Telegram from Guernica: The Extraordinary Life of George Steer, War Correspondent

by Nicholas Rankin

On 26 April 1937, in the rubble of the bombed city of Guernica, the world's press scrambled to submit their stories. But one journalist held back, and spent an extra day exploring the scene. His report pointed the finger at secret Nazi involvement in the devastating aerial attack. It was the lead story in both The Times and the New York Times , and became the most controversial dispatch of the Spanish Civil War. Who was this Special Correspondent, whose report inspired Picasso's black-and-white painting Guernica - the most enduring single image of the twentieth century - and earned him a place on the Gestapo Special Wanted List? George Steer, a 27-year-old adventurer, was a friend and supporter of the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I. He foresaw and alerted others to the fascist game-plan in Africa and all over Europe; initiated new techniques of propaganda and psychological warfare; saw military action in Ethiopia, Spain, Finland, Libya, Egypt, Madagascar and Burma; married twice and wrote eight books. Without Steer, the true facts about Guernica's destruction might never have been known. In this exhilarating biography, Nicholas Rankin brilliantly evokes all the passion, excitement and danger of an extraordinary life, right up to Steer's premature death in the jungle on Christmas Day 1944.

Genres: History, Spain, Nonfiction, Biography, Spanish Civil War, Military History, War

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Nicholas Rankin (b. 1950) is an English writer and broadcaster. He was born in Yorkshire, but grew up in Kenya. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and Christ Church, Oxford. He has lived and worked in Bolivia and Catalonia, Spain.

He worked for the BBC World Service for 20 years. He was Chief Producer, Arts, at the BBC World Service, when his eight-part series on ecology and evolution, A Green History of the Planet, won two UN awards.

He currently works as a freelance writer and broadcaster and lives in London with his wife, the novelist Maggie Gee. He has one daughter, Rosa.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009.

Reviews

[Stefan Mitev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Джордж Стиър е журналист и военен кореспондент от най-горещите точки в края на тридесетте години на миналия век. През 1935 г. той става пряк свидетел на италианската инвазия в Абисиния (Етиопия). Технологичното превъзходство на европейците е категорично, но въпреки него те не се поколебават да използват бойни отровни вещества (иприт), които са забранени с международни конвенции. Джордж Стиър защитава каузата на Абисиния за независимост, променя световното мнение срещу италианците и така става приятел с император Хайле Селасие (известен още като Рас Тафари). През 1936 г. Италия превзема Абисиния, но само пет години по-късно губи територията по време на Втората световна война.

Следващата мисия на Джордж Стиър е отразяването на испанската гражданска война. Безпристрастните репортажи на журналиста не се харесват на фалангистите на Франко, поради което Стиър бива изгонен от окупираните от тях територии. Установява се в Билбао - най-големият град на баските, които по време на гражданската война получават мечтания статут на собствена автономна държава (Еускади). През май 1937 г. нацистките военовъздушни сили (Луфтвафе) и по-специално техния легион Кондор бомбардират малкото градче Герника. Жертвите са изцяло цивилни. Пожарите не могат да бъдат контролирани. Атаката е военно престъпление, лишено от всякаква стратегическа цел. То е демонстративен акт какво би се случило с други градове, ако продължат съпротивата и същевременно "тренировка" на немските бомбардировачи за очакваната по-голяма война. Джордж Стиър става световноизвестен с репортажите си, разкриващи трагедията в Герника. Един от читателите му се оказва Пабло Пикасо, който само след няколко месеца създава едноименния си шедьовър, който и до днес е най-известната му картина.

Джордж Стиър се включва и във Втората световна война, като създава специален "пропаганден" отряд, прилагащ "психологически техники" върху противника с цел дезертиране и предаване.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put down this engrossing biography of George Steer, who seems to have had a knack for being in the most interesting places at the most interesting times. Steer was one of the first to report that German planes were present at the bombing of Guernica; he was heavily involved in Ethiopia and close with Haile Selassie; he covered the Finnish resistance in World War II; and he pioneered the use of propoganda in open conflict. This biography was so well-written that I actually cried when I read of Steer's premature death.

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well researched and highly readable book about the South African journalist, intelligence officer and soldier George Steer who pioneered modern psychological warfare after an incredible journalistic career covering the Spanish Civil War, the Finish Winter War and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. Steer wrote the detailed dispatch that exposed the extent of the Nazi Condor Legion's role in the notorious terror bombing of the Basque city of Guernica. Steer identified closely with the Basque cause and is still remembered for his brave role in getting out the truth about the horrific war against civilians waged by General Franco with German and Italian support. Steer formed a close relationship with Emperor Haile Selassie during the Italian invasion of Ethiopia (Abyssinia) and was recruited to accompany him back to Africa and support him in his raising of a guerrilla army of "Patriots" to assist in driving out the fascist forces. Steer waged a brilliant war using print, broadcast, pamphlets and pioneered the use of mobile public address units that persuaded tens of thousands of Italian colonial troops from Eritrea and Ethiopia to desert and hastened the collapse of the cohesion of their units. The majority of the soldiers fighting in the Italian forces were from modern day Ethiopia and Eritrea and responded well to patriotic appeals. He went on to work in the Western Desert on clandestine deception operations, played an important part in the defeat of the Vichy French in Madagascar before being sent to Burma were he played an important role on this complex and vicious war of attrition and survival in the jungle. Colonel Steer died tragically in a car accident on Christmas day near the Indian frontier with Burma at the age of 35 leaving his wife and two young children. A fascinating man and a great read!

