Page - 792 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

792 The Pyrrhic Victory : The Breakthrough Battle of Flitsch-Tolmein God himself has thus put us in the right frame of mind for the forthcoming 7th war bond.’1844 And the success continued. On 2 November, the Imperial and Royal 55th Infantry Division was able to cross the Tagliamento River at Cornino. Thus, it became possible to cross the river in a broad front. Now, a race began to the Piave River. The Italians won it, crossed the Piave and on 9 November, blew up all bridges. A glance at the maps clearly revealed the extent to which the situation on the Italian front had fundamentally changed. The front, which since 1915 had run in direct prox- imity to the Austrial Littoral, Carinthian and South Tyrolean border, had been pushed far back towards the south-west down to the Monte Grappa at Bassano. The Grappa massif had suddenly become the cornerstone of the Italian front. The catastrophe for the Italians could not initially be recorded in figures. The triumph was coloured by disputes. Despite the ‘wonder of Kobarid’, the animosities against the German Empire had by no means disappeared. Quite the opposite, the Germans were accused of denying the Austro-Hungarian troops the reinforcements they needed just at the decisive moment, in order to also take the ridges of the Montello to the west of the Piave River and the massif of the Monte Grappa.1845 Among the troops, who had just achieved joint success, there was usually a mood of close camaraderie, but the Chief of the General Staff, Arz von Straussenburg, was tasked by the Emperor with drafting an army command that purely in order to avoid expressly mentioning the participation of the Germans, was to state at the end : ‘Thanks to you, every one and all.’ The command was then ‘rewrit- ten’, since the Army High Command wished to avoid such a subtly rude treatment of its German alliance partners.1846 Even before the offensive was begun, however, an extremely odd measure had been specified, as the Austrian liaison officer assigned to General Below, Major Alfred Jansa, had discovered. Brigadier Waldstätten had among other things issued him with the following instruction : ‘Your position will not be easy, since His Majesty has arranged for the establishment of a surveillance commission among the German detachments and troops, the purpose of which is to protect our population against German requisitions.’1847 Emperor Karl travelled post haste to liberated Gorizia. Kaiser Wilhelm heard a presentation by a General Staff officer on the Podgora plateau. Tsar Ferdinand of Bul- garia, of whom Karl and Wilhelm spoke in highly dismissive tones, and who was clearly derided by both, also came.1848 The turnaround appeared to have arrived. The monarchs and the highest-ranking commanders were not miserly with their decorations, but there was also the occasional one that stood out. It was to be expected that gold, silver and bronze medals for bravery would be issued in large number, and that German and Austro-Hungarian officers would be decorated with Pour le Mérite and Iron Cross medals. However, one medal, the highest military decoration of the Imperial and Royal Army, the Military Order of Maria Theresa, was only issued three times. Aside from