Page 315 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

13.16 Leaflet containing provisions for avoiding enemy telephone eavesdropping

Other provisions like the elimination of all telephone lines within the Regiments and the reduction
to the bare minimum “of the lines for the forward observers” accompanied the afore mentioned
measures. Furthermore, trying to reduce the risks of conveying information to the enemy, the orders
and regulation issued in 1916 were stressed, establishing that “for all the remaining telephone
lines - i.e., for artillery and infantry Headquarters, air defence, photoelectric service, etc. up to 10
km from the first trench - all communications about operations, troops, force data, movements,
supplies and the like, must be encrypted”.
Luckily for Italians, their enemies encountered serious difficulties in organizing the eavesdropping
service, mainly because the lack of interpreters. By intercepting some animated telephone
discussions between Austrian Officers, the Italians became aware of the serious problem faced
by the ‘Spetelf’- the name given by the Austro-Hungarian to their telephone interception service
- concerning shortage of interpreters with adequate knowledge of Italian and especially of local
dialects. The Austrian Commands tried to remedy this shortcoming by setting up training schools
where the Italian language was taught , but the intercepted conversations mentioned above
65
demonstrated that the achieved results were often unsatisfactory .
66

65 M.Ronge, Der Telephon Abhorchdienst, op. cit., p. 693.
66 In his book Finzi rhetorically addressed the Officials whose name he learned through the interceptions and mocked them
(C. Pettorelli Lalatta, op. cit. p. 272).

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