Page - 1012 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

1012 Epilogue march from Ukraine, Romania and Serbia only learned several days late that the war was already over. Excesses occurred here and there. A few troop bodies returned home ‘en bloc’, as it was called, in spite of the capture of prisoners on a mass scale after the conclusion of the armistice in the Villa Giusti. At the railway stations the police at- tempted to maintain order. Protection forces, which had been formed ad hoc and were generally from the new states, supported the police. The situation in the large traffic centres was particularly dramatic. At Vienna’s Nordbahnhof, released Russian prison- ers of war plundered, and shots were fired. At Ostbahnhof, in Klein Schwechat and in Stadlau there were gunfights between units of the people’s militia on the one hand and Czecho-Slovakian or Hungarian repatriates on the other. There were dead and wounded on both sides.2529 The guarding of depots was generally in vain : People plun- dered, ate and drank like there was no tomorrow. Anything available was stuffed into kit bags, rucksacks and pouches. There were also smaller engagements with the Allies, who were pressing forward, or some other troops for whom the advance was too slow. Occasionally, demands were made for weapons to be surrendered. Most refused to do so. Somewhere, the soldiers were then loaded into carriages. Trains were shelled. Officers, who were suddenly without a home and without prospects, committed suicide. The circle from Christalnigg via Paukert and Bolzano to Eduard von Böltz thus closed.2530 The dead lay at the railway stations. Then the military formations divided themselves up into larger and smaller groups. Some wanted to go one way, others in another direction. ‘A shake of hands and friendship, which had often lasted for years, was brought to an abrupt end.’2531 Generally, they did not even say ‘good bye’.