Page - 242 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

242 Adjusting to a Longer War about’, and would probably have preferred to forbid access to Przemyśl to the entourage of the Army Supreme Commander as well. The representatives of the Foreign Ministry assigned to the Army High Command were obliged to make repeated enquiries as to whether the press reports from abroad should be denied. However, Conrad issued a stereotypical message that he would be sure to let the Foreign Ministry know when denials were required.583 The Chief of the General Staff also did everything he could to keep the War Press Bureau at bay. He saw absolutely no reason to develop a skilful press policy, although he would have had every opportunity available to do so. Instead, an army report was produced on a daily basis that sometimes failed to include even the most basic information. However, one thing that Conrad and the authors of the army report could not be accused of was formulating events too optimistically and turning failures into successes. This also had its upside. At least no complicated about-turns were needed when it came to reporting defeats. The Fortress on the San The Russian deployment had taken somewhat longer than that of the Austro-Hungar- ians and the Germans. Nevertheless, as the Imperial and Royal War Minister Baron Krobatin also admitted in September,584 it had proceeded faster than anticipated. The reserve divisions had already been mobilised at the end of August, which indicated that the Russians had already initiated their mobilisation earlier and had systematically pre- pared for the war. If there was one factor that delayed the Russian deployment, then it was the railway transport. On the 15th day of mobilisation on 15 August, a third of the Russian troops had been massed. On the 30th day, in other words only after the start of the advance of the Austro-Hungarian troops, two-thirds had been mustered. Between the 30th and 60th day of mobilisation, the cavalry and infantry from the second con- tingent of troops began to arrive from the western military districts. And finally, after the 60th day of mobilisation, namely from October, the troops from Siberia arrived.585 Only now were the Russians fully assembled. However, while they were soon halted and thrown back in their advance towards East Prussia, in Galicia they made increasing progress. At the end of August, the Russian 3rd and 8th Armies had already pushed through to- wards Lviv (Lemberg) via Brody and Ternopil (Tarnopol), while Zolochiv (Solotschiw) was taken. And what from the Austrian side was initially planned as an operation into the Russian flank developed into an extensive frontal battle with high losses, in which the Russians were able to exploit their now considerable superiority in numbers to the full. Here, the Imperial and Royal 3rd Army under General Brudermann was at the