Seite - 174 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

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