Page 330 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

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

14.7 Detection finding of Austro-Hungarian radiotelegraphic stations in the first decade of September 1918
(ISCAG Archive)

of the previous one” . In all likelihood, this was the mentioned Schlüsselheft, which the Austrian
39
Divisions telegraphists labelled as “German” because it originated, with minor modifications,
from a code used in the German army. Therefore, “the modified version” may refer to the second
edition of the Schlüsselheft, already mentioned.
Clear signs of this code breaking may be found in the decrypting activity carried out by some
Italian units, concerning radiotelegraphic messages inside Austrian Divisions on the eve of the
Italian attack on 24 October. The information sent to the Italian Supreme Command by the 4
th
Army on 21 October reads:

For two days, the enemy has been waiting for our offensive to begin from midnight to dawn.
From the intercepted radio telegrams, it seems that the Headquarters of the 40 Honved
th
Division on 20 October ordered its units to be prepared in those hours. It also seems that the

39 Headquarters, 4 Army, Report on the Attività radiotelegrafica nemica sul fronte dell’Armata dal 18 settembre al 4 ottobre
th
1918 (Enemy Radio telegraphic activity on the Army front from 18 September until 4 October 1918), AUSSME, Series E1.

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