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Information About

George Steer




George Steer was born in South Africa in 1909 as a son of a newspaper manager. He studied Classics in England, at Winchester College and Christ Church , Oxford . He later became a journalist and war correspondent.

In 1935 Steer covered the Italian invasion of Ethiopia for ''The Times'' and reported that Italian forces used Mustard Gas . He became acquainted with emperor Haile Selassie . In 1937 he was sent to report on the Spanish Civil War . He won prominence with his report on the bombing of Guernica on April 26 1937 . His telegram to London described the German bomb casings. Next he was dispatched to Finland to cover the Winter War .

After the outbreak of the Second World War , Steer became a leader of Ethiopian Forward Propaganda unit when British troops began to fight Italian troops in the country. Later Steer was sent to India to lead a Field Propaganda Unit in Bengal . The unit tried to break Japan ese morale by loudspeakers with speeches and sentimental music.

George Steer died in a car crash in December 25 1944 .



BOOKS

  • Nicholas Rankin - ''Telegram from Guernica: The Extraordinary Life of George Steer, War Correspondent'' ISBN 0-571-20563-1, 2003