TheCodeBreakers
Informazione Militare, or S.I.M., had a large and well-organized
cryptologic section which solved diplomatic as well as military
cryptograms. This was its Sezione 5, headed by General Vittorio Gamba,
an old Alpine warrior with austere features. A long-time student of
cryptology and author of an excellent article on the subject in the
Enciclopedia Italiana, Gamba was a noted linguist who reputedly knew
25 languages. He came to public attention in 1911 when he translated a
series of proclamations into Arabic during the Italo-Turkish conflict over
Tripoli. The 50 members of Sezione 5 were housed in a large apartment
house in Rome far from S.I.M. headquarters but connected by
teletypewriter with it and with the extensive intercept unit, Sezione 6,
located on the Forte Bocea, a hill behind the Vatican. Gamba's crypt-
analysts maintained close liaison with the chemical section, which
worked with secret inks and other means of steg-anography, with the
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