Page 101 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

CHAPTER FIVE

emerged especially after the retreat to Piave, when the war zone stayed in an area near to the Lombardy,
Emilia, and eastern Veneto whose populations had predominantly anti-war feelings .
52
In March 1918, the counter-propaganda activity was regulated and entrusted to the Intelligence
Service of the Supreme Command to which the Intelligence Offices of the armies reported. In May
of the same year, ‘Service P’ was officially established, comprehending a Sections P within each
Intelligence Office of the Armies and sub-sections P at the level of Army Corps’ Headquarters,
Intendancies of the Army, HQs of the Army Engineer Corps, Artillery and Air force.

volunTeer unITs
The Press and Propaganda Office of the Supreme
Command was charged with the preparation of
53
all written and oral propaganda, including posters
designed to destroy the unity of the Empire by
stressing racial differences and war bulletins and
notices formerly prepared by the Operations Office.
This Office shold harmonise his work with that of the
soon-to-be-created Inter-Allied Propaganda Central
Committee, which will comprise officers from allied
armies and representatives of oppressed nationalities
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire . The already
54
mentioned I.T.O General Regulations assigned to the
Press Office the task of coordinating “its own action
with the Intelligence Office and the Under-Secretariat
for Propaganda Abroad […]” .
55
From 15 May to 1 November 1918, the Italian Army
poured almost 60 million leaflets on the enemy
to weaken soldiers’ morale and persuade them to
surrender, in addition to more than 9 million copies of
propaganda papers in the various languages spoken
within the Empire (Picture 5.8). Austro-Hungarian
newspapers, like the “Gazzetta del Veneto” were even 5.8 Propaganda manifest on the intervention
forged and distributed inside the invaded provinces, of the US Army addressed to the Italian
for the benefit of the civilian populations. domestic front and then translated into various
languages, of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

52 The most delicate matter was the reorganization of camps collecting dispersed troops of the 2 Army, and located in rural
nd
zones of Emilia, where hostility towards the war continuation had been largely diffused.
53 In April 1918, the Press Office was transformed into to increase the consistency and force of propaganda towards both the
enemy and the troops.
54 Supreme Headquarters, Relazione sui lavori della Commissione Centrale di Propaganda sul Nemico (Report on the
Sessions of the Central Committee for propaganda against enemy), 15 May - 30 June 1918, AUSSME, Series F-1, env.262.
Propaganda leaflets were also dropped on Hungarian troops. For saving the Magyar nation, it should be pursued “its total
separation from the alliance with Germany and from the union with Austria, which would later allow its economic and social
rebirth on sincerely democratic foundations against the feudal oligarchy of aristocratic - or who had recently become so -
landowners” (Second Report of the Sessions of the Central Committee for enemy - oriented propaganda, 1 November 1918).
55 Supreme Headquarters, Norme Generali per il Servizio di Indagine, di Propaganda e di Controspionaggio fra le truppe
operanti e le popolazioni e di propaganda sul nemico (General Regulations for investigation, propaganda and counter
intelligence in the operating troops and population and for the propaganda towards the enemy), August 1918, AUSSME,
Series F-1.

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