We historians regard Herodotus (c.484–c.425 BC) as the father of our profession. Before him, recounting the past was primarily an oral tradition. Communities would gather round a sage for a rollicking after-supper entertainment of tales of derring-do delivered with great authority, preferably in verse. As generations of saga-narrators added their personal flourishes, the whole thing drifted further and further from historical fact. Petroglyphs (rock carvings) and petrographs (rock paintings), often in caves and dating back as far as 10,000 BC, support this notion of the communal recording of adventures in the pre-writing era. But Herodotus was special, for he had a “Eureka!” moment.
Though he didn’t realise it, Herodotus was living on three cultural boundaries. He resided in the contested fringes of the Greek city states of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian empire in Anatolia; the literate mindset into which he was born had begun to read, not just listen; and finally, his lifetime coincided with the dawn of prose. In earlier centuries, the past had been recorded in verse by the likes of Homer in his Iliad and Odyssey and designed for declamation. In the millennia to come, indigenous peoples across the world, from Africa and Australasia to Scandinavia and the Americas would continue this oral tradition right down to our own times.
Herodotus’ eureka moment came to him on one of those warm summers when all was right in the world. As he stroked his beard and engaged his great brain, Herodotus suddenly realised he didn’t need to compose in verse for recitation if people could read his words for themselves. Though the author did recite passages of his work, with his entire oeuvre coming in at an estimated 50 hours, the 30 long scrolls that eventually comprised his Histories are the earliest Greek prose to have survived. His achievement was not only pezos logos (written language that goes on foot, unassisted by the chariot of poetry) and psilos logos (naked speech unadorned by metre) — both forms of prose, for which the Greeks had no actual word in his day — but the way he acquired information. Instead of repeating handed down sagas, Herodotus enquired of multiple sources, Greek and non-Greek; he also read widely and travelled.
His purpose, as he recounted in his introduction, was “to prevent the traces of human events from being erased by time and to preserve the fame of the important and remarkable achievements produced by both Greeks and non-Greeks; amongst the matters covered is, in particular, the cause of the hostilities between Greeks and non-Greeks”. He became a roving reporter of his own times, which is why so much of his history, once asserted as fantasy, is now acclaimed by archaeologists as rooted in fact. He thus established a school of learning which attempted impartiality, objectively making sense of the past and present for future generations.
All the magazines adhered to three hallmarks of photojournalism
This is in contrast to what had gone before and persists to this day, where other records are deliberately embroidered to suit the needs of a sponsor, the author or their audience. In one sense, all history falls into the trap of bias in the selection of sources included or omitted, but where there is intent to deceive, whether to emphasise the greatness of an emperor, president, monarch, religion or doctrine of a political party, it can be deemed propaganda. The term was originally associated with propagating the gospel of various churches and only gained secular and negative connotations after the French Revolution. Its sinister peak was attained in January 1933 when Josef Goebbels was made Germany’s Minister für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (Public Enlightenment and Propaganda).
Now, say what you like about the Nazis, you have to admit they were shockingly good at propaganda. In the Third Reich it was impossible to move without tripping over gimlet-eyed eagles clutching oakleaves, menacing-looking runes or Maltese crosses — and, of course, swastikas. From cave paintings and early pottery, we know that for over 10,000 years the symbol was associated with prosperity, health, peace and good fortune in many cultures. Then in 1920 it was rotated through 45 degrees and adopted by the Nazi Party, after which the Hakenkreuz (crooked cross) came to be engraved, etched and printed onto everything that moved and much that didn’t, from airships, armbands, banknotes, banners and buttons to government buildings, newspapers, passports, posters, postage stamps and railway cars. The Afrika Korps’ use of a swastika-and-palm tree insignia was nothing less than branding on steroids. That was with complete control of print, radio and film; one shudders to think what use Lieutenant Colonel Hasso Von Wedel, head of the Wehrmacht Propaganda Office, would have made of our technologies of mobile phones, the world wide web and Satnav.
In those pre-internet days of the 1930s, rather than wrestle with acres of turgid newsprint, with the added complication in Germany of being in Gothic fonts, most households in the developed world had come to appreciate a series of magazine titles that were packed with cutting edge black-and-white photography supporting contemporary news stories. The great era of photojournalism in the United States was led from November 1936 by the highly influential Life, but other titles included Collier’s and from 1923 Time, Fortune in 1930, and from February 1937, Look.
