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    Generalship: Its Diseases and Their Cure. A Study of The Personal Factor in Command
    Generalship: Its Diseases and Their Cure. A Study of The Personal Factor in Command
    Generalship: Its Diseases and Their Cure. A Study of The Personal Factor in Command
    Ebook73 pages1 hour

    Generalship: Its Diseases and Their Cure. A Study of The Personal Factor in Command

    By Major-General J. F. C. Fuller

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    About this ebook

    The seminal treatise on Generalship, by Major-General Fuller, reputed to have been the most formative book in General Patton’s military training which he kept with him at all times.

    “IN the summer of 1921 I was lunching at the Restaurant la Rue with the Deputy Chief of the French General staff when he told me the following story:
    At the battle of Waterloo, Colonel Clement, an infantry commander, fought with the most conspicuous bravery; but unfortunately was shot through the head. Napoleon, hearing of his gallantry and misfortune, gave instructions for him to be carried into a farm where Larrey the surgeon-general was operating.
    One glance convinced Larrey that his case was desperate, so taking up a saw he removed the top of his skull and placed his brains on the table.
    Just as he had finished, in rushed an aide-de-camp, shouting: ‘Is General Clement here?’
    Clement, hearing him, sat up and exclaimed: ‘No! but Colonel Clement is.’
    ‘Oh, mon général,’ cried the aide-de-camp, embracing him, ‘the Emperor was overwhelmed when we heard of your gallantry, and has promoted you on the field of battle to the rank of General,’
    Clement rubbed his eyes, got off the table, clapped the top of his skull on his head and was about to leave the farm, when Larrey shouted after him: ‘Mon général—your brains!’ To which the gallant Frenchman, increasing his speed, shouted back: ‘Now that I am a general I shall no longer require them!’
    In this modest study, my object is to prove that, though Clement was wrong about brains, without his courage there can be no true generalship.”-Foreword.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTannenberg Publishing
    Release dateNov 6, 2015
    ISBN9781786252784
    Generalship: Its Diseases and Their Cure. A Study of The Personal Factor in Command

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    • 5/5
      Most important point is that the leader must lead in person and that the personal factor in battle in critical. This sentiment comes from the author's experiences in WWI where he saw the brutal and mechanical killing machine that was trench warfare. In Fuller's opinion, this horrible state of affairs was created and allowed to be sustained for years mostly due to the failure of generals on either side to leave their safe headquarters far in the rear and lead the battle. One of Patton's favorite books. This copy from the US Army Library.

    Book preview

    Generalship - Major-General J. F. C. Fuller

    This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com

    To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – picklepublishing@gmail.com

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    Text originally published in 1936 under the same title.

    © Pickle Partners Publishing 2015, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

    Publisher’s Note

    Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

    We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

    GENERALSHIP—ITS DISEASES AND THEIR CURE

    A STUDY OF THE PERSONAL FACTOR IN COMMAND

    BY

    MAJOR-GENERAL J. F. C. FULLER

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    Contents

    TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

    PREFACE 5

    GENERALSHIP IN THE WORLD WAR 6

    THE ESSENTIALS IN GENERALSHIP 10

    EXAMPLES OF THE PERSONAL FACTOR 15

    THE DISEASES DIAGNOSED 20

    THE REMEDIES SUGGESTED 26

    CONCLUSION 35

    APPENDIX — THE AGES OF 100 GENERALS 36

    REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 44

    GENERALSHIP

    ‘FOR what art can surpass that of the general?—an art which deals not with dead matter but with living beings, who are subject to every impression of the moment, such as fear, precipitation, exhaustion—in short, to every human passion and excitement. The general has not only to reckon with unknown quantities, such as time, weather, accidents of all kinds, but he has before him one who seeks to disturb and frustrate his plans and labours in every way; and at the same time this man, upon whom all eyes are directed, feels upon his mind the weight of responsibility not only for the lives and honour of hundreds of thousands, but even for the welfare and existence of his country.’—A. VON BOGUSLAWSKI

    PREFACE

    IN the summer of 1921 I was lunching at the Restaurant la Rue with the Deputy Chief of the French General staff when he told me the following story:

    At the battle of Waterloo, Colonel Clement, an infantry commander, fought with the most conspicuous bravery; but unfortunately was shot through the head. Napoleon, hearing of his gallantry and misfortune, gave instructions for him to be carried into a farm where Larrey the surgeon-general was operating.

    One glance convinced Larrey that his case was desperate, so taking up a saw he removed the top of his skull and placed his brains on the table.

    Just as he had finished, in rushed an aide-de-camp, shouting: ‘Is General Clement here?’

    Clement, hearing him, sat up and exclaimed: ‘No! but Colonel Clement is.’

    ‘Oh, mon général,’ cried the aide-de-camp, embracing him, ‘the Emperor was overwhelmed when we heard of your gallantry, and has promoted you on the field of battle to the rank of General,’

    Clement rubbed his eyes, got off the table, clapped the top of his skull on his head and was about to leave the farm, when Larrey shouted after him: ‘Mon général—your brains!’ To which the gallant Frenchman, increasing his speed, shouted back: ‘Now that I am a general I shall no longer require them!’

    In this modest study, my object is to prove that, though Clement was wrong about brains, without his courage there can be no true generalship.

    J.F.C.F.

    GENERALSHIP—ITS DISEASES AND THEIR CURE

    A STUDY OF THE PERSONAL FACTOR IN COMMAND

    ‘War with impersonal leadership is a brutal soul-destroying business, provocative only of class animosity and bad workmanship. Our senior officers must get back to sharing danger and sacrifice with their men, however exalted their rank, just as sailors have to do. That used to be the British way, but, unfortunately, there was a grievous lapse from it in the late war.’

    GENERALSHIP IN THE WORLD WAR

    THE quotation which heads this study is taken from an interesting and very human book—A Glance at Gallipoli, by Lieut. Colonel C. O. Head, D.S.O., from which, later on, I shall quote again. The suggestion contained in it is worth thinking over, especially so today, when our army is faced by uncommon difficulties, by radical changes, by reactionary and revolutionary influences, and by problems which if not solved correctly may spell disaster. The pressure of international politics is engendering the heat of future wars: that of national insolvency—social disintegration and military decay; and above these the progress of industrialization is forcing mechanization to the fore, whilst Western civilization itself is daily becoming more unstable and emotional.

    Today, we soldiers are like men in a dark room groping blindly for the handle of the door, for the latch of the window. Nothing is seen clearly. We

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