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THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
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326 Under Surveillance liable that the fortress could become dangerous’, the Army High Command promptly responded with the order : ‘Landsturm Regiments 28 and 29 to be made fit for war through the influence of their commanders and rigorous application of martial law for high treason, mutiny, cowardice and self-mutilation. Report immediately regarding the attitude of the regiments’. Ten days later, the commander of the brigade, Colonel Carl Piasecki, presented the requested report. This told a different story, however : the soldiers in his brigade, predominantly somewhat older men, had not even been familiar with the Steyr-Mannlicher M 95 rifle. They would have needed at least four weeks of training in order to refresh their military skills. Instead, the brigade was already sent to the front on 30 August, had suffered severe losses during the heavy fighting and above all during the retreats, and was demoralised. Furthermore, the officers, who were mostly reserve officers, had not been enlisted for weapons training for years. The Landsturm formations should in fact not have been deployed at all, not only for these reasons, but also because they were poorly armed and were only equipped with a small amount of artillery. However, in order to meet the superior Russian might, the Army High Com- mand had seen no other option but to send anyone to the front who was capable of carrying a rifle. In Piasecki’s opinion, the men in his brigade may have been ‘clumsy and indolent’, but he saw ‘no trace of reluctance’.761 Many direct superiors,who were requested to justify the failure of their troops, re- acted in a similar manner. They found highly plausible excuses and almost without exception sought to protect their soldiers. Here, it was not to be avoided, however, that reference was made by higher-ranking superiors and commanders to troop and army bodies that had been sent to war under similar circumstances and had given no cause for complaint. Even so, ultimately everyone was aware of the fact that while individual observations were possible, no summary judgement could be made without at least taking a longer view to the domestic policy and social conditions of the crown lands and reinforcement regions from which the soldiers of a regiment originally came. Here, there were particular features that naturally stood out. Ruthenian soldiers were often regarded as Russophile. They usually came from east- ern Galicia and constituted the majority of the troops of the Imperial and Royal Infan- try Regiments No. 9, 24, 58, 77 and 95. They were part of the X and XI Corps. Then there were also Landwehr Infantry Regiments 20, 35 and 36 and the Uhlan Regiments Nos. 4, 7 and 8, in which most of the troops were Ruthenians. All other Ruthenian sol- diers were distributed across other regiments and the different branches of the military without making up a significant share.762 The language of the regiments was Ukrainian. Many Ruthenians had been hired as seasonal workers or pedlars with household goods and iron wire in the USA. In order to follow the call-up, they first had to return home. At the beginning of August, the passenger ships calling at the southern European ports and above all those of the neutral countries, were overcrowded. Then, the usual ritual
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THE FIRST WORLD WAR and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
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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. 1 On the Eve 11
  2. 2 Two Million Men for the War 49
  3. 3 Bloody Sundays 81
  4. 4 Unleashing the War 117
  5. 5 ‘Thank God, this is the Great War!’ 157
  6. 6 Adjusting to a Longer War 197
  7. 7 The End of the Euphoria 239
  8. 8 The First Winter of the War 283
  9. 9 Under Surveillance 317
  10. 10 ‘The King of Italy has declared war on Me’ 355
  11. 11 The Third Front 383
  12. 12 Factory War and Domestic Front, 1915 413
  13. 13 Summer Battle and ‘Autumn Swine’ 441
  14. 14 War Aims and Central Europe 469
  15. 15 South Tyrol : The End of an Illusion (I) 497
  16. 16 Lutsk :The End of an Illusion (II) 521
  17. 17 How is a War Financed ? 555
  18. 18 The Nameless 583
  19. 19 The Death of the Old Emperor 607
  20. 20 Emperor Karl 641
  21. 21 The Writing on the Wall 657
  22. 22 The Consequences of the Russian February Revolution 691
  23. 23 Summer 1917 713
  24. 24 Kerensky Offensive and Peace Efforts 743
  25. 25 The Pyrrhic Victory : The Breakthrough Battle of Flitsch-Tolmein 769
  26. 26 Camps 803
  27. 27 Peace Feelers in the Shadow of Brest-Litovsk 845
  28. 28 The Inner Front 869
  29. 29 The June Battle in Veneto 895
  30. 30 An Empire Resigns 927
  31. 31 The Twilight Empire 955
  32. 32 The War becomes History 983
  33. Epilogue 1011
  34. Afterword 1013
  35. Acknowledgements and Dedication 1019
  36. Notes 1023
  37. Selected Printed Sources and Literature 1115
  38. Index of People and Places 1155
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