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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
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