Page 172 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

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

affirmed: “service ciphers in use are safe and they will be adequately changed from time to time
to be as confident as possible” .
58
Notwithstanding the success achieved by the Austrian analysts in broking the Figure Service
Cipher was not known by Colonel Mazzone, his guarantee concerning security given to the
Supreme Command without any concrete support, shows a poor cryptologic knowledge. Such
persisting ignorance caused the Telegraphic Inspectorate to make many mistakes in managing
service ciphers during a large part of the war period.
The Chief Inspector of the STM tried to blame others for any potential leak through enemy
interception and decryption, explaining that:

it would be recommendable for radiotelegraphic stations to receive from Headquarters fully
encoded telegrams with safe ciphers, as is apparently the case with the French army and not
with us. In fact, our telegrams are usually partially encrypted with the Red Code, which is such
a common code that its compromise is at times possible .
59

On the other hand, Mazzone endorsed and submitted to the Supreme Command all suggestions
of Sacco’s report. In particular, he encouraged “exploiting the interception and direction - finding
service” and proposed to “speed up the use of radiotelegraphy aboard aircraft” as well as to
“purchase 50 low-power stations to be assigned to the various Armies” .
60
In September 1915, Lieutenant Guglielmo Marconi and Captain Cesare Bardeloni, on a mission on
the western front, had the opportunity to read a copy of Captain Sacco’s report in the possession
of Colonel Braganze. They confirmed the events he had witnessed during his mission and agreed
on the ensuing proposals he had submitted” .
61

codroIPo radIoTelegraPhIc offIce

On 1 October 1915, the Radiotelegraphic Office, commanded by Captain Sacco, was officially
established within the Radiotelegraphic Section of the Supreme Command. The tasks of the Office
include “the interception of enemy and neutral radio stations also in order to ascertain their position
and to decrypt their messages” . The Office was located about 20 kilometres from Udine, in the
62
small town of Codroipo, already hosting a long-wave receiver station intercepting long-distance
communications.
On 5 October, Sacco settled in the new premises “to coordinate and manage all listening and
direction - finding stations that were already operating or about to be completed” .
63

58 ibidem. This confirms that the Chief Inspector of the STM held himself responsible towards the Supreme Headquarters for
the security of service ciphers and keys, evidently because they were created under his supervision.
59 ibidem.
60 ibidem.
61 Letter of Captain Bardeloni to the Air Force General Directorate, written at Marconi Office, House Strand, London, 24
September 1915, AUSSMA, World War 1 Collection, env.44, folder 422. Marconi and Bardeloni were on mission in England
and had interrupted their work in London for a visit of about a week to the Western front.
st
62 The date is specified in 1 Direction Finding Section, Relazione sull’operato della Sezione nella presente guerra (Report
on the activities of the Section during the current war) signed by Section Chief Lieutenant Dotto, November 1918, ISCAG,
Coll. 242. The quotation is from Sacco’s CV.
63 Chief Inspector of the STM, Military History Journal, 5 October 1915, AUSSME, Series B1, 105 S, vol. 87. On 26
September Sacco had arrived in Udine, “before the material to be used to build listening and direction - finding stations”.
Some of this material had probably been prepared at the Airship Battalion where he had been seconded in early September.

170