Loudspeakers at the front

As this clip from the pro-Republican film The Spanish Earth shows, propaganda at the front differed from that on the home front. We see a huge loudspeaker that broadcast messages supposedly from deserters encouraging others to do the same. These loudspeakers were more than four metres high, could be moved to different points of the front, and were sufficiently powerful for their broadcasts to be heard by the enemy from up to two kilometres away. On the rebel side, the National Propaganda Service of the Army, which prepared the scripts, was in charge. The loudspeakers worked the same way on the Republican side, but there the scripts were written by the Propaganda Service which was commanded by a political commissar.

The content of the broadcasts by both sides was based on a paternalism used to encourage desertion. In the transcripts, we can see the frequent use of the word “brothers” to refer to soldiers in the other army. One rebel broadcast began this way.

Militiamen, because I know that you are suffering, because I know how you think, I have decided to give you advice. Not long ago I explained why it was necessary for you to cross over to Franco’s side, where you would be met with open arms… What joy, what emotion I felt at embracing your brothers, who suffer because they know how you eat, because they know that your families in [the Republican] zone are dying of hunger, because they see how your ignorant and heartless commanders send you to attack our positions knowing that we will massacre you sew the field with bodies on the pretext of helping those on the Ebro. The only ask you for sacrifices and give you nothing in return….

I know it is hard for you to endure the regime of terror and vigilance to which you are exposed. The wounds will be healed.

Former comrades and always brother, because I know how you think, because I have suffered with you, take the decision to cross over to our lines.

Another method was to launch propaganda flyers or newspapers at the enemy trenches from planes or 81 milimetre “Valero” mortar grenades. Propaganda was even carried kilometres into Republican territory by plane. The content was similar with sentences like “Don’t shoot. We are coming to join your side”.

FLC