Unarmed Defense For The American Soldier, June 30, 1942, FM 21-150, Signed Early WW2 Military Police

Here is a landmark training manual that was written at the beginning of WW2 for the training of American Soldiers.  This particular copy of the manual, "Basic Field Manual,  Unarmed Defense For The American Soldier" is dated June 30, 1942.  This is the first edition, and first printing of this manual.  

This manual is a comprehensive manual based on Jiu Jitsu.  It covers everything from hand to hand defense with an unarmed enemy, to disarming a bayonet or sword wielding assailant....... take downs, working with batons, and everything in between.  This manual is still being used in its revised format.  The War Department got this one right on the first draft!

One very interesting thing about this particular copy of the manual, is the hand written name and inscription by the original owner.  "Staff Sargent G.A. Nichol, P.M.G.S., Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas".  The P.M.G.S. stands for Provost Marshal General School, which was the basic school for Military Policeman.  That makes this book a very early piece of WW2 Military Police history!

The MP School was moved to Fort Sam Houston in September of 1944.  6 months later, in March of 1945, it was moved to Camp Bullis where it operated until November of 1946.  Camp Bullis was a sub-post inside Fort Sam Houston.

All in all I would highly recommend this manual to any collector of US militaria or anyone interested in a great manual of practical self defense.  It is profusely illustrated with photographs on nearly every page, has outstanding and easy to understand instructions, and according to the many martial arts reviews I have read online, it is a recommended standard in its field.

Here are a few examples from the pages of this manual.......