Page 78 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

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

One relevant publication produced by the I Office was the Notiziario sullo spirito delle truppe
(Newsletter on the morale of troops), a confidential report taken mostly from mail censorship
including also excerpts of letters from or to military personnel. These newsletters summarized
the reasons for soldiers’ discontent and contained several news about their disciplinary behaviour,
reporting the frequent requests found in letters from first line soldiers for specific advice on how
“to generate eye infections or cause other wounds that may exempt them from service” . In
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the newsletter of April 1917, for example, the issue of self-inflicted wounds, was addressed and
considered a sign of concerns for the next spring offensive.
For the censorship of foreign mail, offices were established in Bologna, Milan, and Genoa,
including both civilian and military personnel . Under agreements with the Allied powers, all
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correspondence between Italy and neutral states as well as between the neutral countries transiting
through Italy, had to be censored. The heads of censorship departments were in direct contact with
the Supreme Command’s I Office, while the territorial Army Corps’ Headquarters exercised their
superior powers and surveillance over the service . Since June 1916, the Military Censorship
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Office set up at the Secretariat-General of the Ministry of War started to exert its authority on the
international mail censorship offices, taking on many
of the previous duties of Intelligence Office .
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ProPaganda
At the beginning of the conflict, propaganda among
troops existed mainly in verbal form and was delivered
by military officers and sometime by lecturers foreign
to the Army. Written propaganda through leaflets,
pamphlets, trench newspapers and proclamations,
while significant, was not as developed in its early
stages of war as in the following years.
The Operations Division took care of propaganda and
press control. The Situation Office drafted the war
bulletins of the Supreme Command; the Intelligence
Office released communications on operations to
the press; the Secretariat maintained relations with
the Government and with the political and military
authorities of the allied countries. As such a separation
of tasks prevented a unified propaganda, at the
beginning of 1916, the Supreme Command decided
to create a Press Office to document war events both
within the country and between the units at the front. 4.6 Commemorative postcard of Enrico
Moreover, to build public consensus around a just Toti, recipient of the Gold Medal for
Military Valour and war propagandist

44 Intelligence Office, Notiziario sullo spirito delle truppe (News about the spirit of the troops),1 April 1917 AUSSME, Series
G-9, env.32.
45 Intelligence Office, Letter no.10411, 16 December 1915, AUSSME, Series F-17.
46 Intelligence Office, Circular letter no.10563, 18 December 1915, AUSSME, Series F-1.
47 Ministry of War – Secretariat General, Circular letter no. 6256-G dated 21 June 191. The military censorship offices had to
report to the Intelligence Office only the communications about military operations and counterespionage.

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