John Frederick Charles Fuller

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John Frederick Charles Fuller

John Frederick Charles Fuller CB , CBE , DSO (born September 1, 1878 in Chichester , West Sussex , † February 10, 1966 in Falmouth , Cornwall ) was a British major general , military historian and strategist . He developed the first theories on modern, mobile tank warfare and categories for the various types of warfare . He was also the developer of the searchlight ( artificial moonlight ).

Life

John Fuller attended Malvern College and from 1897 to 1898 the Royal Military College at Sandhurst . From 1899 to 1902 he served in South Africa . He then attended Staff College at Camberley and became an adjutant in a reserve battalion. During the First World War he was a staff officer for home defense and in the 7th Corps in France , from 1916 he served in the headquarters of the Machine Gun Corps , which later became the tank corps . He planned the tank attack at Cambrai (see: Battle of Cambrai ) and the tank operations of the autumn offensive of 1918. His 1919 plan , which provided for a fully mechanized army, was never implemented. After 1918 he held various management positions, namely as commander of an experimental brigade at Aldershot .

After 1920 he worked with his subordinate BH Liddell Hart on developing new ideas for mobilizing the army.

After his retirement in 1933 and because of his dissatisfaction with what he believed to be the inability of a democracy to implement military reforms, he became involved in the British fascist movement under Oswald Mosley . As a member of the British Union of Fascists , he served on the party's executive committee and was one of Mosley's closest confidants. His ideas of mobile warfare were also decisive in the run-up to World War II , ironically, however, they were more likely to be adopted by Heinz Guderian in Nazi Germany than in Fuller's home country.

Fuller's contributions to military history are energetic, expressive, and idiosyncratic. He made some controversial predictions about the future of the war.

Fuller was also a longtime associate and student of the occultist Aleister Crowley and was familiar with his, and other, forms of magic and mysticism .

Works (selection)

  • The Reformation of War. Hutchinson & Co, London 1923.
  • The Foundations of the Science of War. Hutchinson & Co, London 1926.
  • The cancer damage to Europe. in Hans Krebs , Eugen von Engelhardt (ed.): The world front. Voices on the Jewish question. Episode 1 (no longer published). Nibelungen, Berlin / Leipzig 1935 (2nd, expanded edition of a work from 1926; Fuller only in 1935 edition).
  • Memoirs of an Unconventional Soldier. Nicholson and Watson, London 1936.
  • The First of the League Wars: Its Lessons and Omens. Eyre and Spottiswoode, London 1936.
    • German translation: The first of the League of Nations Wars: Its signs and lessons for coming. Rowohlt Verlag, Berlin 1937.
  • The Secret Wisdom of the Qabalah: A Study in Jewish Mystical Thought. Rider, London 1937.
  • The problem of Europe: an English soldier on the meaning of war . Nibelungen-Verlag, Berlin 1940 and special edition 1944 printed by C Wiegend, Dux, Sudeten.
  • The Second World War, 1939-45: A Strategical and Tactical History. Eyre and Spottiswoode, London 1948.
    • German translation: The Second World War 1939–1945: An illustration of his strategy and tactics . Humboldt-Verlag, Vienna / Stuttgart 1950.
  • A Military History of the Western World. 3 volumes. Funk & Wagnalls, 1954–1956.
  • The Generalship of Alexander the Great. Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1958.
    • German translation: Alexander the great as a general. Koehler, Stuttgart 1961.
  • The Conduct of War, 1789-1961: A Study of the Impact of the French, Industrial, and Russian Revolutions on War and Its Conduct. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick 1961.
    • German translation: The degenerate art of waging war 1789–1961 . Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Cologne 1964.

literature

  • AJ Trythall: "Boney" Fuller. The Intellectual General 1878-1966 . Cassell, London 1977, ISBN 0-304-29843-3 .
  • Brian Holden Reid : JFC Fuller: Military thinker. Macmillan, Basingstoke 1987.
  • Brian Holden Reid: Studies in British military thought: Debates with Fuller and Liddell Hart. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 1998.
  • Olivier Entraigues: Le stratège oublié: JFC Fuller 1913–1933. Brèches, Bourges 2012, ISBN 978-2-36903-000-3 .

Web links

Wikiquote: JFC Fuller  - Quotes
personal data
SURNAME Fuller, John Frederick Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British major general and military historian
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Chichester
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 1966
Place of death Falmouth