Page 133 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

CHAPTER SEVEN

Radio and Cryptographic Deployment

7.1 FOR A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALIAN FIELD RADIO COMMUNICATIONS BEFORE 1914

orIgIn and evoluTIon

When all the Armies firstly tried to adopt field radio communications, they found significant and
often unexpected difficulties to achieve from manufacturers, compact and robust equipment,
transportable even on difficult terrain, and antennas with acceptable dimensions, easy to be
quickly assembled and disassembled. Moreover, energy sources with adequate autonomy had to
be provided since the field radio stations were often required to operate in areas without any other
power sources.
In the last years of the 19 century, the most important radio manufacturers had been working to
th
find satisfactory solutions to the problem of adapting the new radio systems to the above-mentioned
communication needs of a moving army. The first military applications of the radio dated back to
the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 and did not result altogether satisfactory.
At the beginning of 1903, after some tests performed by means of equipment designed for fixed
stations, the Italian army decided to check the performance of a field radiotelegraphic system,
during its manoeuvres. For this purpose, after an accurate analysis of the proposals submitted by
Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company and by Siemens & Halske, an appointed technical team
decided to choose the Marconi equipment instead of the system proposed by the German company
and designed by the famous scientist Carl Ferdinand Braun’s, mainly because of the different
antenna characteristics .
1
However, during the army manoeuvres of 1903 in Veneto, even the Marconi system didn’t deliver
convincing results, mainly because of the difficulty to find in hilly areas a flat surface having a
diameter of approximately 80 metres and free from obstacles, as needed to install the Marconi
antennas. Furthermore, the time between the equipment provision and the beginning of the army
manoeuvres resulted too scarce for a suitable training of the personnel.
Despite the initial troubles, the relationship between the Italian army and the Marconi Wireless
Company became stronger, especially after the agreement signed in 1904 between the Italian
Government and Guglielmo Marconi who granted “the Government the use for military purposes
of his patents concerning radiotelegraphic equipment, for no fee and with the authorization to
reproduce the equipment in question at governmental arsenals and plants” .
2
Consequently, the Radiotelegraphic Section of the Specialist Brigade - which at that time, managed
the Army’s radio communications - could adapt Marconi Wireless’s new field systems to its own

1 Inspectorate General of the Engineer Corps, Studi ed esperienze di Telegrafia da Campo (Field Telegraphy Studies and
Experiences), 15 April 1903, AUSSME, Series F4, env.11. During the 1902 manoeuvre, the German Army had tested the
Siemens - Braun system, which employed balloons or kites to lift the electrical wires of antennas. This was an effective
solution in favourable weather conditions only. Marconi Wireless, instead, provided antennas made up of eight metal wires
40 metres long, placed eight metres above the ground at a radial pattern connected to the equipment by a central vertical wire.
2 Agreement between the Italian Government and Guglielmo Marconi, London, 5 May 1904, Article 1, AUSSME, Series F4,
env.11. The agreement formalizes what Marconi had already granted to the Royal Navy in 1901.

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