Book Review: Rattenkrieg! The Art and Science of Close Quarters Battle Pistol by Robert K. Taubert

Jeff Cooper and I were standing behind the firing line watching the students when I stepped forward to instruct one of them. When I returned Cooper looked at me and said, “I used to know that.” That’s the way I felt while reading Bob Taubert’s new book on close quarters battle with the pistol. This book contains just about everything there is to know on the subject as well as many things instructors and operators take for granted because they are truths learned and accepted long ago.

Taubert is a former combat Marine officer, FBI agent and one of the founders of the FBI’s famous Hostage Rescue Team (HRT). After retiring from the FBI Taubert taught at the Smith & Wesson Academy for several years and has been engaged in teaching special operators all over the world. If you’ve been reading shooting magazines for any length of time you have seen Taubert’s articles under the pen name Bob Pilgrim. He is highly qualified to write this book.

Rattenkrieg, meaning “rat war” is the word the Germans gave to the vicious house to house and room to room warfare they experienced in Stalingrad during World War II. Taubert uses the term to describe close quarters battle (CQB) from right off the end of the muzzle to across the room distances – the fastest, deadliest of all combat arenas. He emphasizes, forcefully and repeatedly, that Rattenkrieg! is an advanced text for trained operators and not a basic manual for either learning how to shoot or conduct CQB operations. Having said that, foundational skills such as the fighting stance, gripping the pistol, the use of sights and trigger manipulation are covered as needed to move on to the more advanced skills. These include shooting with gloves, movement, shooting while moving, multiple targets, ready positions, one handed shooting and team movement. Sections of the book are devoted to an in depth discussion of ballistic shields and their employment, using lights and vehicle assaults. More than 30 pages are devoted to CQB training drills, some I have not seen anywhere else.

As far as criticism is concerned, some parts of the book give the impression of having been cut and pasted into the text from lesson plans and I felt this interrupted the flow of the text. As a firearms trainer, I find no fault with the content of this book and was pleased to learn things I didn’t know and re-learn lessons “I used to know”.

Firearms instructors, police trainers and SWAT or special operations operators should all read this book and keep it handy for reference. Bob Taubert is a master of his craft and this book should serve as the standard text for advanced CQB with the pistol. It’s available at www.amazon.com.

About the Author:

Ed Head is a regular on Shooting Gallery and Down Range TV. He has worked for almost 30 years in law enforcement, first in the United States Air Force and then with the United States Border Patrol, retiring as a Field Operations Supervisor. During his Border Patrol career, Ed worked in a variety of patrol, investigative and training capacities. Ed has an extensive background as a firearms instructor, having trained thousands, ranging from beginners to police, military and special operations personnel. Having taught at Gunsite for 20 years, Ed first trained there under the world famous shooting school’s founder, Jeff Cooper, then later ran the school as the operations manager for more than five years. Ed lives in Chino Valley, Arizona, where he continues to teach and write.