Rolf Steiner

Rolf Steiner, nacido en Múnich en 1933, es un mercenario retirado que comenzó su carrera en la Legión Extranjera y combatió en Vietnam, Egipto y Argelia. Durante la guerra de Biafra fue ascendido a teniente coronel y se retiró peleando para los rebeldes Anyanya en el sur de Sudán. A Steiner no se lo considera un idealista sino más bien un frío mercenario.

En vocabulario: Reveled, Engaging, Rants, Demoting, Craved

Para saber: brown water navy

In 1967, while living in Paris, he made contact with former colleague Roger Faulques, who was organizing a mercenary unit for the newly independent Republic of Biafra.

Steiner flew to Port Harcourt via Lisbon, Portugal and Libreville, Gabon, and enlisted in the Biafran army. Faulques and most of his 53 mercenaries soon left Biafra after leading his men into unauthorized attack to retake the city of Calabar that ended in disaster in October 1967. Steiner was one of the few who chose to stay on, becoming their leader because as a former sergeant in the Foreign Legion he had the most seniority.

Rolf Steiner, former legionnaire

Steiner´s first project upon arriving in 1967 was an attempt to create a *brown water navy for Biafra by converting some river boats into gun boats. The Federal Nigerian Navy was very small, but the naval blockade imposed by one frigate and eight patrol boats had created major problems for Biafra, preventing arms and food from imported and oil from being exported.

Following his partial naval success, Steiner had some success in leading small units into action against the Nigerian Federal Army. David Bane, the American ambassador in Libreville reported to Washington in 1968: “Steiner, Taffy Williams and an unnamed Italian then became military advisors to Ojukwu. At the end of 1968, Steiner and the Italian were each given command of a battalion of Biafran commandos with 400 to 500 men per battalion.”

Steiner´s subordinates were a mixture of adventurers.

The British journalist A. J. Venter described Steiner as “a ruthless, demanding taskmaster” who was very “hard” on his troops, but who was respected, though not loved by the men under his command. Steiner reveled in the war and was well known for his eccentricities such as pulling out his Browning handgun and firing into the air whenever he wanted people to pay attention to him. Venter also wrote that Steiner was an “austere, engaging” man, who quickly became a favorite of the journalists covering the war who found the flamboyant, eccentric mercenary Steiner a good news story.

Steiner was noted for rants in which he always held the Foreign Legion up as the model of military excellence. The fact that Steiner usually spoke in either in his native German or French limited the impact of his rants as his Ibgo-speaking soldiers did not understand what he was saying, causing him to finally switch over to English. Steiner was known for arbitrarily demoting and promoting men up the ranks, though he was considered to be a good judge of talent by promoting capable men to provide leadership at the tactical level of war.

Nigeria

Steiner claimed to have fought for Biafra for idealistic reasons, saying the Igbo people were the victims of genocide, but the American journalist Ted Morgan mocked his claims, describing Steiner as a militarist who simply craved war because killing was the only thing he knew how to do well.

The Time article from 1968 stated: “Steiner likes beer, Benson & Hedges cigarettes, violence and very little else. Compulsively clean, he throws even slightly dusty plates at his waiters. The troops do not seem to mind the harshness of the command; they follow Steiner because they believe he is a winner and because he has juju (good luck).

The same article noted: “The mercenaries´salaries run from $1,700 a month upward. But payday is at best a sporadic affair in besieged Biafra. In any case, money is probably not the major reason for their presence. It is not the land, either, for they seem to have no eyes for the green rolling infinity of the African bush… They are lobos, outcasts from society who fight every day in order to taste the excitement that comes in living close to violent death…”

One Yoruba who fought for Biafra recalled that most Biafran officers “loathed Steiner for his pompous attitude and his lack of manners.”

By late 1968, several Biafran officers felt that Steiner was more of a liability than an asset for Biafra. ..

Vocabulario

Reveled: celebrated.

Engaging: attractive.

Rants: histrionics.

Demoting: downgrading.

Craved: needed.

*The term brown-water navy refers to any naval force capable of military operations in river or littoral environments. The term originated in the United States Navy during the American Civil War, when it referred to Union forces patrolling the muddy Mississippi River.

Traducción aquí

En 1976 Rolf Steiner llega a Biafra, con otro grupo de mercenarios, desde París.

Crea una pequeña marina y obtiene el mando de 500 hombres debido a su experiencia en Vietnam y con la Legión Extranjera.

Acostumbraba denostar a sus subordinados aunque lo seguían porque parecía tener suerte.

A Steiner le gustaba la cerveza, los Benson & Hedges, la violencia y poco más.

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Esto es parte del archivo: ¡Biafra o muerte!