In bold, unfussy Art Deco style, these and similar weekly or fortnightly illustrated news journals across Europe were responding to the latest advances in printing and photography, particularly the impact of Leica’s innovative 35mm compact camera of 1925. Apart from street picture-essays, their subjects were the grittiness of urban and rural existence during the Great Depression, violence of life in Stalin’s Russia, Mussolini’s incursion into Ethiopia of October 1935 and the Spanish Civil War which had broken out in July 1936, polarising political opinion and exciting military interest around the world. All these magazines adhered to the three hallmarks of photojournalism: timeliness, that images contributed to the published record of contemporary events; objectivity, that the pictures and words constituted a fair and accurate representation of the facts and narrative, that the reportage was relatable to the reader on a cultural level. A later Vietnam War photojournalist, Eddie Adams, would contend that the best photo-essays were “bigger than what’s in the frame”. With distribution running into the millions and often in many languages, their social documentary reporting followed the best traditions established millennia earlier by Herodotus.
von Wedel eventually pumped out 112 editions of his magazine Signal over six years
For its own domestic propaganda, the Third Reich already had the Berliner Illustrate Zeitung, at two million copies sold, one of the most widely read illustrated magazines in the world. However, with their occupation of Europe well under way, they perceived the need for a different photo-heavy journal to spread their gospel externally. Hasso Von Wedel had one trick up his sleeve with which to outshine the competition: colour printing. Only National Geographic in the United States employed such a novelty but for a far different audience. Whereas the journals Wedel sought to imitate carried genuine photojournalism, his German version would pay mere lip service to reality. Instead, his magazines were to act as a highly convincing propaganda tool, portraying the Third Reich in the best possible light. Wedel’s journal, for which he enjoyed full autonomy, securing the best resources and unlimited paper and ink supplies, would have the benefit of combining the techniques and style of Life, Picture Post and Match with the successes of over a decade of domestic Nazi propaganda.
From the launch of his magazine on 15 April 1940, in addition to fantastic colour photography — the new international language of storytelling — and a very professional appearance, Wedel’s content was designed to convey the idea of a culturally and socially united Europe, albeit one under “benign German guidance”. From an initial 40,000 copies in four languages, his creation eventually reached a maximum circulation of 2.5 million per issue. Allied airmen on the run across Europe were even instructed to carry and appear to avidly read copies on trains to avoid conversation and suspicion.
With few advertisements, the magazine used each of its 40 pages to centralise information and war news from all the countries in which it was distributed (26 in 1942), but took into account local customs and interests. It appeared in almost 30 languages, from English to Arabic. It was the combined podcast, Wikipedia, Substack, YouTube, Tripadvisor and social media platform of its day.
The staff was huge, and it included over 1,600 media professionals, translators, photographers, journalists, cartoonists and cameramen, of whom many were serving in fighting formations. Appearing at a rate of two issues per month, von Wedel eventually pumped out 112 editions over six years. Even the cover was novel, using bold splashes of red but devoid of any eagles or swastikas, which gave it an air of pseudo-objectivity that stood out strongly from other German or collaborationist publications of the time. As it was full of what we would term “fake news”, historians today find the magazine a useful example of “soft power” and a guide to the Third Reich’s geopolitical expansion and contraction. Slowly the different foreign language versions arrived then disappeared, mirroring Germany’s military fortunes. In late 1944 the frequency slipped, and it ceased altogether after a single edition in Swedish in March 1945. Arguably, back in 1940–45, Colonel von Wedel’s greatest achievement was his title. He laboured for months before deciding on it. Imitating Life, Match and Tempo, it had to resonate military power, be memorable, snappy and striking and have the same meaning in multiple languages. He called his journal Signal.
Now another Signal has arisen to bite the hand of the free world. The internet has gone into meltdown over the mis-step of the Trump administration managing to text its war plans to Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic, in a chatgroup hosted by Signal, a messaging app of which I had never heard until now. It is apparently similar to Telegram, Viber and WhatsApp, but offers more privacy perks. Of all the inboxes in all the world, details of a proposed US air mission over Yemen happened to arrive, uninvited, on the screen of one of Trump’s most vocal critics. The White House has reacted by reverting to full attack mode against Goldberg, whose model behaviour has been beyond reproach throughout. Meanwhile my inbox has become meme central with endless variations on the theme of a regime opponent checking whether they should have access to privileged information. As the White House digs in to deny any wrong doing and ride out the storm, blaming poor Mr. Goldberg for “disinformation” or worse, those with a military or security background are recollecting that a similar screw up in their own careers, of inviting a journalist onto an insecure communications medium exchanging top secret plans, would result in instant dismissal, if not a court martial. Security breach, tragedy, farce, take your pick.
