Page - 418 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

418 Factory War and Domestic Front, 1915 nesses that were not top-priority armaments firms and those that were important for the war economy. The crude oil and oil products that were not absolutely needed were to be exported, above all to the German Empire. Nevertheless, whoever thought that private cars would disappear from the roads was mistaken. As is so often the case, the exceptions confirmed the rule. Until its entry into the war, Italy, like Romania and the other neutral states, was a recipient of Austrian and Hungarian raw materials and finished products, whereas con- versely it was again only urgently required raw materials and goods as well as foodstuffs that could be imported from or via these countries. Following Italy’s declaration of war, part of this market was lost, though Italy on the other hand also had to fight for its imports. Since it was not yet at war with the German Empire, it continued to receive around 40 per cent of its coal needs from there  – which found no understanding in Austria-Hungary, which was already suffering from a coal shortage. Austria, for its part, even curtailed exports of wood to Switzerland, merely in order to ensure that the Swiss Confederation could not pass any wood on to Italy.990 The upsurge and the output of the armaments industry were impressive. It had to overcome a two-fold problem. As a result of the relatively limited funding that Aus- tria-Hungary had provided to this budget before the war, there existed a backlog de- mand. In war, the shift also had to be made to the production of new weapons  – which had generally already been designed before the war, however  – such as new types of artillery, and to the enormously increased need for communications facilities and other armaments innovations. It was only during the war that Austria-Hungary made the move to construct its own effective aeroplanes. In five largely new factories in Vienna, two in Budapest, one each in Wiener Neustadt, Fischamend and Aszód near Budapest, as well as the naval dockyard in Pula (Pola), either new Austrian developments or licensed German aeroplanes were built. The capacity was intended to be sufficient to build 45 to 60 aeroplanes a month.991 The trench warfare, as fought on the Isonzo River, required hand grenades and, later, flamethrowers. New units were constructed for the Danube Flotilla and for the High Seas Fleet. The list could be extended indefinitely. Then, however, the production of wartime commodities, above all ammunition, ex- plosives, small arms and handguns, etc. had to be increased enormously. At the end of 1914, for example, the manufacture of artillery ammunition per gun and per day only amounted to 6.6 rounds. For the requirements of a barrage lasting hours, this was,of course, far too little. By August 1915, 14 rounds were being produced per gun and per day, and this on the basis of a considerably higher number of guns. The Russians could only supply their guns at the time with between five and ten rounds. It is evident from this that the Imperial and Royal troops, though naturally also the Germans, possessed superior firepower vis-à-vis the Russians.992 If there was a problem, then it concerned the horses. It was barely possible to transport the field cannons forwards, since most