CQB (Close Quarters Battle): A Guide to Unarmed Combat and Close Quarter Shooting [Paperback]

Mark V. Lonsdale (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 223 pages
• Publisher: Specialized Tactical Training Unit (June 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 093923503X
• ISBN-13: 978-0939235032
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #276,116 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Unrealistic and vague, December 9, 2003

By 

Seppo Vesala (Helsinki, - Finland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: CQB (Close Quarters Battle): A Guide to Unarmed Combat and Close Quarter Shooting (Paperback)

The best thing in this book is the paper it is printed on; it's semi-glossy and heavy, giving some expectation of quality. The second best thing is that there is surprisingly little text, because some 1/3 of the pages are filled with photos. The fact that this is good news, tells something about the quality of the text.

To start with, the entire idea of presenting the "fighting secrets" of special operations forces in a 200-page book is somewhat absurd, especially considering that the author assumes that the reader does not know virtually nothing about the subject. The techniques presented here are unrealistic in the real world, to a large extent. And finally, the author speaks way too vaguely of the issues he presents, so that you really don't have a chance to learn anything.

The main part of the book concentrates on close combat. Significant amount of these pages is devoted to series of photographs. The photos are supposed to present several unarmed and armed close combat techniques, but they are so small and unclear that you are hard-pressed to figure out what they are depicting. But that's good, because you don't want to learn these techniques, anyway. One amusing thing caught my eye: The author stresses that it is imperative to train in full gear, and carry all the equipment you would be carrying in a real situatoin (that is true, but it is also self-evident). But in about half of the pictures, the guys are wearing karate uniforms!

The reason I bought this book was that I expected to find something on close-quarters shooting. Granted, about the last third of the book is devoted to the subject, but there really is not anything, exept for a total beginner. And for a beginner, there are far better books around.

One thing that especially annoyed me was that the author uses military jargon, apparently to get some credibility. That is the only justification for most of the jargon, as the book is filled with examples like "Any operation in the continental United States (CONUS), that ends in a shooting...", that being the only use of term CONUS in the text. The reason people use abbrevations is to save time and space with frequently used terms, which is not the case with examples like these.

I would recommend this book to a pre-adolescent boy, who wants to impress his pals by how much he knows about guns and real-life combat. If that description does not fit you, stay away from this book.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Covers many topics but not detail enough, March 6, 2001

By 

Huang Wen Li "WL Huang" (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: CQB (Close Quarters Battle): A Guide to Unarmed Combat and Close Quarter Shooting (Paperback)

My disappointment may be caused by I expecting too many. The unarmed combat sessions covers only kid karate class. The mentioned "key strike points" are not secret in Chinese martial art, it is a basic knowledge. I learned Chinese martial art for several years, and I do believe my teacher teached me more than this book in the first year.

For the armed section, it is much better, but discussion is not deep enough. I expect more!

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars CQB, January 15, 2001

By 

Iron Mongoose (Edmonton, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: CQB (Close Quarters Battle): A Guide to Unarmed Combat and Close Quarter Shooting (Paperback)

It appears the book was intended to be formatted along the lines of the Applegate classic, "Kill or get killed". But in terms of content, the book is absolutely without merit. The unarmed combat section is a random collection of techniques based on archaic martial arts, with zero regard for the exigencies of real-world combat and agency mandates. The combat shooting information is informative only to the most clueless of novices. The information on nonlethal weapons MIGHT have been interesting before it was completely outdated. To be fair, the book's been around a few years...

I suppose Mr. Lonsdale does the spec-ops community a service by protecting the confidentiality of their skills and information from being disseminated to the public (and criminals for that matter) while he titillates teenaged wannabes with pics of marines training in raid houses and guys in bow stances doing cross-blocks against knife-stabs. As his customer, though, I'm not impressed. I certainly won't be buying his other stuff.