Page - 142 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

142 Unleashing the War to costs but merely to act as quickly as possible, had to not only be kept secret but could be regarded as positively alarming. From mid-July the Danube Flotilla prepared itself increasingly for war. Action had to be taken in accordance with the ‘Directives for the Initial Activity of the Dan- ube Flotilla in the Event of an Alert or Mobilisation’. Defects on machines and other technical flaws were to be repaired ‘with maximum acceleration’. Finally, a dispatch from 21 July stated : ‘Strictly secret order for the commissioning of the entire Danube Flotilla can take place on the twenty-third of July. Monitor group to leave Budapest inconspicuously.’335 On the same day, the cipher key was issued. And on 23 July it was stated : ‘Entire Danube Flotilla to be commissioned. … No announcement.’ On this day, the first ultimatum was handed over to Serbia. Only hours later, an order was issued : ‘Sail on Friday [24 July] at daybreak.’ In view of the circumstance that the units of the Danube Flotilla were of course visible on the river, and the deployment of the monitors and the patrol boats down the river could be observed by many ships on the Danube, it can perhaps be assumed that the deployment of the Danube Flotilla was intended to make the gravity of the situation unmistakeably clear to the Serbs and to crank up the pressure a little. Yet neither in the Marine Section nor in the Fleet did anyone seriously expect the Serbs to back down. What would happen next was ultimately fixed on 25 July : following the alert, the Fleet, which was assembled near Petrovaradin, was to leave for Zemun and make contact there with the command of the 14th Infantry Brigade. The operational order was then given to the Commander of the 7th Infantry Division, Field Marshal Baron Kasimir von Lütgendorf, to whom the 14th Infantry Brigade was subordinated. Lütgendorf was responsible for the district of Syrmia. He was to issue orders in Batajnica. From this moment onwards, the bulk of the Danube Flotilla was subordinated to the comannder of the Syrmia district. The monitor group on the Sava River, which also belonged to the Danube Flotilla, was also subordinated to Lütgendorf and was to depart for the town of Brčko.336 The officers and sailors had been prepared to cooperate with army troops in the event of war. But the collaboration with the land forces and particularly with the artillery had hardly been practised.337 Exercises were much more popular in which monitors simu- lated engagements with the enemy, although Serbia did not possess comparable river vessels. What wouldn’t they do, however, to prove their affiliation to the fleet ? Other things were needed now though. On 26 July the war had practically started. It was said shortly after midnight that a state of war would exist as soon as hostilities were opened by Serbia or ‘as soon as we declare war’. On 28 July the high commands on land and at sea were informed of the declaration of war. No-one mentioned the Serbs having supposedly opened fire near Temes-Kubin, because it was now not a feigned but a real measure that would mark the beginning of the actual war of weapons. The Commander of the 14th Infantry Brigade,