Victor Wallace Germains (8 May 1888[1] – ) was an English writer. He wrote several books on the military and foreign policy, including on Kitchener and Churchill.[2]

Germains was born in the Fulham district of London, the son of inventor Aaron Simon "Adolph" Zalkin Germains, a Jewish emigrant from the Russian Empire. His mother was Emma Annie Levetus of Birmingham, daughter of a Moldavian Jewish emigrant, and sister of the writer Amelia Sarah Levetus.[3][4]

In 1954, Germains wrote Crusoe Warburton, a lost world novel.[5][6]

During World War I, Germains served as a spy in Austria.[7]

Writings

As a military writer, Germains was classed by Michael Howard with Bernard Acworth and Lionel Charlton as a lesser figure typical of his time.[8]

Books

  • The Struggle for Bread, 1913 (a reply under the pseudonym "Rifleman" to Norman Angell's The Great Illusion (1910).[9]
  • The Gathering Storm, 1913 (under the pseudonym "Rifleman"
  • Austria of Today: with a special chapter on the Austrian police, 1923 (later editions up to 1932)
  • The Truth about Kitchener, 1925
  • The "Mechanization" of War, 1927; a contribution to the "tank debate", arguing that anti-tank weapons had greater potential for development, foreword by Frederick Barton Maurice.[10][11] The work was critical of the approach of J. F. C. Fuller, presaging later British doctrine, and was serialized abroad.[12][13]
  • The Kitchener Armies: the story of a national achievement, 1930
  • The Tragedy of Winston Churchill, 1931
  • Colonel to Princess. A novel., 1936. A dying princess gets a brain transplant from a colonel. He enjoys being a woman.[14]
  • Crusoe Warburton, 1954

Articles

  • "(Warfare of Tomorrow part II) The Cult of the Defensive" pp. 498–502, The Living Age, February 1938
  • "Not to Overlook the Infantry", pp. 233–237, The Living Age, November 1940

References

  1. ↑ 1939 England and Wales Register
  2. ↑ "Mystery (novelist) solved!".
  3. ↑ 1861 England Census
  4. ↑ "Adolph Zalkin Germains – Inventor and Adventurer". Jewish Gilroes. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  5. ↑ Lardner, Rex (20 June 1954). "Master Carpenter in Utopia; CRUSOE WARBURTON. By Victor W. Germains. 250 pp. New York: Coward-McCann. $3.50". The New York Times.
  6. ↑ "CRUSOE WARBURTON by Victor Germains".
  7. ↑ Germains, Victor (1954). Crusoe Warburton. New York: Coward-McCann. pp. dustcover.
  8. ↑ Michael Howard, Review of The Military Intellectuals in Britain: 1918-1939 by Robin Higham, International Journal Vol. 22, No. 2 (Spring, 1967), pp. 324-325. Published by: Canadian International Council. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40200099
  9. ↑ nobelprize.org, The Nobel Peace Prize 1933:Sir Norman Angell.
  10. ↑ John Stone (1 October 2000). The Tank Debate: Armour and the Anglo-American Military Tradition. Harwood Academic. pp. 58–9. ISBN 978-90-5823-045-4. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  11. ↑ Roger Chickering; Stig Forster (16 January 2003). The Shadows of Total War: Europe, East Asia, and the United States, 1919-1939. Cambridge University Press. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-521-81236-8. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  12. ↑ Brian Holden Reid (1998). Studies in British Military Thought: Debates With Fuller and Liddell Hart. U of Nebraska Press. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-8032-3927-2. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  13. ↑ Azar Gat (2001). A History of Military Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Cold War. Oxford University Press. pp. 558–9. ISBN 978-0-19-924762-2. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  14. ↑ "INTRODUCTION for Blending Genders Social Aspects of Cross Dressing and Sex Changing". www.scribd.com. Archived from the original on 4 May 2014.
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