Page - 1006 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

1006 The War becomes History The Last Army Supreme Commander Now, however, not everything took its predetermined route, but became instead gro- tesque. Under point 1 of the armistice treaty, the Italians had demanded the immediate suspension of hostilities. This could, of course, only apply from the moment the treaty came into force. As yet, however, the negotiators were en route and the treaty had not yet been signed. On 3 November 1918 at 1 :20 a.m., however, Arz telegraphed all army commanders : ‘The armistice conditions of the Entente have been accepted. All hostilities on land and in the air are to be immediately discontinued. The details of the ceasefire conditions will be announced.’2507 The Emperor undertook a final attempt to share responsibility for the armistice with someone else and turn this into something other than just an action of the Crown. Ne- gotiations were conducted once more with the German Austrian council of state, but it refused again. At this point, the Emperor ordered the Chief of the General Staff to rescind the ceasefire order. However, the order had already been passed on. Hours later, the soldiers in the foremost lines had already been informed of it. Nonetheless, Arz did what the Emperor asked of him. Army Group Tyrol promptly protested : the telegram on the immediate armistice had already been forwarded to the subordinate commands. The order could not simply be annulled. The result was chaos.2508 Thereafter, the decree on the armistice was to be no longer distributed. This had anyway not yet been the case with Army Group Boroević. The Emperor believed, however, that he had found a way of escaping responsibil- ity for the conclusion of the armistice himself. He wanted to lay down the supreme command. He confirmed by oath that the Chief of the General Staff was to assume the supreme command and on 3 November at 3 a.m. handed him a lined sheet with the handwritten words : ‘Dear General Baron Arz. I appoint you My Army Supreme Commander. Karl’2509 Arz refused to accept. He justified this by saying that he, as ‘chief of a Prussian regiment and loyal to his hitherto manifested disposition’, could not as- sume responsibility for an armistice that so eminently threatened the alliance partner. At this point, the scene became completely embarrassing : the Emperor designated a general as Commander-in-Chief who knew nothing about it, namely Field Marshal Baron Kövess, who had only just been appointed the commander of the army group in Tyrol. He was not yet in Tyrol but instead in the Balkans, where he was to hand over the command of his army group to Archduke Joseph and had been in the meantime disconnected from the telephone link to Baden.2510 Arz was required to communicate : ‘Yesterday, 2 November, His Majesty appointed Field Marshal Baron Kövess as Army Supreme Commander. Until the latter’s arrival, General Arz is to deputise for him.’2511 In fact, the appointment of Kövess had not been possible until 3 November, and indeed