New Zealand’s Geoff Todd has a background in CQB (Close Quarters Battle) dating back to the evolutionary pioneers of Elite Forces CQB. Better known in Elite Forces circles as ‘Tank’ Todd, Geoff was a student of the late Harry Baldock, an Army physical training and Unarmed Combat Instructor of the Second World War and a New Zealand leader in the field of physical culture, Wrestling and Jiu Jitsu.
Harry Baldock opened his civilian training facility in the 1920s and, upon his retirement, turned it over to ‘Tank’ Todd, who has been its Chief Instructor for the past 20 years. The facility is reportedly New Zealand’s oldest and, over its 70-year history, has seen Police, Military Personnel and Martial Artists from all over the country, and many other parts of the world, enter its doors.
Another of ‘Tank’ Todd’s instructors was New York’s internationally renowned Charles Nelson. From Nelson, ‘Tank’ underwent Urban Self-Defence and Marine Corp Hand-To-Hand Combat training, during visits to Nelson’s New York Studio over a 10year period. He still visits Mr Nelson for continued advanced training and is one of only a handful of the veteran New Yorker’s students to qualify as an Instructor First Class, and to become a life member.
A former Marine Corp Hand-to-Hand Combat Instructor of over 10 years’ experience, Charles Nelson saw action in the Guadalcanal campaign. He joined the US Marines in 1934 and trained directly under Colonel Biddle, Instructor to both the Marines and the FBI. He was also the undefeated Marine Corps Lightweight Boxing Champion.
Colonel Biddle passed on to Nelson what he had learned during tours of China, Japan, and his extensive study of Captain William Fairbairn’s Defendo System. Biddle studied various fighting arts of the world, and boxing, from the 1890s, sparring and training with some of the world’s greatest fighters. They included Bob Fitzsimmons, John L. Sullivan and Gene Tunney.
Biddle also won an American Heavyweight amateur boxing title. He was also skilled in British Bayonet Fighting, Savate, Fencing, Knife-fighting, Jiu Jitsu and his own form of Unarmed Combat, in which he drilled his troops.
Charles Nelson’s fellow instructors included John Styers (author of ‘Cold Steel’) and Sergeant Kelly, who had been attached to the International Police stationed in Shanghai in the 1930s. Sergeant Kelly trained Nelson in his lethal version of CQB and the famed O’Neil system.
Pat O’Neil, a former Detective Inspector in the Shanghai Police Force, under Captain William Fairbairn, later trained the joint Canadian and American 1st Special Service Force, the OSS and the British SAS.
Colonel Rex Applegate was the Director of the OSS, the predecessor of the CIA, from 1942 and his job was to learn all he could about CQB and train various covert operators to work deep behind enemy lines, often without weapons other than their unarmed combat skills. Colonel Applegate was a personal assistant to the ‘Grandfather of CQB’, Captain William Fairbairn, and worked closely with him and his assistant, Eric Anthony Sykes, another former member of the Shanghai Police.
Collectively they formulated methods for silent and quick unarmed killing, designed the famous Fairbairn Sykes Commando Dagger and its successor, the Applegate Fairbairn Fighting Knife, the Combat Smatchet, and formulated the form of Combat Shooting known today as Instructive Point Shooting.
Colonel Applegate is a living legend and an authority on riot control, combat shooting, knife fighting and unarmed combat. He is the last living evolutionary figure of the early pioneers who developed the Special Operations CQB as we know it today. From Colonel Applegate, ‘Tank’ Todd learnt his specialist skills, and of the Fairbairn and Sykes methods of human destruction. The Kiwi expert considers his time with Colonel Applegate both an honour and learning experience at the highest level, which confirmed and corrected his previous knowledge and skills in the battle-proven Elite Forces CQB field.
Captain William Fairbairn, of the British Armed Forces, was the single most important evolutionary figure in the development of CQB as we know it today. Fairbairn’s service took him to Seoul, Korea, from 1901 to 1907, and then from 1907 until 1940 he trained and led the famous Shanghai Police. He was responsible for developing the skills to combat the mass crime problems of the Shanghai waterfront, where rapes, murders and robberies were the order of the day for the Asian gangs all reputedly skilled in the various Martial Arts of their cultures.
Fairbairn’s service record in Shanghai reported that he was personally engaged in 600 violent armed/unarmed and multiple gang member attack situations, where he proved the worth of his CQB system by reportedly defeating all attackers and overcoming all situations.
To develop the skills to defeat the close-combat systems of other cultures, Fairbairn studied many fighting arts of the world. He was the first non-Japanese to achieve a Black Belt from the Kodokan University of Jiu Jitsu, Tokyo, and in 1931 he received his 2nd Degree Black Belt Belt from the great Professor Jigoro Kano, President of the Kodokan.
At the Chinese Imperial Palace Fairbairn studied Chinese Boxing under Tsaiching Tung, chief bodyguard to the late Dowager Empress. After Shanghai, Fairbairn’s instructing positions included the British Secret Service, British Commandos, the SAS (Special Air Service) and their founders the Stirling brothers, the office of Strategic Services, the Canadian Special Forces, United States Marine Corps, the British Special Training Centre and various schools for ‘dirty fighting’ and quick and silent killing.
So much of the background of these evolutionary figures has remained ‘mysterious’ due to the highly classified nature of their wartime roles; and so much of the literature and text on CQB has been censored for the civilian market, that there are relatively few living people privileged to have been trained to a high level in real, ‘uncut’, special operations CQB. New Zealand’s Geoff ‘Tank’ Todd can lay claim to be one of those few.
