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J. F. C. Fuller Quotes (1878-1966)
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About J. F. C. Fuller
Major-General John Frederick Charles Fuller, CB, CBE, DSO (September 1, 1878 β February 10, 1966), commonly J.F.C. Fuller, was a British major-general, military historian and strategist, notable as an early theorist of modern armoured warfare. He was also the inventor of "artificial moonlight" and an occultist.
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βAn absolute doctrine is impossible, for once a doctrine and its articles become dogma, woe to the army which lies enthralled under its spell.β
βWhat thrust us into war were not Hitler's political teachings: the cause, this time, was his successful attempt to establish a new economy. The causes of the war were: envy, greed, and fear.β
βEveryone was talking and chatting, when slowly came into sight the first tank I ever saw. Not a monster but a very graceful machine with beautiful lines.β¦Here was the missing tool of penetration, the answer to the dominance on the battlefield of small-arms fire.β
βThe War of the Roses in England and the Civil War in America were both internal conflicts arising out of similar ideas. In the first the clash was between feudalism and the new economic order; in the second, between an agricultural society and a new industrial one. Both led to similar ends; the first to the founding of the English nation, and the second to the founding of the American. Both were strangely interlinked; for it was men of the old military and not of the new economic mindβmen, such as Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh β who founded the English colonies in America.β
βI believe that, in future warfare, great cities, such as London, will be attacked from the air, and that a fleet of 500 aeroplanes each carrying 500 ten-pound bombs of, let us suppose, mustard gas, might cause 200,000 minor casualties and throw the whole city into panic within half an hour of their arrival. Picture, if you can, what the result will be: London for several days will be one vast raving Bedlam, the hospitals will be stormed, traffic will cease, the homeless will shriek for help, the city will be in pandemonium. What of the government at Westminster? It will be swept away by an avalanche of terror. Then will the enemy dictate his terms, which will be grasped at like a straw by a drowning man. Thus may a war be won in forty-eight hours and the losses of the winning side may be actually nil!β
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J. F. C. Fuller on Mob
J. F. C. Fuller on World War II
βIt might have been the greatest lost weapon of World War II. Major-General JFC Fuller, the man credited with developing modern armored warfare in the 1920s, called failure to use it "the greatest blunder of the whole war." He even suggested that British and American tank divisions could have overrun Germany before the Russians β if it had been deployed, that is.β
Quotes About J. F. C. Fuller
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Niall Ferguson on J. F. C. Fuller
βThe good news for Liddell Hart was that his work was hugely influential. The bad news was that it was hugely influential not in Britain but in Germany. With the notable exception of Major-General J. F. C. Fuller, senior British commanders like Field Marshal Earl Haig simply refused to accept that 'the aeroplane, the tank [and] the motor car [would] supersede the horse in future wars', dismissing motorized weapons as mere 'accessories to the man and horse'.β
As qtd. on J. F. C. Fuller
βIt might have been the greatest lost weapon of World War II. Major-General JFC Fuller, the man credited with developing modern armored warfare in the 1920s, called failure to use it "the greatest blunder of the whole war." He even suggested that British and American tank divisions could have overrun Germany before the Russians β if it had been deployed, that is.β
Stephan Wilkinson on J. F. C. Fuller 3 quotes
βMajor General John Frederick Charles Fuller was, during World War I and through the early 1930s, the British armyβs tank warfare go-to guy. He was the man who taught the Wehrmacht how to blitzkrieg, George Patton how to rumble and the Israelis how to kill Syrians.β
About J. F. C. Fuller
Major-General John Frederick Charles Fuller, CB, CBE, DSO (September 1, 1878 β February 10, 1966), commonly J.F.C. Fuller, was a British major-general, military historian and strategist, notable as an early theorist of modern armoured warfare. He was also the inventor of "artificial moonlight" and an occultist.