Page 231 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

CHAPTER TEN

Section in Peteano and Ronchi provided relevant news achieved by listening activities carried
out between 10 and 12 February, about the Austro-Hungarians’ efforts to identify the position of
some Italian batteries, their losses incurred during bombardments, the different kinds of supplies
requested by frontline units, etc .
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Phonograms intercepted in October 1916 by the interception station in Monte Rosso mention
Austrian regiments that were certainly not deployed on the front line of that Army. Then, the
authenticity of phonograms started being accurately verified by examining the names of mentioned
officers and of the units they commanded. This leads the Italians to infer possible erroneous
interpretations since “as reported by prisoners, concealed numbers and names and, in some cases,
specific ciphers, were applied during the transmissions” . A further hypothesis assumed that the
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Austro-Hungarians might be using - as the Italians had being doing for a long time - telephone
interception to disseminate fake news regarding, for example, the size of their forces on the front.
Some of the communications intercepted on the front of the 3 Army in November and December
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1916 led to denounce the enemy’s unfair behaviours. One of these is about the risk run by an
Italian patrol leaving the trenches with the Red Cross insignia to recover the dead. At 13.35 a first
communication is intercepted: “yes, I had seen an Italian medical patrol in the proximity of Strauch
11. I wanted to give an order to shoot, but now it is too late since they have left” .
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At 14.05 a more complete conversation occurred:

Hello, Jog, is it you commanding the company?
Yes, the left-side company. Yes, it is me.
Did you see the Italian medical unit too?
No, I did not see them, and the battalion commander reprimanded me because I did not shoot.
Yes, that was timely.
Did you see what they were doing?
They were taking away dead Italians. I was told they also talked with our soldiers .
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Another telephone dispatch of 25 December requested 20 dum-dum bullet packages, forbidden
under the Hague Convention . The results of the interceptions just reported were part of a file
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providing documentary evidence of the “atrocities” committed by the Austro-Hungarians.

90 Engineer Corps Headquarters of the 3 Army, Note delle intercettazioni di corrispondenza telefonica nemica fatte negli
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ultimi due giorni (Notes on telephone interceptions over the last two days), Extremely Confidential, Ref. no. 326, 13 February
1916.
nd
91 Headquarters of the 2 Army, Defence Staff, Letter to the Intelligence Office, Fonogrammi di fonte austriaca intercettati
(Intercepted Phonograms from Austrian Source), ref. 725, Tricesimo, 9 October 1916.
nd
rd
92 Headquarters of 3 Army, 2 Section (Intelligence), News sheet N. 1990, Stralcio intercettazioni telefoniche intercettate il
27, 28 novembre (Excerpt of telephone interceptions carried out on 27, 28 November), Hill 144 station, 28 November 1916,
AUSSME, Series f3, env. 170, Austrian atrocities.
93 ibidem.
rd
nd
94 Headquarters of the 3 Army, 2 Section (Intelligence), News sheet N. 2129 A, Intercettazioni telefoniche (Telephone
Interceptions), 24 December, time: 18.20, ibidem.
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