Page 87 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

CHAPTER FIVE

The tasks assigned to the entire reorganized intelligence sector of the Army were, in brief, the
following:
– collection of information regarding the enemy’s position and activity in the area adjacent to
the combat line, carried out by Intelligence Offices of the armies in charge of coordinating and
transmitting to the Situation Office the information inferred from units’ reconnaissance, aerial
observation, prisoners and deserters questioning;
– gathering military information on the rear line of opponent armies and the internal situation of
enemy States;
– military police service including information on the morale of troops and population, mail and
telegraph censorship, surveillance of enemy and subversive propaganda, etc.;
– counterintelligence, including all the measures to fight against the enemy information activities;
– collection of economic news relevant to the enemy’s resilience and therefore concerning the
war;
– secondarily, collection of political news, although not immediately relevant to military
operations, but useful for the Government.
All the above-mentioned information categories, except the first one, were assigned to the
Intelligence Service.
Instruments available to this Service comprised the decryption of enemy radiograms intercepted by
radio eavesdropping and of wire telegrams originated especially by foreign diplomatic authorities.
The structure of Intelligence Service included the Sections named M (Milan), R (Roma) and U
(Udine), and embraced also the pre-existing Special branch in Milan and the Detached branch of
the Territorial HQ Staff Corps in Rome.
Section M managed the Intelligence activities carried out abroad, collecting all the provided
information which, after brief analysis and arrangement, were forwarded: those of economic nature
to the Section R responsible of this sector, and those including military news to the Section U
acting as interface with the Supreme Command. Section U also leads military police and counter-
intelligence service.
Decrypting activities were assigned to a specific Unit that belonged to Section R .
8
In May 1917, the Intelligence Service still directly reported to the Assistant Chief of Staff, apart
from Section U remained a part of the Operations Divisions . Then, starting from 1 August 1917
9
the Supreme Command was reorganized according to the chart shown in picture 5.2 .
10
The reorganization of the top level of the intelligence sector in October 1916 later involved the
Intelligence Office of the Armies as well. These branches, with purpose of better fulfilling their
increasingly numerous tasks, created new bodies at the Divisions and lower levels (Sectors).
Total freedom was given to Armies Headquarters in organizing and staffing their own Intelligence
structures, with terminologies and procedures considerably different among them .
11

8 Cenni sommari sul funzionamento del servizio informazioni (Brief overview on the functioning of the Intelligence Service),
1917, AUSSME, Series F-1.
9 Supreme Headquarters - General Services Office and Secretariat, Service communications no.14068, May 1917, AUSSME,
Series M-7.
10 Supreme Headquarters - Office of the Chief of Staff, Service order, 28 July 1917, AUSSME, Series M-7. As shown in
figure 5.2, Section U of the Intelligence Service reported to the General who has been tasked with the former responsibilities
of the dissolved Operation Division. Section R and M reported to the Assistant Chief of Staff through the War Operations
and General Affairs Office.
st
11 For instance, within the 1 Army, the divisional and sectorial intelligence collection centres relied on questioning of
prisoners and deserters, telephone interception centres, artillery observers, aerial reconnaissance, news communicated by
st
front line regiment Headquarters and by the Headquarters of the engineer corps, artillery and infantry in the area. (1 Army

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