Page 43 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

CHAPTER TWO

of the General Staff Corps. These publications contained monographs on African territories and
reports about the Anglo-Egyptian operations in Sudan .
26
However, the Italian-Ethiopian campaigns of 1887-1898 and 1894-1895, as well as the most
tragic campaign of 1895-1896 which culminated in the Battle of Adwa, were conducted under
the command of the civil-military Governor of the Colony of Eritrea, who received direct orders
from political authorities, i.e., the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of War. In fact, after the landing in Massawa, a specific
section, later upgraded to office, was established within the Ministry of War, under the authority
of the General Staff Division of the Secretariat-General, which dealt with indigenous and national
troops deployed in Africa and with various military and intelligence issues relating to the Italian
territories in the Red Sea region .
27
The Headquarters of the General Staff Corps was not involved in the direction of operations and in
the conduct of intelligence activities. Nevertheless, the Chief of the Army Staff, General Domenico
Primerano, who had replaced Cosenz in 1893, was compelled to resign since the Parliament and
the press blamed him for being jointly responsible for the disaster of Adwa.

froM The sPecIal InTellIgence secreTarIaT To The InTellIgence offIce
The mobilisation plans of 1896 provided for the creation, in case of war, of a General Headquarters,
later called Supreme Command, the elimination of the Theatres, and the formation inside the
Operation Division of an Office responsible of the Intelligence activities .
28
In 1897, Colonel Felice De Chaurand de Saint Eustache was called to join the Operations Division
with the secret role of Intelligence Service director . The presence of an intelligence cell within
29
the General Staff Corps was undisclosed in peacetime, for reasons of military secrecy, while only
after entering the war, an Intelligence Office should formally be established with the task to assist
the Army Commander-in-chief in conducting operations.
A paper by General Alberto Pollio in 1914 retraces the history of the Intelligence Office and
confirms that it was formally created during peacetime, in 1897:

For many years, the secret Intelligence Service was concentrated in the hands of the chief of
the Secretariat of the second-in-command of the General Staff Corps, who had the task of
directing the service and of harmonising the information provided by military attachés. In
1897, when there was a clear need to exempt military attachés from all secret activities, the
direction of the service was entrusted to a senior officer who was directly under the authority
of the second-in-command […]. However, little by little, the increased workload led to an
expansion in staff and a real office was set up alongside the Operations Division Secretariat.
This new office was called ‘Special Intelligence Secretariat’ .
30

26 Maria Gabriella Pasqualini, op. cit. p. 160-163.
27 Alessandro Gionfrida, Le fonti dell’Ufficio Storico relative alla campagna del 1895-1896 in Eritrea, in Studi storico-militari
1995, AUSSME, 1998, p. 174-175. Within the General Staff Division in 1896, there was an Office named ‘Africa’ providing
information for the decisions of the Minister of War on military issues pertaining to the Eritrean colony.
28 The General Headquarters included the following offices: Secretary for General and Protocol Affairs; Operations Division
incorporating the Intendancy Division and divided into Offices responsible of Intelligence, relations with the Armies; etc.;
Military Justice Office; Post Office; Inspectors of Artillery and Engineers.
29 The Chief of the Army Staff’s General Order 2 of 17 January referred only to the assignment of the Colonel to the Division.
30 Memorandum of the Office of the Chief of the Army Staff, Proposte per semplificare il funzionamento degli uffici
direttamente dipendenti dal Capo di Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, (Proposals for simplify the work of Offices addicted to
the Chief of the Army General Staff) undated, but of 1914.

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