Page - 392 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

392 The Third Front The gradual approach of this new war made it possible, however, to make thorough preparations and above all, to undertake the organisation mentioned above of the vol- unteers and Landsturm formations. Then there were border protection measures to be taken, which began in an extremely ambivalent way. On the one hand, until April 1915, a situation was to be avoided whereby Italy would be given an excuse to enter the war as a result of a significant increase in work to shore up defences and by building new fortresses or reinforcing existing fortifications. On the other, it was imperative at least to make minimal preparations. On 27 April, in the upper section of the Isonzo River, work began on reinforcing the terrain, and, on 11 May, the full armament of all forti- fications on the Italian border began. From mid-May onwards, the first military staffs were transferred to their new headquarters. The role of the Navy was also reconsidered, which had not moved out of the Adriatic not least because of the prospect of a war against Italy. Italy had observed the presence of the Imperial and Royal Fleet with some concern, and had requested that the British attack the Imperial and Royal High Seas Fleet as a preliminary repayment for the re- versal of its allegiance. However, this would not only have been risky ; it was impossible. Ultimately, only the combined naval forces of Great Britain, France and Italy in the Mediterranean and the Adriatic was to offer Italy the certainty of being equal to the Imperial and Royal Navy. The Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral Haus, was planning for such a scenario. There were,therefore,no surprises, neither on land nor at sea. During the nine months following August 1914, the military apparatus in the hinterland had become so well-oiled that in just a very short period of time, the decisions could be taken that were necessary for the area to the rear of the new theatre of war. Finally, on 25 May, the areas of the Graz and Innsbruck military commands, with the exception of Upper Austria, were declared to be areas of the field army.929 In this way, Vorarlberg, Tyrol, Salzburg, Carinthia, Carniola, Istria and Styria became front zones, and all measures that until then had been in force in Galicia and the Balkans now also applied here. On the Isonzo and in the Sette Comuni At the start of the war, Austria-Hungary and Italy should by all means have had an equal degree of knowledge of each other, since the Triple Alliance had provided many insights despite all the suspicions that were harboured. It was also possible for neutral Italy to retain military observers in the theatres of war ; the hinterland was constantly monitored and with the aid of the Italian population within the Habsburg Monarchy, a continuous flow of information was upheld. Even so, Italy lagged behind in terms of its level of knowledge. Max Ronge, who later became head of the military intelligence