Tom Donovan Editions

Publisher's Announcement, Showcase & Reviews

Tom Donovan Editions are pleased to announce that the long awaited second volume of their Scholars' Collection, If Germany Attacks by G C Wynne, was published on 11th November 2008.

Regrettably circumstances have conspired against us since the publication of our first volume in the Scholar’s Collection, The War Memoirs of Earl Stanhope, and the publication of If Germany Attacks has been seriously delayed as a result. Our thanks go out to our, already loyal, subscribers for their patience and for their many expressions of interest in our second publication. We must also thank our contributors and the Wynne family who have been equally patient and understanding. We believe that we are now back on track to ensure that future publications will be issued on a more frequent and regular basis. Indeed the third volume by Basil Liddell Hart is already at an advanced stage of preparation.

If Germany Attacks has been an interesting and challenging volume to prepare. The new edition is based on Wynne’s original proof copy of the first edition, the edition that was ultimately pulped in 1940, and that contains the sections that were removed for the “bowdlerised” official first edition published later that year by Faber and Faber. This copy, which has remained in the Wynne family’s possession to this date, also contains a number of corrections and amendments made by Wynne and that were either incorporated in the official edition or that were intended for further editions. Our editorial policy has been to include these corrections but to put back all the “bowdlerisations” thereby getting as close as possible to Wynne’s original intentions for this book.

Robert T. Foley has produced an illuminating introduction to If Germany Attacks and we are grateful to our General Editor, Professor Brian Bond, for identifying such an eminently well qualified editor for this volume. Robert Foley is an American who has spent much of his career in US and British academic institutions where he has established a formidable reputation in the area of the Germany Army and its strategy and tactics, notably in the First World War. In his introduction he provides a particularly interesting account of the events leading up to Wynne’s capture at Le Cateau in 1914 and the impact that this had on his subsequent writings and his work with the Historical Section of the Committee for Imperial Defence.

The dust jacket for If Germany Attacks has, like that of its predecessor, been based on original art work by John Booth. The cover depicts a brooding, dominating wall of rock  that seems to be moving “tsunami-like” over a pastoral landscape – a fiery red and black image that nicely echoes Wynne’s view of German military competence and ambitions.

The slipcase both protects the book and complements the striking jacket. Our artist took inspiration from a typical German mourning emblem of the Great War period and designed a striking motif to decorate the case.

Charles Messenger reviewed If Germany Attacks in Mars & Clio, the journal of the BCMH (British Commission for Military History) Spring 2009

"Robert Foley's perceptive introduction puts If Germany Attacks firmly into context. Wynne's analysis of the German concept of defence has largely stood the test of time, and the book is a valuable source for that. Certain caveats should be borne in mind when reading it, however. As Dr Foley emphasises, Wynne was looking primarily at the ideal, which was by no means practised by all German commanders all of the time. Furthermore, his failure to take into account the new weapons systems and their influence on tactics and the improvements that Germany's opponents did introduce make the work unbalanced. That said, both publisher and editor are to be congratulated on once more bringing this book to public notice."