Page - 678 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

678 The Writing on the Wall formed the Emperor that the German Submarine Fleet had already departed with the new order, and that even if radio telegraphs were used, it would be impossible to inform it of a counter-order. The situation could hardly have gone more awry : the Emperor and King had been duped. Now, the only alternative was either to precipitate a major conflict with Germany by hindering the German submarines in the Mediterranean, or to comply. And Austria complied. On 22 January 1917, the Privy Council also agreed to the participation by Austria-Hungary in the unrestricted submarine war. The Habsburg Monarchy complied not least because in light of the response note from the Entente to the peace initiative of the Central Powers and the intention expressed of destroying the Monarchy, a sense of helplessness had set in that left no room for hope. Thus, the continuation of the war was imbued with a very different meaning. If before the war and during the July Crisis of 1914, the reduction of the Danube Monarchy to its core territories had played a role, now, a prospect loomed that had far graver consequences : dissolution. And so, for better or worse, Austria-Hungary was forced to accede to the German move towards unrestricted submarine warfare. Also, the German arguments that only the total deployment of all forces and the ruthless use of human resources and material goods could enable the Central Powers to survive this war, and perhaps even to win it, were convincing. Czernin drew back to the position that he, as he told the Bavarian State Governor Count Hertling, who was also opposed to the submarine war, had no understanding of these ‘technical matters’.1542 He wanted to believe what Holtzendorff had told him, that the British could be forced to their knees within the space of five months. And what about the USA ? If they entered the war, then the new approach would be directed against them, since the submarine war would then be waged against them with full force. However, Holtzendorff’s strongest argument had been that he claimed that the En- tente powers were already waging an unrestricted naval war against Austria-Hungary. They were doing so directly and indirectly, he said, when they transported ammunition on passenger ships sailing under the flag of neutral countries, or by disregarding the rules of prize warfare. Overall, nine cases could be cited in which unarmed ships and even a hospital ship had been torpedoed by Allied submarines.1543 However, in the Mediterranean and the Adriatic, a situation had developed overall in which it was almost impossible to obtain an overview of what was happening. Since Italy’s entry into the war, the German Navy had increasingly brought sub- marines to the Adriatic, where it was able to use Austro-Hungarian port facilities as well as supply and escort services that the Dual Monarchy’s naval forces were capable of providing. However, the Germans had given the naval war a new character. The Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean had become the preferred zone of operation for the German submarines. The naval war intensified visibly. Finally, the Imperial and