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188 ‘Thank God, this is the Great War!’
The Serbs recognised the direction of attack of the Imperial and Royal Balkan forces,
namely Valjevo, and began to encircle the city. This made it necessary to use an in-
creasing number of formations of the 2nd Army, and as a result, the corps of this army
were caught up in severe fighting just at the time at which they were due to depart for
Galicia. However, even this was unable to save the 5th Army. It began to withdraw and
was thrown back to the borders of the Monarchy. By 24 August, it had returned to its
original positions. In the space of less than two weeks, 600 officers and over 22,000
men in the Imperial and Royal Army had been killed, wounded or taken prisoner. The
6th Army, which was positioned to the south of the 5th Army, had only been able to
take up the offensive on 20 August due to difficulties with the terrain, and was also
intentionally held back by Potiorek in order to then conduct an operational attack on
the flank of the Serbian Army. Yet this was not to be. The 6th Army achieved a first
success on 19 August by taking Pljevlja during the advance on Montenegro. However,
its offensive then came to a standstill and the Montenegrins forced the Imperial and
Royal troops back out of the country. Within just a few days, therefore, the vision of a
revenge campaign had come to nothing. However, a severe dispute arose between the
command of the Balkan forces and the Army High Command, during which it tran-
spired that the Military Chancellery of the Emperor was also willing and indeed keen
to play a role in the parallelogram of power. Here, the question was whether the Army
High Command should have unlimited authority, or whether a second and third power
would be involved.
Conrad, who had already become aware of his strategic mistake at the beginning of
August, had from the middle of the month sent sharp-worded telegrams urging the
removal of the Imperial and Royal 2nd Army and demanding that aside from the Bu-
dapest IV Corps and the 29th Infantry Division, no formation of this army in the Bal-
kans should continue to be thrown into the battle. It was of no use. Potiorek reported
time and again that it was vital that the troops of the 2nd Army be used if defeat was
to be avoided. On 20 August, he finally demanded full deployment of the army. If all
parts of the 2nd and 6th Armies were not to go on the offensive immediately in order to
compensate for the victories achieved by the Serbs, there were likely to be catastrophic
consequences for the territories of the Monarchy inhabited by Serbs. The response
from the Army High Command stated succinctly that the suggestion for using the 2nd
Army in the Balkans could not be considered further, and that the IV Corps and the
29th Infantry Division could also be provided only temporarily.446
However, the Army High Command was unable to assert its authority over the Bal-
kan High Command. In Vienna, too, the vision of a revenge campaign and the rapid
overthrow of the troublemaker in the Balkans had not yet been abandoned. Since the
Army High Command so clearly met with resistance, however, and remained restricted
in its powers of authority, while the Viennese central authorities were quite obviously
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