Page 169 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

CHAPTER EIGHT

radIogonIoMeTry
After visiting a French station
in Joncheriy and a British
one in Quiestede, Sacco
declared to be ready to apply
radiogoniometry on the Italian
front, as “two direction finding
equipment were already
available, and it is relatively
easy to build some others
(in case there are no off-the-
shelf ones)”. Therefore, it
was possible to immediately
start a radio direction finding
service with 4 stations, two -
Mantua and Ancona - designed
to identify enemy remote 8.7 Allied Officials photographed by Sacco in front of the French
transmitters and two - Osoppo Headquarters in Chantilly during a meeting break (Luigi Sacco’s
and Latisana - for close photographic archive)
transmitters, being the latter already chosen as a potential intercepting post” . The ability to build
48
such equipment at the laboratories of the Italian Army was demonstrated, since Sacco himself, in
the same period, had implemented a radio direction finding equipment with frequencies higher
than 1 MHz (300 metres) which “performed excellently and, with regard to that specific wave
band, provided more accurate data compared to similar devices made in Italy and abroad” .
49
The accuracy of goniometric surveys depended on the ability to apply adequate correction
methods that the French had not evidently developed yet, particularly in the mountains. The Italian
specialists gradually solved this drawback, allowing the radio direction finding technique to be
widely applied, as proven by the monthly reports signed first by Sacco and later by his successor
commanding the radio goniometric service, as illustrated in the following pages .
50

new aPPlIcaTIons of radIo coMMunIcaTIons

Regarding the stations with 1 to 5 KW transmitting power used to connect high commands, Sacco
realized that English and French devices were not different from the Italian army ones. He rather
focussed on air-to-ground radio communications and on low power equipment already tested by
the Allies to connect both air observers to artillery units and trenches to rear Headquarters.
He was especially interested in the radio transmission by observers on aircrafts to direct artillery fire
by means of on-board devices connected to ground receiver stations, for transmitting information
to the batteries via telephone in the French Army and via radio in the English Army. Captain Sacco
inspected several air and ground stations, observed artillery fire control and verified the efficiency

48 ibidem.
49 Lieutenant General Luigi Sacco’s biography, AUSSME, Biographies op. cit.
50 Regarding Sacco’s radio-goniometric activities in this period, see: C. Picone, C. Micheletta, Il Ten. Generale Luigi Sacco,
Bulletin of the ISCAG, October - December 1970, p.424 and following.

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