Page - 513 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The ‘Punitive Expedition’ is Prepared 513 The Army Group Commander Archduke Eugen, whose nerves were stretched to the limit by the pressure from the Army High Command to act more quickly, finally lost his patience. On 23 April, Major General Krauß asked whether the Army High Com- mand might not wish to obtain the basic information necessary to reach a decision through the presence in person of the Chief of the General Staff (‘see the procedure applied in the German Army’), or by sending an official representative.1208 Conrad re- sponded as was to be expected : officially, he wrote in a return dispatch that there was no reason for such a measure. On a personal level, he wrote to Krauß  – and the reference to Falkenhayn had certainly been hurtful : ‘If the AGK [= Army Group Command] should find it necessary for the Army High Command to also take responsibility for the beginning of the attack, which can only be assessed on site, then this should be reported, in which case I would travel to South Tyrol, unless his Imperial and Royal Highness the Army Supreme Commander were to go there himself.’ Krauss insisted that it would have been easy to order the attack despite the deep snow, to sacrifice thousands of lives and then to put the blame on the weather. Conrad replied that the Army High Command would also never consider ordering an attack under such snow conditions, and that the reference to thousands of lives was misplaced. There was, he said, no need for the Chief of the General Staff to travel to Bolzano (Bozen). Conrad was absolutely against coming into closer contact with the theatre of war. Yet everyone was becoming increasingly nervous, and finally, it was only Kletus Pichler, a Tyrolean by birth and Dankl’s Chief of Staff, who said aloud what the others were thinking : it would be a mistake to begin to move the troops so early, since in this region, the snow never melted before mid-May. And when he in turn was put under pressure to finally order the offensive to begin, he went outside, rammed his walking stick into the snow, and with this ad oculos demonstration attempted to prove that it would be impossible to order the soldiers to attack in snow that was knee-deep.1209 Conrad remained silent. In his letters to Bolfras, he also referred almost exclusively to personal issues, and discussed how matters should proceed in Poland after the mil- itary governor there, General Colard, had suddenly died. On two occasions, he com- mented on the ‘Endrici case’, a particularly spectacular and also difficult case, in which the Bishop of Trento (Trient), Endrici, was accused of conducting reconnaissance and having unauthorised contact with the enemy. Conrad was anything but pleased about the outcome of this matter, whereby the authorities refrained from pursuing legal pro- ceedings against the church dignitary. But soon, other issues took up his attention. The Chief of the General Staff occupied himself with accolades. He particularly wanted to see the Chief of his Operations Chancellery, Colonel Metzger, honoured. Conrad was concerned about the health of the Emperor. He considered the issue of flags and coats of arms in great detail, since new designs had now been created. It appeared that the days of the double-headed eagle were numbered.1210 Conrad even presented the