Combat is full of first-hand accounts that bring the fear, intensity and raw courage of this type of combat to life. Read about what it was like to fight among the ruins of Stalingrad and other devastated cities, how men fought with spades and axes on the Eastern Front in World War II, what it is like to fight at night, the experiences of fighting in tunnels in the Vietnam War, what it is like to spring an ambush, and much more. The accounts in Close Quarter Combat give information on what weapons and other pieces of kit are used for particular types of close-quarter combat, and what the ‘golden rules’ are for fighting in particular environments. Above all, this book recreates the horrors of modern war in a way that most histories can never do.
Illustrated with photographs, many of which are from private collections and have never been seen before, Close Quarter Combat includes accounts from British, American, German and French servicemen. As well as spanning many decades, the book covers many battles and campaigns: both World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Falklands campaign and more.
In addition, Close Quarter Combat also includes a section on hostage-rescue, a uniquely modern phenomenon, in which highly trained hostage rescue units battle at close quarters to free hostages from the clutches of armed terrorists.