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174 ‘Thank God, this is the Great War!’
at least an honest reaction. During the afternoon, music already began to be played to
celebrate this great war in a fitting manner. However, Conrad ordered that the Balkan
deployment be allowed to run right through the middle of the Russian deployment
where necessary. Thus, while the VIII Corps (‘Praha’) was directed to the Balkans, the
XIV Corps (‘Innsbruck’) was sent to Galicia. When congestion occurred and trans-
portation difficulties arose, the ‘B transports’ were expressly to have priority over the
‘R transports’. On the same day, 31 July, Conrad was assailed with requests not to send
too many troops to the Balkans. The Balkans, he was reminded, had now become a
subsidiary theatre of war. Moltke, Bethmann Hollweg and von Jagow also added their
voices to the chorus. Finally, Kaiser Wilhelm sent a telegraph to Emperor Franz Joseph
requesting urgently that the main force be used for the Galician theatre of war. Count
Tisza came with the argument that an intervention by Romania on the side of Russia
and Serbia could only be prevented if Austria-Hungary were to make its presence felt
as strongly as possible on the Russian front. The German military attaché in Vienna,
Colonel Count Karl Kaganeck, suggested that a delegate from the German deployment
brigade should travel to Vienna immediately and see the Austro-Hungarian measures
for himself. Although the suggestion was in fact an affront, it must have been made in a
very firm manner, making it impossible to react with a brusque rejection. However, the
visit was delayed until 7 August.413 Franz Joseph demanded to see Archduke Friedrich,
who was still the Commander-in-Chief of the Balkan Armed Forces, together with the
Chief of the General Staff. After the audience, Archduke Friedrich divulged very little
about the content of what was said, but did indicate that the Emperor intended to fulfil
the wish of Wilhelm II.414 However, this was by no means the case, since it was Franz
Joseph in particular who was convinced that Russia could still wait a while. It will now
never be possible to fully reconstruct what went through the Austrian Emperor’s mind,
although a statement made by Franz Joseph in January 1915 at least gives pause for
thought. On 9 January 1915, Franz Joseph told his Adjutant General, Count Paar, that
he, Franz Joseph, had made an error by focussing on the overthrow of Serbia instead
of giving absolute priority to the north-eastern theatre of war. Also, the armies should
not only be prepared for defensive action, but also attack. This – as the Emperor also
realised in retrospect – was also an error. He acknowledged that this was so.415
At any rate, Conrad did nothing to halt the deployment, and clearly acted in accord-
ance with the basic Napoleonic principle : ordre – contreordre – disordre. As a result,
the orders remained the same, and perhaps with a superior force overall, it would be
possible to quickly bring down Serbia or at least to decimate the main Serbian body to
such an extent that it would become inoperative for a longer period of time. It would
then still be feasible to proceed against Russia in a cohesive manner. In principle, this
is the only possible explanation for Conrad’s apparently consistent inconsistency, for
wanting to change one thing here, and another there, for bringing something forward
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Titel
- THE FIRST WORLD WAR
- Untertitel
- and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Autor
- Manfried Rauchensteiner
- Verlag
- Böhlau Verlag
- Ort
- Wien
- Datum
- 2014
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-79588-9
- Abmessungen
- 17.0 x 24.0 cm
- Seiten
- 1192
- Kategorien
- Geschichte Vor 1918
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- 1 On the Eve 11
- 2 Two Million Men for the War 49
- 3 Bloody Sundays 81
- 4 Unleashing the War 117
- 5 ‘Thank God, this is the Great War!’ 157
- 6 Adjusting to a Longer War 197
- 7 The End of the Euphoria 239
- 8 The First Winter of the War 283
- 9 Under Surveillance 317
- 10 ‘The King of Italy has declared war on Me’ 355
- 11 The Third Front 383
- 12 Factory War and Domestic Front, 1915 413
- 13 Summer Battle and ‘Autumn Swine’ 441
- 14 War Aims and Central Europe 469
- 15 South Tyrol : The End of an Illusion (I) 497
- 16 Lutsk :The End of an Illusion (II) 521
- 17 How is a War Financed ? 555
- 18 The Nameless 583
- 19 The Death of the Old Emperor 607
- 20 Emperor Karl 641
- 21 The Writing on the Wall 657
- 22 The Consequences of the Russian February Revolution 691
- 23 Summer 1917 713
- 24 Kerensky Offensive and Peace Efforts 743
- 25 The Pyrrhic Victory : The Breakthrough Battle of Flitsch-Tolmein 769
- 26 Camps 803
- 27 Peace Feelers in the Shadow of Brest-Litovsk 845
- 28 The Inner Front 869
- 29 The June Battle in Veneto 895
- 30 An Empire Resigns 927
- 31 The Twilight Empire 955
- 32 The War becomes History 983
- Epilogue 1011
- Afterword 1013
- Acknowledgements and Dedication 1019
- Notes 1023
- Selected Printed Sources and Literature 1115
- Index of People and Places 1155