Page 30 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

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

made by the Italian Caporetto Commission and recognised that Austria-Hungary was “preponderant
in terms of cryptanalysis success on the southern front”, but he admitted it declined during the last
year of the war .
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one sIded evaluaTIons
The Austrian publications on the cryptographic fight during WWI have continued up to the present,
as evidenced by recent books and articles.
A book by Albert Pethö published in 1998 contains detailed documentation selected after a
thorough research in the archives, especially of Vienna, and an in-depth analysis of the numerous
publications available in the 90s, apart from the Sacco Manual, which is never mentioned .
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The Pethö’s volume covers the period from the creation of the Evidenzbureau in 1850 up to the
bitter end of WWI with the “so ill-prepared Armistice of Villa Giusti” . The book devotes a long,
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detailed chapter to radio and telephone interception, and cryptanalysis of Italian radio dispatches.
This part of the work mainly mirrors the concepts expressed by Ronge, as evidenced by the
numerous references to Ronge’s 1943 memoirs and tends to demonstrate the undisputed superiority
of Austria in the field of military cryptography and the great merits of the Dechiffrierdienst (Cipher
Service).

The article by J. R. Schindler , published in the Cryptologia journal in 2000, should not even
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be mentioned because of the incredible superficiality of the author who made several historical
and cryptographic mistakes. We mention it here only to show that a contentious and sometimes
unsound attitude has persisted until recently. Specifically, the author’s statement that the Austrian
cryptanalytic service was superior to those of all the countries participating in the war to the point
that Austria achieved the most impressive cryptologic successes of the whole conflict, cannot be
proven.

Higher-level works are those by Otto J. Horak, a general of the Austrian Army who devoted his
attention to the study of Andreas Figl’s life and works. In 2005, Horak published two volumes
entitled Andreas Figl - Leben und Werk -1873-1967 (Andreas Figl’s life and works) . Six years
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later he released another volume, mentioned in the previous pages, where he reworked Figl’s
memoirs . In the following, we will often refer to the contents of the latter book when necessary
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to mention Figl’s activities.
The article by Herbert Paulis, published in the Cryptologia journal in 2007, took inspiration from
the former book by Horak. This article focuses on the description of the apparatuses used to reduce
the time required for decrypting dispatches coded by means of some Italian service ciphers .
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48 Davis Kahn, The Codebreakers, op. cit., p. 320.
49 A. Pethö, Agenten für den Doppeladler Österreich-Ungarns geheimer Dienst im Weltkrieg, Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz
- Stuttgart, 1998. Italian edition: I Servizi Segreti dell’Austria Ungheria, LEGUERRE, 2001.
50 A. Pethö, I Servizi segreti, op, cit., p.195.
51 J. R. Schindler, A hopeless struggle: Austro-Hungarian cryptology during World War I, Cryptologia - 24(4), 2000, pp.
339-350.
52 Otto J. Horak, Andreas Figl – Leben und Werk -1873-1967, Universitätsverlag, Rudolf Trauner, 2005.
53 O. J. Horak, Oberst a.D. Andreas Figl, op. cit. We will constantly refer to this publication, except in the cases that expressly
refer to the publication mentioned in the previous note.
54 Herbert Paulis, The Scheuble Apparatus, Cryiptologia - 31, 2007, p.164-178.

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