Page 40 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

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

We currently spend 100,000 liras per year to pay four military attachés who, despite their
goodwill, cannot perform remarkable services in this era of great advertising. By allocating a
smaller sum of money, we could certainly set up a network of secret agents who, during the
war, could perform services of the utmost importance .
18
In the same year 1882, the Ministry of War issued the Regolamento di servizio in guerra (Wartime
Service Regulations) listing the activities to be carried out to collect information about the enemies
in the theatres of war, as well as the “special reconnaissance tasks entrusted, in peacetime, to
officers from the Headquarters of the General Staff Corps” .
19

2.3 ORGANISATION CHANGES AND COLONIAL WARS

The oPeraTIons dIvIsIon

In 1892, the peacetime organisational structure of the Headquarters of the General Staff Corps was
reshaped including the Office of the Chief of the Army Staff and two Divisions, called Operations Division
and Intendancy Division. The chief of the Operations Division also “headed the Intelligence Service
responsible for neighbouring countries” and could avail himself of three offices, dealing with the Western,
Eastern and Southern Theatres . He could also rely on five military attachés serving in Saint Petersburg,
20
Vienna, Berlin, Constantinople, and Paris. Later, other attachés were assigned to the Embassies in Bern
(1902), Sofia (1905), Tokyo and Bucharest (1906), Madrid (1909), London (1910), and Belgrade (1914) .
21
The main tasks of the Theatres concerned the collections of political-military information about
countries of interest with particular reference to their armed forces and the assemblage of data
on foreign armies operating in their area of responsibility . For instance, in 1893 the Western
22
Theatre consisted of four sections that dealt with military studies on the territory and fortifications,
statistics and studies on the forces of France and its colonies, as well as on the military power of
Britain, USA, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands .
23
The Operations Division, like the 1 Division before it, also dealt with counterespionage activities
st
proposing legislative measures to the Ministry of War to fight against spies of foreign countries
operating in Italy .
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18 Ibidem.
19 Regolamento di servizio in guerra (Service rules in war), Section 1, Servizio delle truppe, Ministry of War, Rome, 26 November
1882. They generally worked in isolation “to collect general information about the shape, the nature and the financial resources
of a theatre of war, or part of it. Special reconnaissance activities also include those aimed at establishing defence works or
at determining ways and means for attacking fortified locations”. Reconnaissance activities were carried out beyond national
borders by people who became famous later, such as Giuseppe Perrucchetti, Cesare Battisti, Eugenio De Rossi, Alberico Albricci,
Vittorio Zuppelli, Paolo Spingardi and Luigi Cadorna, who, as a captain, explored the Karst region.
20 Circular no. 46 of ‘Military Journal’, dated 22 February 1895, re-established the Technical Office within the Operations
Division.
21 Ministry of War, Norme di servizio pel Comando del Corpo di Stato Maggiore (Service regulations for Headquarters of the
General Staff Corps), Rome, 5 May 1892, AUSSME, L-3 Series, env.298.
22 In the second half of the 1870s, the Headquarters of the General Staff Corps began to compile monographs on the main
routes that allowed access to the Po Valley from France, Switzerland, and Austria. Later, they compiled monographs on other
parts of Italy, including island and Apennine regions. All monographs were updated until 1906, depending on the progress of
road and fortification construction (Rivista Militare Italiana, 1910, pp. 897-901).
23 Headquarters of the General Staff Corps - Operations Division, letter no. 595, 4 December 1893, Documenti posseduti
dall’Ufficio Scacchiere Occidentale (Documents owned by the Western Theatre), AUSSME, G-24.7 Series, env.6.
24 AUSSME, G-24.7 Series, env.12.

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