Victor Wallace Germains

English writer

Victor Wallace Germains (8 May 1888^[1] – 1974) 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]

He died in 1974 in South Africa.^[8]

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.^[9]

Books

• The Struggle for Bread, 1913 (a reply under the pseudonym "Rifleman" to Norman Angell's The Great Illusion (1910).^[10]
• 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.^[11][12] The work was critical of the approach of J. F. C. Fuller, presaging later British doctrine, and was serialized abroad.^[13][14]
• 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.^[15]
• 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. Transvaal Province, South Africa, Estates Death Notice Index, 1855–1976
9. 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
10. nobelprize.org, The Nobel Peace Prize 1933:Sir Norman Angell.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. "INTRODUCTION for Blending Genders Social Aspects of Cross Dressing and Sex Changing". www.scribd.com. Archived from the original on 4 May 2014.

External links

• WorldCat page