In brief, from Colonel Applegate, Todd learnt of his CQB and Fairbairn and Sykes’ methods used to combat the Asian crime gangs, while operating in the Shanghai Municipal Police, and all their wartime covert and operational CQB skills.
From Charles Nelson, ‘Tank’ Todd was individually tutored in his complete hand-to-hand combat and urban self-defence systems. Charles Nelson also trained him in the hand-to-hand combat methods of Biddle, O’Neil, Kelly and Styers. All of these methods were brief and to-the-point and, most importantly, battlefield proven in real combat.
‘Tank’ Todd contributes the path he took greatly to advice he received from Harry Baldock, who considered the most worthy form of fighting being that of a soldier whose life depends on his training. Harry knew his protégé well and reminded him often that, “his future in any competitive fighting arts would be short-lived with his win-at-all-costs mentality and no respect for rules”…
Harry made comment in the 1980s that Todd had “a brilliant mind when it came to dirty fighting”, and then made arrangements for him to commence training under Charles Nelson, the man he considered the world’s best military-style self defence instructor.
‘Tank’ Todd’s training under the pioneers of CQB did not end his pursuit of knowledge, however, as CQB is progressive in the sense it must continue to combat new threats, modern weapons of war, and enemies of all fighting systems. His background led to an invitation to visit Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for familiarisation and to later undergo a US Army Special Forces Combatives Instructor Selection Course in Thailand, which he passed, and later achieved the prestigious rank of Army Special Forces Combatives CQB Master Instructor.
During familiarisation at Fort Bragg, home of the Green Berets, Todd met Sergeant Major Larry Jordan and was amazed at his combatives skill level and commitment, and has since trained under him at Fort Bliss, Texas, Clinton, South Carolina, Queensland, Australia, and in New Zealand. He holds Larry Jordan in the highest regard and states his opinion that he has seen “no other individual of any modern discipline with such combat ability…”
Sergeant Major Larry Jordan’s profile is as impressive as his ability, including over 20 years’ military experience with the Rangers and USA Army Special Forces. He has held duty positions including Company Sniper, Counter Terrorist Squad and Team Leader, Senior Weapons Specialist, Intelligence and Operations Sergeant and Primary Hand-to-Hand Combat Instructor. He has trained entire companies of Commandos in hand-to-hand combat for foreign countries, has been a covert operator involved in highly classified special operations, has been a SWAT Teams, Police and Drug Enforcement Administration Instructor to over 100 law enforcement agencies. Sergeant Major Larry Jordan has over 25 years’ experience in the Martial Arts and is a Master Level Instructor.
‘Tank’ Todd is reportedly the only non-American to achieve the rank of Army Special Forces CQB Master Instructor, certified by Sergeant Major Larry Jordan, Army Special Forces Chief Hand-To-Hand Combat Instructor.
Another major influence on the New Zealand specialist instructor’s career has been Captain Ben Mängels, formerly of the South Africa Reconnaissance Commandos and Rhodesian SAS, a CQB Instructor for over 40 years. He has been an instructor to the South African Army Airforce Commandos, Navy Marines and British Special Air Service (SAS). Also a former South African Police Officer and Police Instructor, Captain Mängels holds the rank of ‘Professor of Jiu Jitsu’ and is an International Grading Officer with the World British Federation of Martial Arts. He also holds Black Belts in Judo and Karate and has boxed and wrestled.
‘Tank’ Todd trained individually under him in South African Military Elite Forces CQB and Police Tactics and training. He also assisted Captain Mängels in the training of the Dallas Police Department, as part of his testing, and was approved as an International Police Instructor.
All the years of training under the world’s best in the field give ‘Tank’ Todd a unique background. His real love is specialist CQB programme and technique design and instruction, and his expertise has recently become available in Australia via Special Forces Combatives, Bodyguard Training and Crowd Control training courses offered in this country through the School of Self-Defence & Close Quarter Battle. (See advertisement this issue).
He is now overseas director for the International Association of Close Combat Instructors, an organisation of Military CQB leaders from united allied countries whose ranks are graced by only the best in their fields. He trains law enforcement personnel, the Military, bodyguard schools, forensic staff, security companies, emergency services, crowd controllers, and is Chief Instructor and programme designer with an Army Special Forces Group.
‘Tank’ Todd is committed to “being the best CQB Instructor that he can be”, is committed to excellence in technique, and leads by example. He “doesn’t take kindly to fools” and “expects total dedication from his people”.
FOOTNOTE: In New Zealand and Australia the title CQB covers all aspects of Military Armed and Unarmed Combat, whereas in many countries the term CQB covers Armed Close Quarter Combat Shooting only. All modules coming under the one umbrella tends to offer more variety in training options and is an advantage for small, specialist Elite Forces Groups that have to be operational in many roles).
Larry Jordan – whose combative skills level “amazed” Geoff ‘Tank’ Todd – keeps the prisoner under armed control while Todd practises his gagging and tying techniques.
‘Tank’ Todd with the legendary CQB pioneer, Colonel Rex Applegate, among his lifetime collection of CQB paraphernalia.
‘Tank’ Todd visits Sergeant Major Larry Jordan for familiarisation at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Legendary New York Urban Self Defence specialist, Charles Nelson (holding a ‘slight advantage’ over NZ’s ‘Tank’ Todd, above) instructed the enterprising young Kiwi combatives instructor in every possible Close Quarter firearms disarming position and option. And just how does Mr Todd extricate himself from this tricky situation? You’ll have to do the training course…
