Page 65 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

CHAPTER THREE

In April 1915, the circular of the Headquarters of the General Staff Corps titled Norme generali
per la costituzione e funzionamento del Comando Supremo mobilitato (General Rules for the
implementation and functioning of the mobilised Supreme Command) divided the intelligence
tasks between the Intelligence Office and the War Situation Office. The former had to:
– organise the intelligence service and provide for its operation;
– coordinate and compare the information got from prisoners, deserters, inhabitants, etc. with the
information achieved from agents, enemy press, or other means;
– deliver instructions to counterespionage;
– deal with the coded correspondence of the Supreme Command , of the Chief of the Army Staff;
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– interpret the documents captured from the enemy, when possible.
The War Situation Office had to:
– gather all information about the deployment of national and adversary troops;
– coordinate, select and compare the information about the enemy’s Army provided by the
operating troops and the Intelligence Office with the information already known about the
enemy’s Army and the information about the operations terrain;
– report the war situation of the national and adversary armies in accordance with the instructions
of the Chief of the Army Staff;
– conduct studies about the ground of the theatres of operations;
– draft war bulletins for the Government .
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The Intelligence Office and the War Situation Office were under the authority of the Operations
Division. Picture 3.9 shows the relations between the two offices and other offices under the
authority of the Operations Division and of the Secretariat of the Army Staff Chief .
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45 Except for the correspondence managed directly by the Secretariat.
46 Headquarters of the General Staff Corps, Norme generali circa la costituzione e funzionamento del Comando Supremo
mobilitato, April 1915. At the mobilisation, the Headquarters of the General Staff Corps was transformed into the Supreme
Headquarters and transferred to the zone of war.
47 A table dated 23 May 1915 shows the organisational structure, the offices and the Divisions of the Supreme Headquarters
mobilized in war. According to this table, the War Situation Office employed 12 officers, while the Intelligence Office,
renamed Intelligence and Encoding Office, employed 37 officers and a public security officer. AUSSME, F-4 Series, env.49.

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