Seite - 180 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
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180 ‘Thank God, this is the Great War!’
The Mounted Engagement at Jarosławice
According to the longer-term plans, the Austro-Hungarian armies were to provide
backing for the German Empire until the Imperial Army was able to arrive in the east
in force following their planned victory in the west. However, the main problem was
the numerical inferiority of the Danube Monarchy. To compensate for this, attacks
should be made, and the law of action be used by the Imperial and Royal armies right
from the beginning. However, no-one could claim that this strategy had been born
from the emergency of the hour, and that the Austro-Hungarian troops would perhaps
have waited with their attack had they been of anything like the same number as the
Russians. Then, they certainly would have pursued an offensive approach. The three
Imperial and Royal armies that were deployed on the Weichsel and San Rivers, east of
Lviv, on the Dniester River and at Chernivtsi were to be ready for operation between
23 and 26 August. Even so, there were of course only three armies available, along with
two army groups (Army Group Kummer from the 1st, 4th and 3rd Armies, and Army
Group Kövess). Only when the Imperial and Royal 2nd Army, which was initially de-
ployed in Slavonia, could be inserted on the southern wing of the eastern front would
all the designated forces be gathered. Overall, the Army High Command in the east
had more than double the number of battalions of the Balkan High Command, with
the majority of the cavalry and around 2,000 pieces of artillery, and approximately 1.2
million men overall. However, in the face of the anticipated Russian forces, with an
estimated 1.8 million men, no-one could fail to recognise the disadvantage. Even so,
Conrad reasoned that once the Germans had first brought down France, the situation
on the eastern front would instantly change.
From the first hour onwards, however, it became evident that in all the years, it had
not been possible for the general staffs to reach an even halfway clear understanding in
their agreements of how operations should be initiated. As late as July 1914, Conrad
had still envisaged that the Imperial and Royal armies would begin their advance to
Russian Poland between the Weichsel and Bug Rivers in the general direction of Lub-
lin and Chełm, while the Germans would push forward from East Prussia towards the
south, so that in a large encirclement battle, planned to take place in the Kielce area,
the large Russian army units in Poland could be destroyed.429 The plan looked good
on paper. However, Moltke informed his Austrian counterpart on 3 August that the
German troops under General Maximilian von Prittwitz and Gaffron would remain in
defensive positions in East Prussia. Conrad appeared unaffected by the news, although
one could in fact have been forgiven for assuming that such matters should have been
agreed upon earlier. The Imperial and Royal troops were nonetheless to push forward in
the direction of Lublin and Chelm. Quite clearly, the Chief of the Imperial and Royal
General Staff was inclined to put his faith in hope. Two days later, Moltke sought to
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