Page 29 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

CHAPTER ONE

the war and wrote a famous book where he also mentioned the results of a visit to Rome in March
1919 .
42
Yardley was on mission in Paris at the French Army’s Cryptographic Unit and, although there were
reasons of urgency that required him to return quickly to Washington, his superiors ordered him to
include a few days stay in Rome on the journey home, for the purpose of getting information about
codes and ciphers, since the Italians were considered to be “good at cryptography” . However,
43
Yardley failed to get in-depth information about the methods used by the Italians who appeared
to be quite ‘reticent’. After all, the French adopted the same behaviour when he tried to interfere
in their diplomatic Black Chamber probably because both Italians and French systematically
decrypted the diplomatic dispatches of the Americans Embassies, and had to prevent anyone from
discovering this activity .
44
Yardley concluded the narration of his mission to Rome by saying that the good standard of
the Italian military cryptology could not be compared with the English and French ones that he
regarded as the best in the world.
A more precise testimony can be found in the already mentioned book by David Kahn, titled The
Codebreakers and published in the 60s .
45
While preparing his book, Kahn travelled across Europe to interview the leading figures in the
field of cryptology during the First and Second World Wars and to consult the archives containing
the memoirs about the two world conflicts . He described that activity as a “race against death”
46
since many of the people he wanted to interview, with the aim of rebuilding the history of WWI,
had already died. Kahn especially regretted not having interviewed Andreas Figl (1873-1967),
whom he thought was surely dead at the time of his first trip to Europe, given the general death
rates of that period. Instead, during a following trip to Germany, he discovered that the Austrian
cryptologist had recently died at the “incredible [for the time (A/N)] age of 94”. However, Kahn
probably had a copy of Figl’s ‘Cryptographic Memories’, which was a gift from his German friend
Herbert Flesh , and had certainly consulted Ronge’s memoirs.
47
In reverse, Kahn succeeded in interviewing Luigi Sacco (1883-1970), who was old as well, on
10 May 1962, in the terrace of the General’s apartment located along the Tiber in Rome with a
marvellous view of the river. The American historian explained that he recorded all his interviews
and therefore we can assume that, when he wrote in his book a concise exposition of the Austrian
ciphers solved by the Italians, he also considered the statements made by Luigi Sacco during the
meeting.
Ultimately, despite some inaccuracies, for example on the dates of the meetings between Sacco
and Cartier in Italy, Kahn’s monumental work contains first-hand information that will be useful,
also in the present book, to reconstruct the history of interception and cryptanalysis on the Italian
front.
In judging the effectiveness of the Austrian and Italian cryptographic services during WWI, Kahn
undoubtedly proved to be more balanced than some of the previous authors were. However, in
concluding the paragraphs dedicated to this subject, he also mentioned the well-known statement

42 Herbert O. Yardley, The American Black Chamber, Bobbs Merril, Indianapolis, 1931 (original edition). Under the same
title, Naval Institute Press Edition, Annapolis, Maryland, 2004, p.238.
43 ibid., p.225-230.
44 ibid. The Cryptographic Unit of the Italian Army in Rome worked on both military and diplomatic cryptograms, while in
France there were two distinct offices that performed the two functions separately.
45 David Kahn, The Codebreakers, op. cit., p.316 - 320.
46 These interviews are contained in D. Kahn, Interviews, op. cit., p.36 - 41.
47 O.J. Horak, op. cit. p.53.

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