From Barbarossa to Pearl Harbor (22 June–7 December 1941)

Abstract

With the opening of the German-Soviet war, it goes without saying that the press in Spain and France broke out in a frenzy of excitement. Arriba began with a long headline announcing that the German advance in Finland threatened the Leningrad-Murmansk railway, ‘the only route possible for British supplies’.¹ The realisation that Churchill, best known for his anti-communism, would go to Stalin’s aid came as a considerable surprise to the Spanish people. As for the blame for Germany’s attack on the USSR, Arriba added subheadlines to the effect that ‘Moscow ha[d] committed an abominable betrayal of the Pact of Friendship; while Germany was seeking conciliation with the Soviet Union, Moscow was negotiating with London.’ Arriba’s columnist Galindo García wrote to assure his readers that the German-Soviet conflict would be decided in favour of the Reich before any leaf of autumn fell. ‘The geographic immensity of Russia, which defeated Napoleon in 1812, will not prevail against Hitler in 1941, by virtue of the violence and speed introduced into modern warfare by that multiplier of energy known as the internal-combustion engine.’ Another columnist, Dominguez, reported from London in a subheadline that ‘the British Communists are not showing much confidence in the USSR.’²