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Winter
War in
Russia and
Montenegro 475
wiped off the map, but instead had to be brought into a position in which it would have
only the Habsburg Monarchy to thank for any form of state identity. It was also not
conducive to this end that the German Empire had transferred those territories it had
initially conquered to Bulgaria to be occupied. None of this was politics, but instead
unadorned revenge and dismemberment. And under no circumstances did Tisza want
this. This was also not the intention of Conrad, who in his position papers on war aims
from October and November 1915 had named the dependence of Serbia without dis-
memberment as an objective – one that diverged from Tisza’s view. Conrad described
plans to incorporate Belgrade into the Banat region and to covert the Mačva region
between the Sava and Drina Rivers into two Hungarian counties as ‘insane rape’.1122
Tisza and Conrad agreed that for the time being, not even the military objectives had
been achieved in the Balkans. Thus, both of them declared that politics could only be
pursued once Montenegro had also been defeated, Serbia had been completely isolated
and left without an army, and the Albanian question had also been solved in a way that
was adequate for the Central Powers. The German Supreme Army Command did not
want to follow this view. Franz Joseph, on the other hand, was in agreement with it.
Winter War in Russia and Montenegro
The estrangement of the two general staff chiefs occurred at the same time as the Cen-
tral Powers had won one of their greatest victories in the war and the balance sheet for
the year was by all means acceptable. The culmination point of the war had brought a
range of factors to light that initiated the collapse of the present war coalition. A turn-
ing point had been reached.
An alteration in the entourage of the Austro-Hungarian Army High Command,
which appeared to be rather incidental, would play a part in everything that followed.
Archduke Friedrich brought his former steward, Brigadier Count Herbert Herberstein,
who had assumed command of a cavalry division in 1915 and then led a cavalry corps,
back to the headquarters in Cieszyn. Herberstein had requested a command at the front
at the time because he could no longer endure life in the wartime court household and
no longer wanted to participate in the monotonous luxuriousness in Khyriv (Chyriw),
later Nowy Targ (Neumarkt) and finally Cieszyn. He was furthermore displeased with
Archduke Friedrich in so many ways, above all due to his readiness to content himself
with his wretched role, so that Herberstein wanted to leave this environment as soon as
possible. His diary entries from the period speak volumes : ‘The Archduke could again
play Army Supreme Commander for a quarter of an hour. This quarter of an hour, as
well as many evenings, are […] all that bear reference to the Army Supreme Command
of the Archduke, I mean with regard to operations. I cannot comprehend how someone
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Title
- THE FIRST WORLD WAR
- Subtitle
- and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Author
- Manfried Rauchensteiner
- Publisher
- Böhlau Verlag
- Location
- Wien
- Date
- 2014
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-79588-9
- Size
- 17.0 x 24.0 cm
- Pages
- 1192
- Categories
- Geschichte Vor 1918
Table of contents
- 1 On the Eve 11
- 2 Two Million Men for the War 49
- 3 Bloody Sundays 81
- 4 Unleashing the War 117
- 5 ‘Thank God, this is the Great War!’ 157
- 6 Adjusting to a Longer War 197
- 7 The End of the Euphoria 239
- 8 The First Winter of the War 283
- 9 Under Surveillance 317
- 10 ‘The King of Italy has declared war on Me’ 355
- 11 The Third Front 383
- 12 Factory War and Domestic Front, 1915 413
- 13 Summer Battle and ‘Autumn Swine’ 441
- 14 War Aims and Central Europe 469
- 15 South Tyrol : The End of an Illusion (I) 497
- 16 Lutsk :The End of an Illusion (II) 521
- 17 How is a War Financed ? 555
- 18 The Nameless 583
- 19 The Death of the Old Emperor 607
- 20 Emperor Karl 641
- 21 The Writing on the Wall 657
- 22 The Consequences of the Russian February Revolution 691
- 23 Summer 1917 713
- 24 Kerensky Offensive and Peace Efforts 743
- 25 The Pyrrhic Victory : The Breakthrough Battle of Flitsch-Tolmein 769
- 26 Camps 803
- 27 Peace Feelers in the Shadow of Brest-Litovsk 845
- 28 The Inner Front 869
- 29 The June Battle in Veneto 895
- 30 An Empire Resigns 927
- 31 The Twilight Empire 955
- 32 The War becomes History 983
- Epilogue 1011
- Afterword 1013
- Acknowledgements and Dedication 1019
- Notes 1023
- Selected Printed Sources and Literature 1115
- Index of People and Places 1155