Brigadier General Bonner Frank Fellers (February 7, 1896 – October 7, 1973) was a United States Army officer who served during World War II as a military attaché and director of psychological warfare.
Fellers studied at Earlham College until he was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, by Speaker of the House Joe Cannon.
In 1935, he graduated from the Command and General Staff School and the Chemical Warfare Service Field Officers Course, when he completed his soon-to-be-influential thesis "The Psychology of the Japanese Soldier.
Information from his messages alerted the Axis to British convoy operations in the Battle of the Mediterranean, including efforts to resupply the garrison of Malta.
PLANS TO REACH OBJECTIVES BY PARACHUTES AND LONG RANGE DESERT PATROL.British and Free French raiders went into action behind the lines in Libya and on the island of Crete.
In most of the attacks, the raiders were met with accurate fire from the alerted garrisons and suffered heavy losses, but failed to inflict any damage upon the Luftwaffe.
For example, John Ferris argues that because Fellers sometimes reported imperfect information and assessments, the leaks also contributed to Rommel's ultimate defeat: "In its last days of life, after Tobruk fell, the 'Good Source' bolstered Rommel's decision to drive all-out on Alexandria, his native over-optimism reinforced by Bonner Fellers's belief that the British would crack under one last blow.
"[13][irrelevant citation] Other authors, like Robin Lewin, write that breaking Fellers's code was "immensely fruitfull", though at tactical level Lewin also pointed to Rommel's Wireless Interception Center for the Axis successes on the ground in the summer of 1942, at least until this unit lost its commander and several operatives in action at Tel El Eisa on July 10, 1942.
Upon returning to the United States, Fellers was decorated with the Distinguished Service Medal for his analysis and reporting of the North African situation.
Fellers's North African reports, which his Distinguished Service Medal citation characterized as "models of clarity and accuracy," were bluntly critical of British weapons, operations, and leadership: "The Eighth Army has failed to maintain the morale of its troops; its tactical conceptions were always wrong, it neglected completely cooperation between the various arms; its reactions to the lightning changes in the battlefield were always slow.
Despite his anti-British attitude, Fellers and his reports influenced decisions to bring American supplies and troops to aid the British in North Africa.
"[19] Thus, Fellers's blunt criticism and his analysis of the Middle East's strategic importance may well have influenced Roosevelt's decisions to reinforce the Eighth Army and to support Operation Torch.
In the summer of 1943, Fellers left his job in the OSS, where he had played a role in planning psychological warfare, and he returned to the Southwest Pacific and resumed working under General Douglas MacArthur, who was then Commander of United States Army Forces in the Far East.
[citation needed] Eisenhower may have developed such a view because he was aware of the North Africa leaks that had strained British relations and because Fellers had been instrumental in getting presidential approval of increased support for the British in North Africa including Operation Torch, which was not supported by the U.S. military command, including Eisenhower.
[citation needed] After the war, Fellers remained on the staff of MacArthur, who was Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in the occupation of Japan.
Under an assignment with the codename "Operation Blacklist", Fellers allowed them to co-ordinate their stories to exonerate Hirohito and all members of his family of war crimes.
[25] In 1971, Hirohito conferred on Fellers the Second Order of the Sacred Treasure "in recognition of your long-standing contribution to promoting friendship between Japan and the United States.
On July 24, 1953, Fellers met with a number of former U.S. military officers, including Pedro del Valle and Claire Chennault, to form the Defenders of the American Constitution (DAC).
The DAC believed in a "one-worldist conspiracy" led by New York Jewish financiers who controlled international communism, and described their goal as the defense of "the US constitution against enemies and encroachments, both foreign and domestic.
[31][32] He died at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., on October 7, 1973, after suffering a heart attack, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.