Victor Wallace Germains

Victor Wallace Germains (born June 1888 in the Fulham district of London)^[1] was an English writer. He wrote several books on the military and foreign policy, including on Kitchener and Churchill.^[2]

In 1954, Germains wrote Crusoe Warburton, a lost world novel.^[3][4]

During World War I, Germains served as a spy in Austria.^[5]

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.^[6]

Books

• The Struggle for Bread, 1913 (free text version); a reply under the pseudonym "Rifleman" to Norman Angell's The Great Illusion (1910).^[7]

• The Gathering Storm, 1913 (free text version; 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.^[8][9] The work was critical of the approach of J. F. C. Fuller, presaging later British doctrine, and was serialized abroad.^[10][11]

• 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.^[12]

• Crusoe Warburton, 1954

Articles

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

References

1. FreeBMD. England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915 [database on-line]. General Registry Office files.
2. http://littleprofessor.typepad.com/the_little_professor/2013/01/mystery-novelist-solved.html
3. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10D17FE3458117A93C2AB178DD85F408585F9
4. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/victor-germains/crusoe-warburton/
5. Germains, Victor (1954). Crusoe Warburton. New York: Coward-McCann. pp. dustcover.
6. 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: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40200099
7. nobelprize.org, The Nobel Peace Prize 1933:Sir Norman Angell.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. http://www.scribd.com/doc/71474482/1/INTRODUCTION

External links

• WorldCat page