Seite - 177 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
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Archduke ‘Fritzl’ Goes to the Front 177
While on the Serbian border, the first skirmishes were already taking place and the
preparation of the troops for the start of the offensive was underway, the troops des-
tined for the north-eastern front and their commanders were given a ceremonial send-
off. At the stations, honorary companies also mustered, the masses thronged towards
the platforms, and mayors and notables mounted podiums to hold final speeches and
give goodwill messages. Long live the Emperor. ‘Everyone joined in’, noted the Com-
mander of the 1st Army, Baron von Dankl. ‘It was an uplifting moment.’420
On Sunday, 2 August, the commanders designated for the Galician theatre of war
had met in the War Ministry for the first time : General of Cavalry Baron Viktor von
Dankl, Commander of the Imperial and Royal 1st Army ; General of Cavalry Baronet
Rudolf von Brudermann, Commander of the Imperial and Royal 3rd Army, and the
former War Minister, General of Infantry Baron Moritz Auffenberg, who was now
Commander of the Imperial and Royal 4th Army. Only the Commander of the 2nd
Army, Böhm-Ermolli, was missing, since he was by that time already in Petrovaradin.
However, on 31 July, he had already been told by Conrad what he needed to know.
Conrad von Hötzendorf gave notebooks to the commanders of the armies that were to
travel north, which contained their instructions. If anything was unclear, they were to
address the Operations Division of the Army High Command. They were also warned
‘not to allow themselves to be persuaded’ by anyone who came with suggestions for
action or other opinions. Everything had been extensively thought through and was
thus ‘commanded by God !’ The headquarters then grouped in Vienna before being
relocated to Galicia. When the time came, Baron von Dankl exclaimed that this was a
wonderful moment. Liège had already been taken by the Germans, Belgium had been
overrun, and now the push towards Paris could be made. It was now also time to make
progress in the east.421
The Army High Command arrived at the fortress of Przemyśl. The train carrying the
Army Supreme Commander, Archduke Friedrich, the Chief of the General Staff and
the divisions of the Army High Command to Przemyśl was not particularly noticeable.
It merged with the 7,000 or so carriages that were rolling to the deployment zone every
day.422
Przemyśl, Austria-Hungary’s most important fortress, had been selected by Con-
rad as it was close to the theatre of war, guaranteed secure accommodation and above
all also offered the infrastructure that was of absolute necessity for the leadership
tasks of the highest command. As an actual fortress, however, he had neglected it.
He had a dislike of the major siege forts in the east, such as Lviv, Przemyśl and
Kraków. In 1911, he had not allocated funds for the largest of these, Przemyśl, to be
upgraded. It was regarded merely as a storage facility of vast proportions, from which
the front should be given backup support and above all, from which personnel and
materials should be sent. When work began on making the fortress ready for war, the
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