Page 57 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

CHAPTER THREE

3.2 COUNTERINTELLIGENCE

MIlITary PolIce

In a publication of the War Ministry of December 1912, the most common categories of enemy
espionage agents, along with their behaviours and tricks, were illustrated .
20
The Royal Carabinieri Corps, and the Territorial Corps’ Headquarters were tasked with counter
espionage activities, working in parallel with judicial, administrative, and political police forces .
21
The vast ramifications of the Royal Carabinieri in every part of the country, especially in fortified
and border areas, allowed them to exercise a vast, continuous, and effective control over people
of doubtful morals or of unknown origin, including enemy informers .
22
An extract from the war service regulations issued in 1914 for the engagement of Royal Carabinieri
Officers in counterespionage activities, reads:

Espionage suspects must be meticulously checked and immediately arrested. Then they must
be taken to the Carabinieri station with all their belongings, papers and any other items which
might provide evidence or clues regarding their guilt. Spies are people who clandestinely, or
with false motivations, collect or try to collect data about our troops for providing information
to the enemy. A soldier who is wearing his army uniform is not a spy .
23
The Royal Guardia di Finanza - i.e., the Italian financial police - also played an important role in
intelligence and counterespionage activities, as demonstrated by the Istruzioni per lo impiego in
Guerra della R.G. di Finanza (Instructions for the employment in war of Royal Guardia di Finanza)
and by the directives for the units deployed near the borders for protecting the mobilisation and the
gathering of the bulk of the Army. Once the mobilisation of the Army was declared, the units of
Guardia di Finanza had to cooperate with the Intelligence Service by carrying out military police
tasks (monitoring and countering of espionage) and by patrolling the borders.
The Headquarters of the General Staff Corps was responsible for the collection of all available
data on the espionage activities of the enemy and had to “ascertain with enough certainty the
importance and the reliability of each piece of information in order, when appropriate, to steer
investigations in the right direction” .
24

20 Ministry of War - General Staff Division, Circular no. 24684, 28 December 1912, Provvedimenti per impedire lo spionaggio
in tempo di pace. Istruzioni di polizia militare (Measures for preventing military espionage in peacetime. Instructions for
military police), which updated the 1902 edition regarding counterespionage policy. The most common categories of enemy
agents were journalists; priests and members of monastic order, deserters; alpine guides and porters; notorious individuals
who were hostile to their country and national institutions; people known for their fanatic ideas and their hate against the
current social orders; condemned and dismissed soldiers; people, especially women, who led a comfortable life without
having an apparent source of income and loved leading a social life. issued a publication titled.
21 Royal Army Troops, who patrolled border areas or were there for drills or works, indirectly became military police forces.
They monitored suspects or travellers either staying or in transit, preventing them from collecting information or conducting
reconnaissance activities.
22 Ministry of War, Regolamento pel servizio territoriale, volume I, Rome, 8 July 1883.
23 General Headquarters of Royal Carabinieri Corps, Stralcio del servizio in guerra, Sezione I, Servizio delle truppe riguardante
l’Arma dei Carabinieri Reali, Roma, 1914.
24 Ministry of War - General Staff Division, Circular no. 24684, 28 December 1912, Provvedimenti, op. cit., In peacetime,
espionage activities were prosecuted by applying the Military Penal Code, the Maritime Penal Code, the common Penal
Code (Articles 107,108, 109 and 110) and Articles 7 and 11 of the Testo unico delle leggi sulle servitù militari, 16 May 1900.

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