Page - 175 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

Archduke ‘Fritzl’ Goes to the Front 175 in time, then bringing it back again, and for agreeing first with one person, then with another. By the time he had realised that he had made a mistake, it was too late. Ul- timately, Conrad also wanted to accommodate the wishes of the German ally in a particular way. Instead of relocating the deployment back to the interior of Galicia and remaining on the defensive, as he had originally envisaged in the spring and also as late as mid-July 1914416, he bowed to German pressure and to his own doctrine, allowed at the last moment the deployment to be conducted after all, where it was still possible, in the areas close to the border, and aimed to begin the offensive in the east as soon as possible. In any event, on 31 July 1914, everything had become irrevocable : the over-complete deployment against Serbia, the delayed deployment against Russia and the intention of attacking in both Serbia and Russia as soon as possible. Archduke ‘Fritzl’ Goes to the Front Although the deployment of the Balkan forces was already in full swing, there was still no clarity as to the highest level of command and, what is more, the mobilisation of the A Echelon, the main force, had already started and the declaration of war had been delivered to Russia, without the chain of command having really been agreed. With the creation of the Army High Command, a recognisable military leadership may have been installed, but there were still other high commands, in particular the Balkan High Command. Furthermore, a decision had to be made regarding the role of the Austrian and Hungarian governments. Should they be restricted to simply being informed occa- sionally, or could they also assert their influence within the framework of the command leadership ? The Army High Command, however, had no plans whatsoever to allow others to participate in the higher command, and also wanted to drastically limit the flow of information. Even the Prime Minister should no longer be informed. Count Tisza then complained to the Military Chancellery of the Emperor and demanded to be given daily reports on the situation by the Chief of the General Staff or by the Military Chancellery. Conrad replied that he would rather resign than comply with this request. The task of reassuring Tisza fell to the Chief of the Military Chancellery, General of Artillery Baron von Bolfras. As a next step, the command leadership in the Balkans was agreed, and on 6 August, General of Artillery Oskar Potiorek was simultaneously given the title of Commander of the Imperial and Royal 6th Army and commander of all the Balkan forces. This was probably unavoidable. The only person who could have taken on the supreme command without being a snub to anyone was Archduke Eugen. The Emperor had even directly offered him the command. Yet Eugen consistently refused, pleading health problems by way of explanation. However, the real reason is likely to have been that the Archduke