Page 42 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

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

In the 1890s, the territorial Corps’ Headquarters located at the frontiers and in Sicily were more
involved in the intelligence activities against foreign nations, recognising that:

in the past, intelligence activities against neighbouring countries were mostly performed by
the Headquarters of the General Staff Corps and military attachés, and only in a subsidiary
way by Corps deployed at the borders. However, the recent results achieved by Army corps
and the ever-increasing difficulties in recruiting clever informers due to the incidents occurred
beyond national borders, led to decentralise the Intelligence Service to the Headquarters of
the Corps gradually, leaving the leadership of the Service to the Headquarters of the General
Staff Corps .
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In October 1892, the Headquarters of the 12 Corps, located in Sicily was tasked with the intelligence
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operations in Algeria, Tunisia, and Tripolitania. Two years later, the decentralisation also involved
frontier Army Corps, authorised to send abroad officers on leave for performing special tasks.
In June 1894, the sum allocated to Intelligence Service and to the reconnaissance activities
amounted to 61,000 liras per year, administered under the direction of the Division Head, who
supervised the development of the information activities performed by agents operating abroad,
Corps’ Headquarters, military attachés, and officers on special missions.

2.3 Dossaccio and Someda Austro-Hungarian forts in a publication of the Eastern theatre, early 1900s

The easTern afrIcan caMPaIgns
In the last two decades of the 19 Century some colonial ambitions started to arise in Italy. The
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Italian expansion in Eastern Africa was supported by Great Britain, as demonstrated by the relations
between the members of the Italian Intelligence bodies and the British Intelligence Service and
by various classified publications provided by the British Intelligence to the Italian Headquarters

25 Headquarters of the General Staff Corps, letter dated 4 January 1895, Ordinamento e funzionamento del Reparto Operazioni,
(Regulation and functioning of the Operation Division) AUSSME, G-24.7 Series, env.6.

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