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The Mounted Engagement at Jarosławice 181
give encouragement to his comrade in arms and move him to strike out, since a defen-
sive Imperial and Royal Army would have been no use to the Germans : ‘Only when the
deployment has been successful can the battle begin that will decide the course of world
history for the next century. Concentrate all your forces against Russia. Even Italy can-
not be so vicious as to attack you from behind. Let the Bulgarians loose against Serbia
and let the pack beat themselves to death. Now, there can only be one goal : Russia !
Throw the knout-carriers into the Pripyat marshes and drown them !’430 What tough
words the German used ! And yet Conrad needed no further motivation.
The persisting uncertainties regarding the Russian deployment in any case forced the
Imperial and Royal Army to begin its own long-distance reconnaissance at the earliest
possible opportunity, with cavalry, balloons and aeroplanes. The riders were furthermore
to bring the Russian cavalry and the Russian vanguard in general to a standstill, and to
keep them there until the large infantry formations arrived.
From 4 August onwards, the cavalry regiments had been incorporated into the se-
curing of the Empire’s border, and were almost constantly on a state of alert. However,
they only patrolled along the border and ascertained that the Russian cavalry had also
already begun its reconnaissance. Here and there, skirmishes occurred with the Aus-
trian police and financial guards.431 Two days later, the regiments, which had combined
to form the cavalry divisions, received the order to ride into Russia as far as possible. On
8 August, the long-distance reconnaissance began in earnest. All cavalry divisions were
involved. Directly beforehand, they were given instructions on Russian cavalry tactics.
After that, they rode, and rode, and rode. Many mounted regiments had new saddles
that still fitted badly, and which rubbed the backs of the horses raw. The riders were fre-
quently forced to dismount. Yet the journey continued onwards through the hilly coun-
try streaked with large forests. When the first engagements with the Russians occurred,
the Austrian horses were worn out and the riders were exhausted. Their destinations lay
about 100 km away from the border with the Empire. The 7th Cavalry Division, for ex-
ample, rode northwards from 6 to 13 August before running into Russians near Kielce
and being forced to withdraw. Some regiments, such as the Dragoon Regiments No.
9 and No. 15, had already ridden 400 km since mobilisation. When they met up with
the Russians, the skirmishes did not usually last long before the Imperial and Royal
cavalry divisions turned back. Thus, while attempts were made to provide the most ex-
tensive information possible to each army, as a rule, the cavalry divisions did not make
much progress. Only a few field squadrons (with 150 riders) achieved halfway useful
reconnaissance results. They frequently suffered from difficulties with provisions, since
they had only taken a small amount of food with them. The civilian population had fled,
however, taking everything edible with them. On 20 August, the 4th Cavalry Division,
commanded by Brigadier Baron Edmund von Zaremba, which had been given the
task of conducting reconnaissance for the Imperial and Royal 3rd Army, rode through
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