The very unpredictability of Trumpian behaviour has become the new predictability
Beneath the chaos lies something darker in the choice of this 21st century Signal. With its communications end-to-end encrypted, meaning all data is scrambled in transit and can only be seen by the sender and recipient and no ads or trackers, the user can set messages to disappear after a certain amount of time, from as quickly as 30 seconds to as long as four weeks. The Signalgate correspondence was set to dissolve into the ether in four weeks. Here, as a former official NATO historian, I frown, as I’m sure would Herodotus, or anyone else entrusted with maintaining an historical record, for US law mandates that all official records are held for a minimum of two years. I had the same reservations when it became apparent that previous Conservative cabinets over here were using and subsequently deleting WhatsApp messaging. The moment public officials and elected representatives destroy digital or paper official records, they are not only acting illegally, but removing the ability in the future to learn from mistakes of the past.
For non-Americans, we must realise most of this is not our fight. On present form there will not be a week until January 2029 without the 47th President or his gang upsetting long-established norms of behaviour. We must all learn to stay the course, and manage our outrage. The very unpredictability of Trumpian behaviour has become the new predictability. I am learning to limit my concerns to the global impact of the White House’s altered foreign policies. The Signal correspondence is a case in point. It concerned strikes on Houthi military personnel in Yemen, who have been disrupting shipping routes from the Strait of Hormuz, through the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean. Vice President J.D. Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hesgeth glibly complained via Signal that the operation was about “bailing out the Europeans”, without pausing to consider the shipping lane wasn’t merely a European lifeline but one of the main arteries of the global economy. The mission wasn’t about helping Europe at America’s expense but about keeping international trade flowing. More than 50 ships sail through the Strait in a typical day, including a fifth of the world’s oil, around 20 million barrels. Using missiles and drones, from November 2023 until March this year Houthi rebels have attacked more than 100 merchant vessels and even warships, sinking two and killing four sailors. Their Iranian-backed leadership allege the attacks are a way of forcing an end to Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
However, some of my American friends have pushed back with the observation that the United States is tired of keeping the sea routes open and the Europeans “need to start using their navies for something other than photo opportunities”. It is a valid criticism but overlooks that the recent aerial attacks against the Houthis were facilitated by RAF Voyager KC2 tankers, flying out of Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus, each carrying more than a hundred tonnes of fuel, which replenished US jets from the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group for over two hours. In addition to fleet logistics vessels, the US flotilla also includes the guided-missile cruiser Gettysburg, destroyers Jason Dunham and Stout, submarine Georgia plus the Italian frigate Carabiniere. On 22 March, a second carrier group based on the Carl Vinson, cruiser Princeton and a pair of destroyers, the Sterett and William P. Lawrence, were also ordered to the region. They will join Operation Prosperity Guardian, a ten-nation security mission to protect vessels against Houthi attacks, established in December 2023 and ongoing as I write. It includes craft and expertise from France, the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain as well as the United States.
The Royal Navy also has a permanent presence in Bahrain (HMS Jafir) where a frigate and three mine countermeasures vessels are based, but with a total surface fleet of just 16 major warships (two carriers, six destroyers, eight frigates), plus nine submarines, two amphibious ships, seven mine countermeasures vessels, 26 patrol craft and two survey ships, not all of which are operable, its ability to project and sustain power is limited. Additionally, a September 2024 report highlighted that just 47 per cent of RN destroyers or frigates were active or immediately deployable. At the same moment, in the shrinking Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) armada of supply ships, of the seven vessels built to replenish warships at sea, just two were active, whilst both the warship and supply fleets grapple with recruitment and retention issues.
Whatever the underlying incompetency over their Signal chat — which Team Trump ought to accept but probably won’t — they have a point, if crudely put. Europe, including the United Kingdom, does need to do more, and be seen to do more, in protecting maritime trade in the Gulf, amongst other international security tasks. For its part, the White House needs to acknowledge that the US Navy is not acting alone in the region. It leads a multi-national effort, as American forces did in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite assertions to the contrary, the United States needs its international friends, and in either world war it was never powerful enough to fight Germany or Japan on its own. If nothing else, the last 110 years has proven the necessity of robust and trusting coalitions, of which Operation Prosperity Guardian is a good example. Which is something Herodotus, guardian of the historical record in those far-off and edgy times of Greek city state alliances, understood only too well.
