Page 116 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

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

6.7 Increase of Italian field radio communications during WWI (ISCAG Archive)

enemy - a relevant increase in the number of telegraph field radio stations within the Italian army
occurred in the period from May 1915 to October 1918, as shown in picture 6.7.
Several other radio applications in addition to field ones deserve to be mentioned, as long-distance
communications, performed by
more and more powerful stations
with aerials hundreds of metres
high . When the war began,
6
after the British navy destroyed
German submarine telegraph
cables, radio waves emitted by
powerful stations, such as that
located in Nauen near Berlin,
avoided a total isolation of
Germany by connecting it with
the eastern coast of the United
States, with the German colonies
in Africa and with many German
agents across the world.
The station in Coltano near Pisa
(picture 6.8), connecting Italy
with its colonies since 1911 , 6.8 Coltano radiotelegraph station (Pisa), established in 1911 by
7
transmitted throughout the war Guglielmo Marconi for long-distance communications (ISCAG Archive)

6 According to the British Admiralty, in June 1914 there were 37 radio stations in the entire world for international
communications, including 4 Italian ones, in addition to many stations for local and maritime communications. (D.R.
Headrick, op. cit., p.132).
7 The station of Coltano (Pisa) had a 250kW transmitter designed and implemented by Guglielmo Marconi. Since November
1911, the station had allowed Italy to communicate with the colonial stations of Mogadishu and Massawa. When the war

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