Page - 350 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

350 Under Surveillance 893 remaining on 24 May without any severe fighting having occurred. The number of men in Infantry Regiment No. 21 had been around 1,200 at the beginning of May and only around 200 after the battle on 27 May. The behaviour of both regiments was also in stark contrast to the troops of Infantry Regiments No. 18 and 98, who were also to a large degree Czech, as well as Landwehr Infantry Regiment No. 12 and the ‘Feldjäger’ Light Infantry Battalion No. 2, who at the same time and within the same corps and in the same theatre of war had proved to be reliable and courageous without exception. Finally, following the recapture of Różaniec (Rozanice), the inhabitants claimed that at the end of May, around 2,000 Austrian prisoners of war had marched through the village from the direction of Sieniawa with bright red lapels.819 The prisoners were in buoyant mood, and calls were heard such as ‘My jsme Čechy !’ (‘We are Czechs !’). Six Cossacks had been sufficient to escort the troops. This appeared to be the evidence that was needed. Finally, Infantry Regiment No. 21 was left intact, since the Army High Command was of the view that the regiment had been placed ‘in an unexpectedly diffi- cult position’ due to the failure of Infantry Regiment 36, but according to the report by its commander had nevertheless ‘fought bravely in many cases’. The ‘Jungbunzlau’ Reg- iment was provisionally disbanded on 16 July, and permanently so on 13 August. The replacement troops from the reinforcement districts of the regiment were subsequently taken to eight non-Czech, predominantly Hungarian troop bodies. However, there was one indication that despite all the incidents, the Czechs were not accused of being particularly susceptible to desertion or to collaboration with the enemy. A whole series of predominantly Czech regiments remained on the Russian front and was not relocated to Italy, for example, when at least à priori no particular inclination to change sides and to surrender voluntarily was suspected. However, it does also appear that the troops from the Bohemian crown lands were distributed more widely than those from Hungary or the German lands of the Habsburg Monarchy.820 Here, the case of Infantry Regiments No. 28 and 36 could well have played its part. Certainly, there was a need to investigate the causes of the failure and defection. Ulti- mately, the words of Conrad von Hötzendorf, written in 1904 in an essay in the Organ der militärwissenschaftlichen Vereine (‘Organ of Military Science Associations’), rang true time and again : that in a longer war, experienced troops become increasingly less willing to simply accept heavy losses.821 The Chief of the General Staff could also have added in the interim that the same applied equally to inexperienced troops. Exhaustion, a desperate situation and the fear of injury and death were and still are the main reasons for surrender. Soldiers have given themselves up at all times and are unwilling to sacrifice themselves and surrender without a fight for a large number of different reasons. Any research into the reasons as to why soldiers have surrendered without a fight would show despondency and cowardice to be important factors. On the other hand, when analysing the reasons why soldiers fought and stood their ground,