Page 191 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

CHAPTER NINE

Headquarters telegrams, while “the C1 could still be used for service communications” . The new
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cipher resembled the C1 as to the code groups in cryptograms varying from 2 to 6 letters; it was
structured as a 17x17 table, with two sub-rows for each position.
Figl and his colleagues were extremely interested in the fast evolution of service ciphers and they
managed to break each of them, as fast as possible, also by the help of seized specimens. For
instance, during the Strafexpedition, the Austro-Hungarians caught four Italian ciphers - Ronge
does not specify which ones - in addition to the scarcely relevant Pocket Military Cipher . It
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should be noted, once again, that Figl never mentions the advantages achieved from those captures.

The develoPMenT of ITalIan cryPTologIc acTIvITIes

Considering the failed attempts to obtain significant help by the Allies to break enemy ciphers,
Captain Luigi Sacco continued working to decrypt at least passages of Austrian dispatches. The
positive outcomes of his commitment and ingenuity led the Supreme Command to grant him the
necessary resources. As O. Marchetti recalls:

for a long time, he worked almost alone, tenaciously, until when, considering that his results
had been positive and useful, his superiors realized that his research needed to be broadened and
intensified and it was therefore necessary to staff that new branch of the Intelligence Service
with additional resources, especially in terms of personnel with excellent language skills.
That was how the Cryptographic Unit was born, later becoming more and more important .
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In fact, the Codroipo Radiotelegraphic Office had been tasked to decrypt enemy dispatches since
its creation, but the first human resources for helping Sacco in carrying out this job were available
only in the spring of 1916, according to what he himself reports .
31
The entire operation was in every case extremely confidential: The Unit was officially called
‘cryptographic’, only after the war, according to the records of Section R of the Intelligence
Service. During the entire war, any reference to Sacco’s and his colleagues’ work was systematically
avoided and known to only a small number of top-level military and civilian authorities .
32
The Cryptographic Unit developed gradually, beginning with a few operators within the
Radiotelegraphic Office of Codroipo selected by Sacco with extreme care and difficulty, given
the poor cryptologic culture existing in the Army and in the Country. The number of personnel
increased progressively up to about ten in the early summer, as shown in the following paragraphs.
In his Manual Sacco mentions, amongst his colleagues, Professor Remo Fedi, Tullio Cristofolini
from Trento, and Mario Franzotti from Gorizia, both Lieutenants of the Engineer Corps,
‘unredeemed’ volunteers and with an excellent knowledge of the German language. Fedi had
been a member of the unit since the beginning, while the two Lieutenants joined the team later: we

28 Chief Inspector of the STM, Military Journal, Service Order no. 47 of 2 August 1916, AUSSME, Series B1, 105 S, Vol.
88. The Austrians employed for service ciphers different names from the Italian ones: the cipher based on groups of figures
is called Service Cipher I, C1 corresponds to their Service Cipher II, CF corresponds to Service Cipher III, and C2 to Service
Ciphers IV (O.J. Horak, Oberst a.D. Andreas Figl, op. cit., p. 160 and f.).
29 M. Ronge, Der Radiohorch, op cit., p.10.
30 O. Marchetti, op. cit., p.88.
31 “Our cryptographic organization dates back to the spring of 1916” (L. Sacco, op. cit., p. 308).
32 A change in Sacco’s official tasks is implicit yet not easily inferable from the change, in August 1916, of the name
of Codroipo “Radiotelegraphic Office”, which became “Autonomous Detachment of the Radiotelegraphic Section of the
Supreme Headquarters”. Consequently, the Radiotelegraphic Service had to report to the Supreme Headquarters and no longer
to the Chief Inspector of the Military Telegraph Service.

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