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The Death of General Wodniansky 227
the other.543 Some of them drew the consequences in their own way and committed
suicide.
General Wodniansky’s death was not the first case of failure, though it was one of
the most peculiar and perhaps most tragic at the beginning of the war. At least it was
the first case that made it clear in a dramatic fashion that the most senior officers had
also been overwhelmed by the reality of the war. It was sought, however, to draw a veil
over the problem that had manifested itself and to avoid the impression, both towards
the body of troops and the soldiers as well as the public, that the loss of such and such
a number of senior officers was not the result of incompetence, errors in leadership,
unfortunate circumstances and the enormous exertions to which the generals were also
subjected, but could instead be traced back to the fact that the senior ranks also fell,
died, became sick or were transferred to other posts. Merely the superior, most senior
commanders, but above all the presidial section of the War Ministry and the Military
Chancellery of the Emperor knew about the true circumstances. The Staff Ordinance
Gazette cited the death of General Wodniansky with the lapidary words : ‘dead ; day
and place unknown’. However, he was not included in the official casualty lists.
Thus, everything pertinent seemed to have been said about the General. This would
have remained the case if the family, who did not want to accept this, had not taken
action. Around a month after Wodniansky’s death, Anna Freiin von Wodniansky, the
widow of the Major General, his son Friedrich and his brother submitted a petition
to the War Ministry in which they requested that the information on the death of the
General be re-examined and the reports on the subject revised. According to the family,
who made reference here to ‘careful investigations and thorough enquiries with fellow
combatants’, the General had been ‘hit by an enemy bullet near a windmill located on
the field of battle’ during an engagement south of Pukarzów on 28 August and had in
this way died.
The War Ministry solicited additional information and within a few days a succinct
message arrived from the command of the VI Corps, to which the 15th Infantry Divi-
sion was still subordinated, to the effect that the family’s portrayal of the death of the
General was correct. At this point, Major General Baron Friedrich Wodniansky von
Wildenfeld was included in Casualty List No. 24 and Staff Announcements Gazette
No. 54 was amended to the effect that the General had fallen in battle on 28 August.544
The fellow combatants and subordinates knew the truth. One of the infantry brig-
adiers of the 15th Infantry Division, Colonel Baron Carl von Bardolff, described the
events in considerable detail. On 27 August the division had arrived in the area around
Tomazsów. Officers and soldiers were completely exhausted. Nevertheless, during the
evening a farmhouse was stormed. The Russians fled. Afterwards, the soldiers were
gripped by a ‘victory panic’, as Bardolff called it. It was the division’s first victory. The
people rejoiced and raised their officers on their shoulders, whilst the military band
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