Page - 909 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The Collapse of the Armaments Industry 909 1918. Several shortages could be overcome using replacement metals, but the loss of production was massive. Then, there was a lack of rare metals such as manganese, which again led to a reduction in the production of steel. All this had long-term effects on the production of ammunition. Following the delivery of the church bells, and after more than three years of collecting non-ferrous metal objects, in 1918, all that was left for use in copper production, aside from the few metal roof sheets that had remained, were display window frames and door handles made of brass. And so, the metal provision agencies, which fell under the responsibility of the military, were instructed to gather together these objects, too. As had been the case in the German Empire, where they had already been requisitioned, in Austria window and door handles were in this way also sacrificed to meet the demands of war.2187 Coal production decreased dramatically. The exhaustion of the workers through over-exertion and poor nutrition, and finally the beginning of the strikes, caused pro- duction levels to shrink. Then, there were no wagons available to take away the coal lying on the tip. During 1917, the production capability of a blast furnace worker was reduced from 365 tons to just 225 tons compared with that of the previous year, 1916.2188 The lowering of production could not only be traced back to the insufficient food rations, excessive workload and shortage of raw materials. There was another fac- tor that played a role. The workers could not be made to work, even with higher wages and more generous social benefits. The coercive nature of the militarisation measures had only led to an increase in insubordination. The workers were hardly interested in anything anymore ; war aims and the situation on the fronts had long since ceased to be the subject of discussion. They wanted peace, normality, and  – to the extent that they were open to nationalistic arguments  – the realisation of nationalist goals. As could be seen among the soldiers, who were choosing to remain in the hinterland in increasingly large numbers, who ‘got lost’, only rejoined their troop bodies after periods of leave at the last possible moment, and presented and exploited sickness and infirmity as excessively as possible in order to get away from the partially already hated military and to flee the war, among the workers, too, the level of sickness increased to a vastly disproportionate degree. Following the political turmoil of the first months of 1918, and after the revolts and large-scale strikes that flared up, following the conclusion of peace with Ukraine, Rus- sia and Romania and, finally, in the wake of the Sixtus Affair, the issue of what further role Austria-Hungary should play in the war presented itself with the utmost urgency. The Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo had long since belonged to the past, but Austro-Hun- garian troops were still deployed on the Piave River and in the Sette Comuni, along the lines that had been established at the beginning of December 1917, and which had been consolidated in the interim. It was the only front on which something might still be achieved, since after all, some kind of action had to be taken if no peace were