Page - 408 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

408 The Third Front bodies could not be buried beforehand, there was no option but to clear fortifications. During the Second Battle of the Isonzo, cholera also broke out, with the dead, sick and the fighting troops often lying very close together in a single sinkhole.971 In the light of the high losses, and yet time and again in the hope that within a fore- seeable period of time an offensive against Italy could be initiated with the Imperial and Royal troops, those responsible for the Italian theatre of war in the Austro-Hun- garian High Command looked distrustfully to the situation in the eastern theatre of war. It was registered with almost unrestrained agitation, for example, that the Com- mander of the Imperial and Royal 7th Army, General Pflanzer-Baltin, wanted to go on the offensive the moment he received new march battalions for this section in the Carpathians. Objections were made immediately. ‘Thank God it has been killed off’, noted Lieutenant Colonel Schneller.972 The replenishment of formations did not nec- essarily result in an attack being made. The reinforcement of defensive capabilities was also a specific goal, and troops were by all means also exchanged for a different purpose : gradually, as many Alpine soldiers as possible were to be withdrawn from the Russian front and relocated to the south-western front. As Schneller wrote, ‘no Alpine soldier [should] be taken prisoner by the Russians ever again’.973 Soon, other goals also emerged. Hardly had the hope arisen that the Imperial and Royal troops would be able to assert themselves against the Italians, then not only were offensive plans produced but also the first considerations as to how Italy could be punished for its ‘perfidy’. ‘If the outcome were to be favourable, one would have to take something away from Italy  – for military reasons’, Conrad reported to the Emperor. And he already named a specific goal : Veneto. However, the inhabitants of Veneto were later not even to be enlisted in the army as soldiers but as workers. They were rather to build dykes than serve with weapons.974 During the first months of the war, the Italians were denied more major successes, both on the Isonzo and on the mountain front. They ran aground in the karst and against the rock faces. And the Austrian side was thoroughly informed regarding the strength and troop distribution of the enemy. This was a result of the collaboration between the Imperial and Royal military attaché in Bern, Colonel William von Einem, and the Swiss General Staff, in particular the head of the intelligence service, Colonel Karl Egli.975 In Switzerland, there was uncertainty as to whether a victorious Italy might not succeed in expanding its nationalist goals to the Swiss Confederation. They therefore pursued a policy of monitoring the Italians  – and the Austrians were co-ben- eficiaries. Egli informed von Einem about the Italian forces, and since the Swiss were authorised to visit the fronts and identify troops, which Austria-Hungary had naturally no longer been permitted to do since the start of the war, this was of inestimable value. After it was exposed, this connection, which became known as the ‘Colonels’ Affair’, led to Egli being tried. From December 1915 onwards, the information became more