George Steer

He returned to Ethiopia after the start of the Second World War and helped the campaign that defeated the Italians and restored Hailie Selassie to the throne.

[1] He was involved in helping to transport gas masks to Ethiopia to give at least some protection against the poison gases that were deployed illegally by the Italians.

Steer met and married his first wife in Ethiopia, under difficult conditions in the British Legation in Addis Ababa, with looting and rifle fire outside the gates of the compound.

His first reports from the Basque Country described how British merchant ships beat the Nationalist blockade of Bilbao to bring food to the starving people of the town and surrounding region.

[3] Steer responded to such reports by providing details of the damage in the town such as bomb craters and the Luftwaffe aircraft used in the attack such as Heinkel He 111 bombers.

The newspaper's editorial stance on the war was anti-Republican, and its editor, Geoffrey Dawson, privately sympathised with the Nationalists, led by Francisco Franco.

Steer saw the effects of aerial bombing of several Finnish towns by the Soviets, attempts made to intimidate the population, just like at Guernica.

However, unlike for Ethiopia and Spain, Western countries such as Britain, France and Germany were eager to offer arms and equipment, as well as volunteers, to assist the Finns.

When Italy declared war on Britain, plans were laid to invade Ethiopia from Kenya and Sudan to topple the Italian regime and reinstate Hailie Selassie as emperor.

Steer was appointed as an officer in the Intelligence Corps of the British Army, initially to chaperone Selassie from London to the Sudan under the pseudonym, "Mr Smith" since the emperor's position had to be kept secret from the Italians.

Steer was then put in charge of a mobile propaganda unit to undermine the Italian garrisons by leafletting, loudspeaker attacks and so on.

The military campaign waged by British and Ethiopian soldiers was very successful and used a combination of regular troops and irregular forces, led by Orde Wingate.