Page 106 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

THE SECRET WAR ON THE ITALIAN FRONT IN WWI (1915 – 1918)

5.11 Volunteers from Veneto who carried out guerrilla operations behind the Austro-Hungarian lines in the
autumn of 1918

In view of the enemy offensive of the Solstice, an air force squadron was made completely available
to the Intelligence Office with the main task “of carrying out complete and accurate photographic
reconnaissance of enemy deployment on the left of the Piave River, from Montello to the sea, in
particular to locate the positions of bombards and artilleries” .
66
As of May 1918, cooperation between the Air Force and the Intelligence Service developed to
support special missions of informers and saboteurs by means of airdrops, air supplying and
landings in enemy territory.
Starting from the summer of 1918, aircraft first and seaplanes later transported, and in some
cases parachuted, informer officers to occupied territories of Friuli and Veneto for performing
espionage activities with the help of the local population. Information thus gathered would be
transmitted beyond the lines by means of carrier pigeons or signalling cloths spread over fields
and photographed by reconnaissance aircrafts . For coordinating and directing the air force
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participation to those missions, the 1 Special Air Force Group was created in September 1918 .
st
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Infiltration operations were also carried out by boats on Lake Garda and on the Adriatic Sea in
cooperation with the Royal Navy.
Intelligence missions were followed, towards the end of the war, by sabotage and guerrilla in
the enemy rear lines, organized by the Intelligence Offices of the Armies . In these operations,
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66 Supreme Headquarters - Air Force High Command, Circular letter no. 675, 24 May 1918, AUSSME, Series M-7.
67 3 Army Headquarters - Intelligence Office, Memorandum, 18 July 1918, AUSSME, Series F-3.
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68 Supreme Headquarters - Air Force High Command, Circular letter no.1309, 28 August 1918, AUSSME, Series M-7.
69 The first sabotage operation behind enemy lines had been carried out by the Intelligence Office of the 1 Army by using
st
members of the 23 Assault Unit since May 1917 (Vincenzo Zazzaro, La “Giovane Italia”, “Storia Militare” n. 25 October
rd
1995).

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