Page - 504 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

504 South Tyrol : The End of an Illusion (I) Monarchy was voiced, though, then it was by a group of radicals and Socialists who had already been interested in this part of Europe before the war. Their arguments against dissolving the Monarchy were for the most part economic.1191 Yet their influence had never been very great, and dwindled rapidly. What had been conceived of during emigration and had been the subject of a change of opinion in the lap of the Allies could only then go beyond the stage of pure spec- ulation if the opportunity of putting it into practice were to arise. For this reason, the focus repeatedly returned to the front, since it was ultimately there that the outcome was being decided, even if in the hinterland it was also being influenced by politics, the economy and the entire population. The ‘Punitive Expedition’ is Prepared For Austria-Hungary, at the beginning of 1916, no end to the war was in sight, despite the defeat of the enemy in the Balkans. The people and the strength seemed to seep away. On both the Italian and Russian fronts by May 1916, hardly anything had hap- pened to bring significant changes in relation to the main enemies or even give cause to anticipate dramatic reversals. However, what was prepared by the staffs was hardly ever communicated to the general public. Even so, a flattening out and deceleration of military events is a symptom of any war of long duration. While initially, one major development was followed by the next, as the war dragged on, an increasing number of months passed until an operation that sought to force an outcome could be begun. The diminishing level of strength made it necessary to make long-term plans for marshal- ling people and materials. For Conrad and the Army High Command, it was however urgent and logical, in the light of the continuation of the war, to address the next enemy after Serbia and Montenegro that could be made the target of their strategy of bringing down the en- emy, and this meant Italy. A small note by Conrad contains all the information about what was being planned. He had drawn a straight line over the Isonzo front, a gentle curve over South Tyrol and then a line from South Tyrol through to Venice. This line was divided into six parts, with each part representing a daily advance of 20 kilometres. From South Tyrol, Venice was just six days’ march away. It was that simple.1192 The plans against Italy again clearly reflected how much the operational decisions in the war depended on those military plans that had already been elaborated during peacetime. In the Operations Division of the Army High Command, the very first studies for a decisive strike against Italy had already been linked to ideas that had formed the basis of pre-emptive war plan ‘I’ for several years. According to this plan, the main armed force was to be amassed in Tyrol. In the interim, this appeared even more