Page 144 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

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

7.3 SPY HUNT

a noT-only-ITalIan Issue

During the war preparation, activities were carried out in most Countries with the purpose of
achieving a complete availability of the radio spectrum for military and state communications,
“freeing” it from private transmissions.
Moreover, in expectation of the imminent war and even more when the war began, the Intelligence
Services of prospective belligerent Nations meticulously sought clandestine radio stations, with
methods which sometimes risked becoming a witch hunt. especially in England .
22
A well-known official of British Intelligence reported that the counter-espionage Headquarters
in London sent a telegraphist team travelling on a lorry equipped with equipment and aerials of
various kinds to an area in eastern England, with the mission of detecting clandestine equipment.
The members of the team were immediately arrested by the local police as suspected of espionage
and released only after clarification between the local police and the London counter-espionage
Headquarters. Afterword, the team had to travel to another region but demanded to be escorted by
a State Police officer in uniform. A few days later, London received a telegram sent by the police
of the region visited by the team: “We have arrested three German spies travelling on a lorry fully
equipped with radio systems. One of them was disguised as an English policeman” .
23
In Italy, the search for clandestine stations was not that paroxysmal, but demanded nevertheless
careful and constant activity, especially starting from March 1914, when the “Permanent Advisory
Committee for the Telegraphic Service of the Kingdom” chaired by the famous scientist Augusto
Righi, dealt with the issue upon request of the Ministry of the Navy. The opportunity arose because
of a concession request for two private receiver stations located in the strongholds of Taranto and
Messina .
24

resulTs of The search In ITaly and on The swIss border
In September 1914, the Chief of the Intelligence Service, Colonel Rosolino Poggi, asked the Service
Office to add some Istruzioni per la ricerca di stazioni radio telegrafiche clandestine (Instructions
for Searching Clandestine Radiotelegraphic Stations) to the Regolamenti per il Controspionaggio
Militare nel periodo di pace (Rules for Military Counter Espionage during peacetime) that had
been issued in July 1913, with purpose of providing the Royal Carabinieri, the Guardia di Finanza
and servicemen in general with the information required to detect clandestine stations .
25
The instructions issued by the Service Office comprised criteria to identify transmitter stations based
upon size of the antennas, required power, noise generated by the spark gap, etc. , buthighlighted

26
difficulties to localize intercepting receivers that, when located near military transmitters, need

22 During the war, in addition to other concerns, the English suspected the existence of transmitter used by German spies to
direct toward London the raids of German airships, which were equipped with diorection finders exactly for that purpose.
When a clandestine station was identified and seized, the English did not interrupt the transmissions but moved the station
to open countryside.
23 Sir Basil Thompson, Queer people, Hodder & Stoughton, London 1922, p.39.
24 Permanent Advisory Committee, Letter to the Ministry of the Navy of 20 March 1914, AUSSME, Series F4, env.7, f.107.
The Committee was created by Law 395 of 30 June 1910 within the Ministry of the Navy.
25 Headquarters of the General Staff Corps, Intelligence Office, Promemoria per l’Ufficio Servizi, (Memorandum for the
Services Office), 5 September 1914, ibidem.
26 Headquarters of the General Staff Corps, Intelligence Office, Promemoria per l’ Ufficio Informazioni (Memorandum for
the Intelligence Office), 26 September 1914, ibidem.

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