Page - 276 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

276 Adjusting to a Longer War led to nothing if the Austro-Hungarian troops had not also exceeded the limit of their strength and ability to endure the suffering. They had continued to attack diagonally to the natural lines of movement, and from the middle to the end of November had brought the Serbs almost to the edge of collapse. Yet they themselves were utterly spent, had almost no more ammunition and could hardly drag themselves and their weapons further forward. Potiorek refused to accept the reality of the situation, however. Since he himself was not subject to control, only the successes of the troops in the Balkans were publicised and not the unimaginable losses. Potiorek’s orders were imperative de- mands, such as : ‘A halt is absolutely necessary’, to be made ‘as soon as possible’, ‘decisive advance without consideration of march losses’. Alternatively, the General of Artillery chose to issue platitudes such as : ‘Waging war means going hungry’, and ‘A commander in the field must always be lonely’.667 He brushed off the ceaseless complaints by the corps commanders and their pleas for the replenishment of ammunition, provisions and shoes, and their increasingly urgent demands for a day of rest as ‘whining’.668 The result was a state of complete exhaustion among the troops, who were now solely continuing the fight in mud and snow, and who were utterly apathetic. None of this is mentioned in the entries in Potiorek’s diary. On Saturday, 28 November 1914 : ‘Partially cloudy in the morning, and temperature below 0° R[éaumur] ; fine during the day and over 0° R in the sun. Worked very hard and since the battle on the Kolubara is proving persistent, felt very nervous. Field postcards forwarded.’ Sunday, 29 November : ‘In the morning, temperature above 0° R ; the whole day dull with damp fog. Worked as usual.’ A list of the forwarded cards then follows. Monday, 30 November : ‘In the morning, around 0° R with dull fog ; then very fine and mild until 3 p.m., later again partially cloudy. Worked as usual. At 11 a.m. presented the decorated gentlemen of the staff with their decora- tions in person […].’ On 1 December, Potiorek again worked ‘as usual’, before hosting two North American officers as dinner guests.669 Even when the private nature of the diary is taken into account, with the exception of a few words, the entries contain nothing relating to the processes in the Balkan high command, and above all nothing about the manner in which decisions were taken. Even less is noted with regard to the state of the troops. The diary reflected the nature of the man who wrote it : hard-headed, cold, bureaucratic, and as though the war were simply an administrative act. If one reads entries for the same days in the records of one of the higher-ranking officers, an entirely different picture emerges, and the terrible losses, deprivations and human misery become evident. One of the men who wrote about these weeks in the Balkans was Egon Erwin Kisch, who was serving as a Lance Corporal in the VIII Corps. He noted on 28 November : ‘The terrain is terrible, we have absolutely no reserves, all soldiers are considering suicide. If we could at least relieve the swarm line for eight days. The corps command has today sent our officers ten bottles of champagne in case they are needed, so preparations are apparently being made in