ABSTRACT
‘I do not believe that other belligerent nations witnessed the same chaos in such a delicate and jealousy-ridden sector. In practice, we entered the war with four autonomous intelligence services that lacked co-ordination and followed disparate directives and methods’. 1 Cesare Amè, who was appointed head of the SIM (Servizio Informazioni Militare) – the military intelligence service – in September 1940, offered a damning account of the state of the Italian secret services on the eve of the Second World War.
