Page - 917 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The Attack 917 and 12,000 with the Italians.2211 The latter were also to be deployed on the Piave front when the fighting broke out there again. Contingents were also being formed from southern Slav prisoners of war and troops who had changed sides, who were to fight on the side of the Allies in order to further shake the fabric of the Habsburg Army. The British delegate at the Comando Supremo, General Delmé-Radcliff, already saw a full ‘paralysation’ of Austria-Hungary within reach : ‘The breakup of the Austro-Hungarian military machinery is a real possibility he claimed.2212 Allied propaganda then tailored itself to making changing sides even more attractive. An inter-Allied propaganda mis- sion, which was connected to the Italian Supreme Command in Padua, published a weekly newspaper, of which Czech, Polish, Serb, Croat and Romanian versions were dropped over the Austro-Hungarian lines from aeroplanes. Handbills were shot away with rockets and rifle grenades. In no-man’s land, loudspeakers and gramophones were set up. ‘Contact patrols’ were formed, which usually consisted of deserters and who distributed their material ‘with wonderful success’. The effectiveness of these methods was reflected in the fact that an increasing number of deserters were picked up with handbills in their pockets.2213 The Imperial and Royal front began to crumble even before the offensive had begun. The Attack During Emperor Karl’s visit to Spa, the Austro-Hungarian offensive in Italy was a very important topic of discussion. The German Empire expressly demanded that it should begin, since for its part, Germany planned another attack in the west and at least wanted to be sure that the Allies would be hindered in sending troops from Italy to France and Belgium. The temporal planning of the Austro-Hungarian offensive was also influenced by the news that the Americans were already on their way to It- aly. Haste appeared to be of necessity  – and yet, in reality, the American contingents were initially restricted to medical personnel such as Ernest Hemingway, who was then wounded in June 1918, and to pilots who in part jointly flew British aeroplanes and, in so doing, became familiarised with the conditions of deployment.2214 News of a resumption of the German offensive in the direction of the Channel coast and of a possible withdrawal from Italy by the Allies, together with rumours of an im- minent Austro-Hungarian offensive, were a cause of very great concern in Italy. When the statements made by prisoners were assessed by the Imperial and Royal authorities, a remarkably low level of morale within the Allied camp emerged, from which the French were also not excluded, according to statements made by prisoners of war who had been brought in near Asiago. However, could all this compensate for what was happening in the Austro-Hungarian camp ?