Page - 457 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The ‘Black-Yellow’ Offensive 457 perial and Royal cavalry corps were deployed on the north flank of the 4th Army, and that the entire 4th Army were put under German command. General von Linsingen was selected to lead this army group, and was in turn to be subordinate to the Army High Command. This was a bitter loss of prestige, and Schneller noted in his diary : ‘The operations in the north have been given the name “Autumn Swine of the Imperial and Royal Army East” by the young Turks [the younger officers in the Russia Group]. This autumn swine will have unpleasant consequences in several ways. 1) We are now entirely at the mercy of the Germans, 2) they have brought about the deployment of all forces intended for the Balkans from the northern theatre of war. We were also unable to keep to our agreement with Bulgaria and there  – and as a result throughout the Balkans  – we have therefore also lost our prestige.’1087 On the German side, it was pointed out that the mood in Romania and Bulgaria had changed to being highly negative towards the Central Powers, and Austria-Hungary in particular. However, in the case of Romania, not much would have changed in this regard. As a result, Bulgaria was confirmed in its view that for a joint campaign against Serbia, only a German command would be acceptable. It would be too simple, however, to simply trace Bulgaria’s refusal to come to terms with an Austrian military leadership to the defeats of the Imperial and Royal troops in the Balkans in 1914 and then to the difficulties of the ‘black-yellow’ offensive. Relations between Austria and Bulgaria were to a far greater extent impaired by the fact that Austria-Hungary had shown itself to be just as inflexible in its negotiations with Bulgaria as it had been elsewhere, and that it was also not prepared to promise Bulgaria larger territorial expansion at the cost of Serbia. It was this more than anything else that had created a considerably hostile mood in Bulgaria. Everything that Bulgaria had been promised in its negotiations with the German Empire was again called into question by Austria-Hungary.1088 And this was a political and not a military problem. However, in this issue, the Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff also played a key role. The Army High Command was again forced to redirect in the Budapest area two divisions that had already left for the Balkans and to dispatch them back to East Gali- cia.1089 The situation had worsened further, and not least, the Russians were capturing an increasing number of soldiers in Volhynia.1090 Now the German General Linsingen again took over the command of the army group that until then had been named after Archduke Joseph Ferdinand. His com- mand had been the subject of harsh criticism, and Conrad had clearly not been able to bring himself to demand that the Archduke be dismissed, and even more so since in the communiqués from the War Press Bureau he had always been described in the most glowing light. Now, however, there was at least a pretext for giving the Archduke a new command. On 23 September, General Brusilov’s 8th Army succeeded in retaking Lutsk, which until then had been held by the XIV Corps under General Roth. Roth