Rankin resists the modern trend to airbrush the role of South Africa in the fight against fascism out of history and while he concedes that much of the South African content of Steer's story was edited out of his final text, (a common challenge faced by authors trying to write about South Africa), he manages to still find some space for that fascinating part of this story about a unique and gifter South African untrammelled with the prejudices of race and disdain for "lesser people" that so dominated at that time.

Writing to his wife on the eve of his death he describes some bitterness at the bloody-minded incompetence of the British Army in India. Like his contemporary and friend in Ethiopia and later in Burma Orde Wingate, Steer was to come up against the incompetence, petty jealousy and defeatism of the British officer class in the Indian Army of Britain. "Anyway, here I am still waiting for troops, with everybody in the highest places issuing orders that I am to have them and no one in the lower quarters taking the slightest step to obey. The result is that we are months and months back on our programme and God knows when we will begin to do anything. Once patience gets frayed to tatters, and the loathing that one engenders for this country and its unbelievable military system reaches a stage impossible to describe. I am due for repatriation and often feel like applying. The only thing holding me back, and will no keep me here in spite of everything the feelings that one hates to go home a failure, and secondly, the knowledge that if I got back home I would not be able to contribute one iota to the defeat of the enemy, whereas here I do know him and given the tools I can do something to finish him off. It's often so difficult though to fight (very metaphorically speaking), with one bare hands, and physically one gets exhaust. And one feels that one will never forgive or forget the stupid people who stood in the way, all the time wondering how one can be so petty, for they are certainly not worth remembering for their own sakes and not to forgive them is to take them far too seriously. I suppose really that war, especially when it is waged far away from public criticism and almost out of the public mind, is the highest form of inefficiency known to man. Hundreds more, thousands of gentlemen, in fact, who would be failures in any normal business and in peacetime would be kept in their places commercial travellers, et cetera, are now in positions of responsibility and yet sabotage anybody who has energy and ideas, and in spite of it all, I think that I still have a bit of both, and that no number of years in India will knock or dry them out of me." Days later, he was killed like Wingate (who described the British colonial officer class as "apes"), in an accident.

[Therese · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is rare that the author of a biography writes as beautifully as his subject. Nicholas Rankin is such an author. He details the life and exploits of George Steer, with sensitivity, skill and "you are there" feelings of immediacy. It was Steer who sent the eye witness account that appeared in the foreign news pages of the Times of London, and on the front page of the New York Times, on April 27th 1937, of the destruction of Guernica, or in Basque, Gernika. The town had been fire-bombed for three and a half hours on April 26th. Shocked survivors told Steer that "planes with a black cross on the tails" had dropped blast bombs on market day, slaughtering people, animals, and how planes had dive-bombed to machine-gun others fleeing into the fields or along the roads. Steer thus revealed that the Germans were helping Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Reading the papers in Paris, consumed with rage, Pablo Picasso began the charcoal sketching of his giant picture, as crowds outside in the streets, roared "Guernica, Guernica, Guernica" in May Day parades on May 1st. On May 11th, Picasso started to draw the outlines on his 12 foot high, 25 foot long painting, observed only by Dora Maar, who photographed him as he worked. I once saw these photos at the Picasso Museum in Paris. They recorded Picasso's progress from day to day, as he depicted the people and animals of Guernica who had died such agonizing deaths. Picasso must have worked in a frenzy of sorrow and anger, for, on June 4th, barely 6 weeks after the German/Francoist raids, "Guernica" - one of the most famous paintings in the world, went on display at the 1937 Paris World's Fair where it was seen by over 30 million people that summer.
But before he was a witness to the destruction and carnage at Guernica by the Nazis and Spanish fascists, Steer observed and wrote about the Italian fascists' assaults on Abyssinia. He reported on the sins of the Axis powers in Africa, all of which presaged air wars to come, and the use of chemical and incendiary bombs on civilians. He also detailed the Finn's heroic "Winter War" of 1939/40 against the Russians. George Steer went on to design and perfect the art of propaganda, devising ingenious disinformation campaigns and dropping pamphlets from aircraft to sew doubt and fear in the minds of opposing armies and their supporters.
This book deserves to be read, both because of its subject matter, George Steer, little remembered now, and because of its author, Nicholas Rankin, who has brought him alive to take his well-deserved bow before modern audiences.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating account of a short but eventful life, against a backdrop of war in Ethiopia, Spain, Finland and Burma. Do people lead lives like this any more?

[Elfbiter · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://elfbiter.dreamwidth.org/13907...

[James Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

To read "Telegram from Guernica" is to read the fascinating account of a journalist who pursued not just the story, but the truth behind the story. It wasn't enough for George L. Steer to witness the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War; he had to know why the bombing was so devastating. His discovery that incendiary bombs were used on Guernica, that the bombing took place at a time when the town would be crowded with people, and that the bombing was done by Germans fighting in support of General Francisco Franco's Nationalists shed light on what was really happening in Spain and got the world's attention. The decade of the 1930s was a turbulent one and George L. Steer was there to witness and record not only what was happening in Spain but also the Italian invasion of Ethiopia and, early in World War II, the Russian invasion of Finland. "Telegram from Guernica" is an amazing biography of an amazing man and well worth reading.

[Paul Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Specialist interest but a well put together biography of a crucial period in world history as nations and communities sought self determination as political and economic ideologies forged the major events of history. Syeer had an uncanny ability to find himself at the heart of the action.

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative, clear and concise as a good sunday newspaper should be. Fascinating.

[Ross Parkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Gmastalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pioneer in the use of war propaganda