J. F. C. Fuller facts for kids

Quick facts for kids John Frederick Charles Fuller
Nickname(s)	"Boney"
Born	(1878-09-01)1 September 1878 Chichester, West Sussex, England
Died	10 February 1966(1966-02-10) (aged 87) Falmouth, Cornwall, England
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1899–1933
Rank	Major-general
Service number	16
Unit	Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
Commands held	14th Infantry Brigade
Battles/wars	Second Boer War First World War
Awards	Companion of the Order of the Bath Commander of the Order of the British Empire Distinguished Service Order
Other work	Military historian, occultist, author

Major-General John Frederick Charles "Boney" Fuller (1878–1966) was an important British Army officer. He was also a military historian and a strategist. Fuller is famous for his early ideas about modern armoured warfare, which means fighting with tanks and other armored vehicles. He also helped define the main "principles of warfare."

Fuller wrote many books and articles, sharing his ideas with army officers and the public. He thought a lot about how fighting connects with society, politics, and money. He believed that new weapons, especially tanks and airplanes, could surprise and confuse an enemy.

Fuller also supported a British political movement that was against democracy. He was interested in occult studies and wrote about them too.

Early Life and Education

John Frederick Charles Fuller was born in Chichester, West Sussex, England, in 1878. His father was a clergyman. When he was a boy, he moved to Lausanne with his parents.

At age 11, he returned to England without them. Three years later, when he was 14, he started attending Malvern College. After that, he trained to be an army officer at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst from 1897 to 1898. His nickname, "Boney," came from his admiration for Napoleon Bonaparte or because his military skills were similar to Napoleon's.

Military Career Highlights

Fuller joined the 1st Battalion of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry. He served in South Africa from 1899 to 1902 during the Second Boer War. In 1904, his unit went to India, where he got sick with typhoid fever. He returned to England in 1906.

Instead of going back to India, he worked with Volunteer army units in England. He helped create the new 10th Middlesex unit. Fuller later said this job made him study soldiering very seriously. In 1913, he was accepted into the Staff College, Camberley, a place where officers learn advanced military skills.

World War I and Tank Development

During the First World War, Fuller was a staff officer. He worked with forces in England and later in France. From 1916, he was part of the Machine-Gun Corps' Heavy Branch, which later became the Tank Corps.

He helped plan the tank attack at the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. This battle was important because it showed how tanks could be used effectively. He also helped with tank operations in 1918. His "Plan 1919" was an idea for a fully mechanized attack against the German army, but it was never used.

After 1918, Fuller held several important roles. He commanded an experimental brigade at Aldershot, where new military ideas were tested.

Pushing for Modernization

After the war, Fuller worked with another officer, B. H. Liddell Hart. They developed new ideas for making armies more modern with machines. They strongly pushed for the British Army to use more machines and tanks.

From 1923, he was a chief instructor at the Camberley Staff College. In 1926, he became a military assistant to the chief of the Imperial General Staff. In 1927, Fuller turned down the command of the Experimental Mechanized Force. He felt he wouldn't have enough help to focus on developing mechanized warfare. He was promoted to major-general in 1930. Three years later, he retired to focus on his writing.

Life After the Army

After retiring, Fuller worked as a reporter during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935) and the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). He became involved with a British political movement led by Sir Oswald Mosley. This movement was against democracy and believed in a strong leader. Fuller was a close supporter of Mosley.

Fuller's ideas about mechanized warfare became very important before the Second World War. Interestingly, his ideas were more popular with the German army, especially with Heinz Guderian, a German tank expert. Guderian even paid to have Fuller's instructions for tank training translated.

In the 1930s, the German army used tactics similar to Fuller's ideas. These tactics became known as Blitzkrieg, which means "lightning war." Like Fuller suggested, Blitzkrieg involved bypassing strong enemy areas to surround and destroy them later. Germany used Blitzkrieg tactics in their invasions of Poland (1939), Western Europe (1940), and the Soviet Union (1941).

Fuller was the only foreigner at Germany's first armed training exercises in 1935. He often praised Adolf Hitler in his speeches and writings. In 1939, Fuller was a special guest at Hitler's 50th birthday parade. He watched as a fully mechanized army marched past. Hitler asked him, "I hope you were pleased with your children?" Fuller replied, "Your Excellency, they have grown up so quickly that I no longer recognise them."

During the Second World War (1939–1945), Fuller was watched closely because of his support for Germany. He continued to speak about making peace with Germany. He was not arrested or put in prison, but he was the only officer of his rank not asked to return to service during the war.

Fuller spent his last years believing that the wrong side had won the Second World War. He wrote about this in his 1961 book, The Reformation of War. He believed Hitler was protecting the West from the Soviet Union and thought Churchill and Roosevelt were wrong. Fuller died in Falmouth, Cornwall, in 1966.

Military Theories and Ideas

Fuller was a strong and opinionated writer about military history. He also made predictions about future wars. He published On Future Warfare in 1928. He felt his ideas were proven right by the Second World War, so he published Machine Warfare in 1942.

The Nine Principles of War

Fuller is well-known for his "Nine Principles of War." These principles have been a key part of modern military theory since the 1930s. He developed these principles over time. For example, he had six principles in 1912, then eight in 1915, and finally nine in 1925.

