Hand-to-hand in combat

[Jedburgh]

There was a TV special on the History channel the other night about the UK Royal Marines. There favorite close combat tool was the "Boarding Hatchet" a rather nasty looking device used to clear the enemy from the deck of a captured ship. Not a lot of training needed but they certainly seemed to be effective bring back the Ranger Hatchet for the US and the Boarding Hatchet for the UK. Ah the good old days.

Found some visual aids...also appears it was called a Boarding Axe?? but still about the size of a good Hatchet.
http://blindkat.hegewisch.net/pirates/axe.html

Slap - with reference to your earlier mention of Fairbairn, since you're now discussing axes & hatchets I have to bring up the Smatchet:



A site some of you may find both entertaining and informative is Gutterfighting.org. Along with much else, it has online excerpts - and a couple of full pdf's - from some of the classics in the field.