Page - 886 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

886 The Inner Front This emotional support lasted for several weeks, but in January and February 1918 it had already again given way to a huge disillusionment. The Russian and Romanian ex- amples showed that there no longer needed to be a war ; but in Austria-Hungary noth- ing pointed to a quick end to the conflict. On the contrary : work had already begun in 1917 to reorganise the Imperial and Royal Army and the two standing armies and to familiarise them with new fighting methods ;2121 the immediate comparison with the German troops in the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo had accelerated the implementation of these changes. The regiments lost one battalion apiece ; they consequently only had three, so that a division possessed only twelve battalions of infantry and a storm battalion, as com- pared with 16 infantry battalions hitherto. The storm battalions received special tactical training. The number of machine guns in the companies rose and submachine guns were introduced. The increased firepower was designed to prevent a decline in combat strength. At a tactical level, the combat zones were reorganised. An ‘preliminary zone’ was intended to force the opponent to deploy its forces before the battle in the so- called major combat zone began, which was then to be fought up to the furthest core positions. All zones consisted of small strongholds with machine guns, flamethrowers and artillery, were reinforced with barbed wire, and were connected with each other via trenches. The soldiers were trained to apply the new fighting methods. They were to pierce the enemy position close behind the friendly artillery fire using hand grenades and penetrate the trenches. Artillery had meanwhile risen to become the actual ‘queen of weapons’. There had been a steady increase in the number of guns. The models used at the beginning of the war had been largely replaced by modern guns with recoiling barrels, field cannons, field howitzers, long-barrel cannon, mountain cannons and mor- tars. The number of batteries had been considerably augmented and in such a way that an infantry division now possessed two field artillery regiments, a mountain artillery battery and a mortar battalion with approximately 100 barrels altogether, which was almost twice as many guns per division as in the preceding years. All of this required not only corresponding military training but also an unbroken will to fight. It depended not least on psychological and physical factors whether this was merely theorisation or whether attack and defence were really provided for. Of course, all these changes pointed to a continuation of the war, and this must have been conspicuous to every soldier. Some things no longer fitted together. When the Army High Command took stock on 21 January 1918 in an ‘army con- ference’, mention was in fact only made of worries and a serious sense of oppression.2122 The scraps of conversation contained in a transcript are also indicative of this : ‘People on the eastern front also want to live and are not in an easy situation, namely at the eastern border of Hungary ; maintenance organisation can barely be reduced anymore, so long as we must keep our troops in the trenches ; only when we can take them back