The United States Army used a modified version of Fuller's list. It became the basis for training officers for many years.

Here are Fuller's Nine Principles of War from 1925:

• Direction: What is the main goal? What smaller goals must be met to reach it?
• Concentration: Where will the commander focus most of their effort and power?
• Distribution: Where and how will the commander place their forces?
• Determination: Soldiers must keep their will to fight, to keep going, and to win.
• Surprise: A commander should hide their plans while trying to discover the enemy's plans. Good surprise can make the enemy lose morale and become disorganized.
• Endurance: How well a force can handle pressure. This means planning for problems and threats, and training soldiers to avoid or overcome them.
• Mobility: The commander's ability to move their forces and outmaneuver the enemy.
• Offensive Action: The ability to start and keep control of the fight. Good offensive action can break up the enemy's organization.
• Security: The ability to protect the force from dangers and threats.

These principles have been adopted and improved by armies in many countries, especially those in NATO. They are still used in modern military thinking. They have even been applied to business strategies and wargaming.

Lectures on Field Service Regulations III (1932)

Fuller was also good at creating short, memorable sayings. For example, he said: "To attack the nerves of an army, and through its nerves the will of its commander, is more profitable than battering to pieces the bodies of its men." This means it's better to make the enemy afraid and confused than to just destroy their soldiers.

His book Lectures on Field Service Regulations III was read carefully by General Heinz Guderian, the German tank expert. The Soviet Army initially printed 30,000 copies of it and made it a must-read for all their officers. Later, they printed 100,000 copies. In Czechoslovakia, it became the main book for teaching mechanized warfare. However, in Britain, only 500 copies were sold by 1935.

Armament and History (1945)

Fuller also developed the idea of the Constant Tactical Factor. This idea says that every improvement in warfare is met by a counter-improvement. This causes the advantage to shift back and forth between attacking and defending forces. For example, in World War I, the powerful defensive machine gun was countered by the offensive power of the tank.

Writing on Mysticism and Other Topics

Fuller had an interest in occult subjects, which are about hidden knowledge or supernatural powers. This interest mixed in an unusual way with his military side. He was an early follower of the English poet and magician Aleister Crowley. Fuller was very familiar with Crowley's ideas and other forms of mysticism.

In 1907, Fuller wrote a book called The Star in the West, which was a review of Crowley's poems. He then became a strong supporter of Crowley and joined his magical group, the A∴A∴. He became a leading member, editing documents and a journal for the group.

However, after a court case in 1911 that involved Aleister Crowley, Fuller became worried. He thought his connection with Crowley might harm his military career. After this, their contact faded.

Even so, Fuller remained interested in occult topics. In later years, he wrote about subjects like the Qabalah (a Jewish mystical tradition) and yoga. After the Second World War and Crowley's death, Fuller wrote that Crowley was a "genuine avatar," meaning a special spiritual being.

Works by J.F.C. Fuller

Fuller was a very active writer and published more than 45 books.

Books on Mysticism

• The Star in The West: A Critical Essay Upon the Works of Aleister Crowley (1907)
• Yoga: A Study of the Mystical Philosophy of the Brahmins and Buddhists (1925)
• Atlantis, America and the Future. (1925)
• Pegasus (1926)
• The Secret Wisdom of the Qabalah: A Study in Jewish Mystical Thought (1937)

Books on Warfare

• Tanks in the Great War, 1914-1918 (1920)
• The Reformation of War (1923)
• The Foundations of the Science of War. (1926)
• On Future Warfare (1928)
• India in Revolt (1931)
• The Dragon's Teeth: A Study of War and Peace (1932)
• Lectures on Field Service Regulations III (1932)
• The First of the League Wars: A Study of the Abyssinian War, Its Lessons and Omens (1936)
• Generalship: Its Diseases and Their Cure: A Study of the Personal Factor in Command (1936)
• Machine Warfare: An Enquiry into the Influence of Mechanics on the Art of War (1942)
• Warfare Today; How Modern Battles are Planned and Fought on Land, at Sea, and in the Air - joint editors: J.F.C. Fuller, Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon, and Air Marshal Sir Patrick Playfair (1944)
• Armament and History: The Influence of Armament on History from the Dawn of Classical Warfare to the End of the Second World War (1945)
• The Second World War, 1939-1945: A Strategical and Tactical History (1948)
• The Decisive Battles of the Western World and Their Influence upon History (3 vols.) (1954–1956)
  • Volume 1: From the Earliest Times to the Battle of Lepanto
  • Volume 2: From the Defeat of the Spanish Armada to the Battle of Waterloo
  • Volume 3: From the American Civil War to the End of the Second World War
• The Conduct of War, 1789-1961: A Study of the Impact of the French, Industrial, and Russian Revolutions on War and Its Conduct (1961)

Biographies

• The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant (1929)
• Grant & Lee: A Study in Personality and Generalship (1933)
• Memoirs of an Unconventional Soldier (1936)
• The Generalship of Alexander the Great (1958)
• Julius Caesar: Man, Soldier and Tyrant (1965)

See also

In Spanish: J. F. C. Fuller para niños