Page 19 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

CHAPTER ONE

Debates still heated

1.1 THE CONTROVERSY ON THE ITALIAN INTELLIGENCE SERVICE

The ausTrIan ThesIs

Although not completely independent of the debate in Italy , the first Austrian work that openly
1
asserted the lack of effectiveness and efficiency of the Italian Intelligence Service was written by
Maximilian Ronge and published in 1930. The book was promptly translated into Italian with the
title Spionaggio (Espionage) .
2
At the time the book was published, Ronge was Major General of the Austrian Army; he had served,
since 1907, in the Imperial Military Intelligence Service, the so-called Evidenzbureau, where he
created a cryptographic service in 1911. In April 1917, he became director of the Evidenzbureau
and, at the same time, of the Nachrichten Abteilung (Intelligence Department) of the General Staff.
Ronge’s book provides a wide picture and, in many respects, an in-depth analysis of the activities
his Intelligence Service conducted within the military and political context of the war that the
Austro-Hungarian Empire fought on the Balkan, Russian and Italian frontlines.
In several passages, General Ronge criticises the work of the Italian Intelligence Service and how
the Italian Supreme Command used it. In his opinion, the operational inadequacy of the Service
led to some serious consequences, such as the lack of reliable information about the real size of
Austro-Hungarian troops deployed on the front at the beginning of the war and the deficiency of
forecasting the Strafexpedition (Punitive expedition) that took the Italians “by surprise” in the
spring of 1916 .
3
Conversely, he praises the successful results that the Evidenzbureau achieved, also on the Italian
frontline, especially in a field that he defined “the soul of war’s espionage: radio interception” . In
4
particular, he highlighted the positive results achieved in intercepting radio telegraphic dispatches
and in breaking Italian ciphers.
We cannot rule out that most of the cryptologic information referred to by Ronge probably comes
from the handwritten memoirs by Colonel Andreas Figl, as we shall return to below. Figl - the top
cryptologist of the Austrian Army during the war - started to deal with Italian ciphers in 1911 and
continued this kind of activity on the Italian-Austrian front, from 1915 to 1918.
Ultimately, despite his one-sided views on the matter, we must acknowledge that Ronge’s labours,
including the memoirs written after his book, are a sizable source of information which, compared
with data coming from other sources, helps to rebuild the history of the intelligence activities and
of interception and cryptography on the Italian front during WWI.

1 Several publications and memoirs about WWI appeared in Italy from the end of the war up to 1930. They were also written
by top-ranked Army officers such as General Luigi Cadorna and General Luigi Capello. Some publications stood out for
their polemical stances.
2 M. Ronge, Kriegs- und Industrie-Spionage, Zwölf Jahre Kundschaftsdienst, Amalthea, Vienna, 1930, Italian edition: M.
Ronge, Spionaggio - Prefazione di A. Valori, Ed. Tirrenia, Naples, 1930. In the following, we will refer to the Italian edition.
3 Spionaggio, op. cit., p. 179 - 182 and p. 232 - 233.
4 ibid., p.125

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