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182 ‘Thank God, this is the Great War!’
a large forested area in order to find out what was on the other side. Like most of the
cavalry divisions, it had also been given line infantry and artillery, although to keep the
troop formations together, the riders could not take advantage of their speed. So they
rode on ahead. They came upon Russian cavalry, particularly Cossacks, that had also
been sent on a reconnaissance mission. The following day, a mounted engagement took
place at Jarosławice, which was only prevented from ending in a severe defeat for the
traditionalist Austro-Hungarian dragoon and Uhlan regiments as a result of the timely
arrival of the infantry. However, the losses were significant. The rifles and, in particular,
the machine guns of the Russian rear infantry raged below the cavalry regiments. They
were forced to retreat as quickly as possible. The mounted engagement at Jarosławice,
the largest cavalry for the Imperial and Royal troops in Austria-Hungary’s final war,
was not only a rout for the traditionalist cavalry ; it was a clear reflection of the fact that
a branch of the military service had met its end.
The cavalry, the aristocratic weapon par excellence, had a very strong class spirit, and
strove like no other arm of the military to maintain traditions while refusing to adopt
new developments in tactics and weaponry. All the cavalry formations of the powers
fighting the war were faced with a very similar problem. However, almost none of them
experienced the end of equestrian grandeur so suddenly and with such losses as those
of Austria-Hungary. The previous over-exertion and long-distance reconnaissance had
reduced the number of horses by half. The Russian cavalry and infantry added their own
contribution. Subsequently, Conrad was to judge the cavalry activities at the beginning
of the war very harshly : ‘Aside from just a few exceptions, our brave cavalry divisions
were destroyed at the very beginning of operations by their incompetent leaders. The
entire impractical uniform and training, and the superior numbers, which were con-
stantly more than double their own, also played their part.’432 However, this insight
came late, since before the war, Conrad had certainly found no fundamental fault with
the cavalry. The dragoons, hussars and Uhlans preserved the art of mounted engage-
ment, primarily practised attacking, had successfully resisted adopting modern uni-
forms, abhorred battle on foot and had clearly chosen to ignore the fact that automatic
weaponry and rapid-fire rifles had created a different reality. Ultimately, they would
only have needed to peruse the ‘Drill Regulations for the Imperial and Royal Infantry’
to realise what their leaders expected from the cavalry. Here, the fight against troops on
horseback was presented as one that would almost always end in favour of the infantry.
While during the raids by the Imperial and Royal Cavalry in Poland, the Russians
may have also suffered losses, they had at the same time neither risked nor sacrificed
much. Also, their reconnaissance results were perhaps better. They had at their disposal
an extensive network of confidential informers that had already long been developed
during peacetime. And behind the veil of the cavalry formations, they carried out their
deployment. According to their Plan 19, Version A, they formed their south-western
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Title
- THE FIRST WORLD WAR
- Subtitle
- and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Author
- Manfried Rauchensteiner
- Publisher
- Böhlau Verlag
- Location
- Wien
- Date
- 2014
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-79588-9
- Size
- 17.0 x 24.0 cm
- Pages
- 1192
- Categories
- Geschichte Vor 1918
Table of contents
- 1 On the Eve 11
- 2 Two Million Men for the War 49
- 3 Bloody Sundays 81
- 4 Unleashing the War 117
- 5 ‘Thank God, this is the Great War!’ 157
- 6 Adjusting to a Longer War 197
- 7 The End of the Euphoria 239
- 8 The First Winter of the War 283
- 9 Under Surveillance 317
- 10 ‘The King of Italy has declared war on Me’ 355
- 11 The Third Front 383
- 12 Factory War and Domestic Front, 1915 413
- 13 Summer Battle and ‘Autumn Swine’ 441
- 14 War Aims and Central Europe 469
- 15 South Tyrol : The End of an Illusion (I) 497
- 16 Lutsk :The End of an Illusion (II) 521
- 17 How is a War Financed ? 555
- 18 The Nameless 583
- 19 The Death of the Old Emperor 607
- 20 Emperor Karl 641
- 21 The Writing on the Wall 657
- 22 The Consequences of the Russian February Revolution 691
- 23 Summer 1917 713
- 24 Kerensky Offensive and Peace Efforts 743
- 25 The Pyrrhic Victory : The Breakthrough Battle of Flitsch-Tolmein 769
- 26 Camps 803
- 27 Peace Feelers in the Shadow of Brest-Litovsk 845
- 28 The Inner Front 869
- 29 The June Battle in Veneto 895
- 30 An Empire Resigns 927
- 31 The Twilight Empire 955
- 32 The War becomes History 983
- Epilogue 1011
- Afterword 1013
- Acknowledgements and Dedication 1019
- Notes 1023
- Selected Printed Sources and Literature 1115
- Index of People and Places 1155