Victor Wallace Germains Explained

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

External links

• WorldCat page

Notes and References

1. 1939 England and Wales Register
2. Web site: Mystery (novelist) solved!.
3. 1861 England Census
4. Web site: Adolph Zalkin Germains – Inventor and Adventurer . Jewish Gilroes . 9 October 2023.
5. News: Master Carpenter in Utopia; CRUSOE WARBURTON. By Victor W. Germains. 250 pp. New York: Coward-McCann. $3.50. The New York Times. 1954-06-20. Lardner. Rex.
6. Web site: CRUSOE WARBURTON by Victor Germains.
7. Book: Germains, Victor. Crusoe Warburton. 1954. Coward-McCann. New York. 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. https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1933/angell-bio.html nobelprize.org, The Nobel Peace Prize 1933:Sir Norman Angell.
11. Book: John Stone. The Tank Debate: Armour and the Anglo-American Military Tradition. 11 February 2013. 1 October 2000. Harwood Academic. 978-90-5823-045-4. 58–9.
12. Book: Roger Chickering. Stig Forster. The Shadows of Total War: Europe, East Asia, and the United States, 1919-1939. 11 February 2013. 16 January 2003. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-81236-8. 53.
13. Book: Brian Holden Reid. Studies in British Military Thought: Debates With Fuller and Liddell Hart. 11 February 2013. 1998. U of Nebraska Press. 978-0-8032-3927-2. 39.
14. Book: Azar Gat. A History of Military Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Cold War. 11 February 2013. 2001. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-924762-2. 558–9.
15. Web site: INTRODUCTION for Blending Genders Social Aspects of Cross Dressing and Sex Changing . www.scribd.com . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140504161755/http://www.scribd.com/doc/71474482/1/INTRODUCTION . 2014-05-04.