PREORDER (Delivery NOV 10) The Fairbairn–Sykes Fighting Knife

The Fairbairn-Sykes 'Fighting Knife' was designed by William E. Fairbairn and Eric A. Sykes taken from their experience on the Shanghai Municipal Police and later refined by Wilkinson Sword in Britain in 1940–41.

The fighting knife is a slim, double-edged stiletto-style knife optimised for thrusting, with a vase-shaped/foil handle and a sharply tapered point. It was produced in several wartime patterns as demand and manufacturing needs evolved.

It was famously issued (in 1941) to British Commandos, SOE operatives, airborne forces and later adopted by other SF units. The fighting knife quickly became both a practical close-combat tool and an emblem of the SF fraternity.

Z Special Unit were a clandestine/sabotage and reconnaissance force in the South-West Pacific, set up under the SOE/SRD structure and modelled on British special-operations practice. Their training, tradecraft and mission profiles were drawn from the same SOE/Commando doctrine that propagated the fighting knife throughout the special forces environment.

Whilst detailed unit kit lists for every Z-Special operative varied, British Commando instructors and SOE teams were the main vectors for the Fairbairn–Sykes. The fighting knife became a direct link to the Australian 1 and 2 Commando formations.

The Fairbairn–Sykes was the iconic WWII Commando fighting knife and became standard kit and a symbol for SOE/Commando-style units.  The same British SOE/Commando lineage that trained and influenced Australia’s Z Special Unit explains the fighting knife’s association with Z-Special and Australian Commando personnel and tactics.