Page - 335 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

Of Heroes and Cowards 335 battle on the Kolubara River in November. After all the active officers in the brigade had been injured, it was a reserve officer, who in his civilian profession was a lawyer in Sremska Mitrovica (Mitrovitz), who succeeded in persuading the two companies to change sides. It was quite clear that the Serbian leadership was keen to persuade southern Slav soldiers to desert, and this already became evident at the end of September 1914 from a captured order from the Serbian 2nd Army.784 However, in general, there was only a small number of units with a large share of Serbs that gave cause for disciplinary measures. If an inclination to desert or even of any significant degree of dissatisfaction was registered, however, it was also of little use to deploy the Serbian soldiers of the Imperial and Royal Army in Russia. It was therefore proposed that the Serbs be used primarily in labour battalions and in the army areas to the rear. All the problems associated with the nationalities issue in the broadest sense appeared to be overshadowed by the behaviour of the Czechs, however. After the first incidents, they almost immediately attracted the attention of all the military and civilian authorities. Since the Czechs living in Bohemia and Moravia constituted around 13 per cent of the soldiers of Austria-Hungary, it was certainly no small matter that they had a reputation for failing in their duty, and for being disobedient and even cowardly. They did after all form a share of more than two-thirds in 25 regiments of the Common Army and in 13 regiments of the Imperial-Royal Landwehr, while certain regiments could be regarded as being fully Czech. This applied above all to Imperial and Royal Regiments No. 3, 8, 11, 18, 21, 28, 36, 35, 75, 81, 88, 98 and 102, as well as ‘Feldjäger’ Light Infantry Battalions No. 2, 6, 12, 17 and 25. The same was also true of Landwehr Infantry Regiments No. 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14,25, 28 and 30. While dozens of other troop bodies also contained a lower share of Czech soldiers, their presence was still significant. However, one limitation also applied in every case : it was among the enlisted men that such a high share of Czech troops was to be found, but not among the professional officers. The share of Czechs among the officer corps of the Imperial and Royal Army was noticeably low before the war, and totalled between around five and eight per cent, or in absolute figures, between 900 and 1,400 professional soldiers.785 Since this share was only exceeded to any signif- icant degree by the Slovaks, in relation to them, the explanation given was that the Slo- vaks had an unusually low proportion of officers due to the fact that they lacked a section of society from which officers and aspirant officers were usually recruited, namely the civil service and (large) landowners.786 When it came to the Czechs, such an explanation bore no weight, however. It was simply the case that ‘one’ did not become an Imperial and Royal officer. This type of noncompliance also applied to the reserve officers, among whom the Czechs had an even lower share than their normal statistical level. Incidents had already occurred on repeated occasions long before the war. During the annexation crisis of 1908, there had been mutinies in Infantry Regiment No. 36.