Seite - 325 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

Of Heroes and Cowards 325 focussed on the achievements and fates of the German Austrian regiments, although without brushing aside the other nationalities outright. Even so, the fact that they were not to be valued in the same way as the German or Hungarian troops is subtly evident from millions of data and the accounts of hundreds of thousands of individual events. In actual fact, there were marked differences. Yet these were the result of numerous fac- tors, some of which extended back to many years before the war. Here, the nationalities issue played a particular role. There were however also other, more banal reasons that determined the impression made by a troop, such as the behaviour of superiors. Trust and concern bound together ; incompetent leadership, excessive severity and maltreatment led to rejection. The loca- tion and type of operation also played a part, as did the branches of the military and accordingly the experiences gathered. Occasionally, everyone was overtaxed, although ultimately, every member of any branch of the military and every soldier of every regi- ment could claim that the war had demanded that they give their all. In the verdict of the post-war years, however, the reports read very differently. And even during the war, differentiations were already constantly being made. Already during transportation to the theatres of war, it is conceivable that differ- ences emerged, or at least perceptions varied : here, there was cheering, and elsewhere none ; here, people jostled forward to give the soldiers ‘donations of love’, while this was not the case elsewhere. The (Viennese) Infantry Regiment No. 4, the ‘Hoch und Deutschmeister’, was greeted by crowds of people right through to Přerov (Prerau). Women and girls gave the soldiers gifts and threw baked goods and flowers into the trains even while they were departing. In Galicia, there was no reception, and no food. The summary of one person present was that the Poles did not care about the soldiers.760 This was an isolated observation. Then came the first battles, the first losses, the first successes, the first reports of the failure of entire troop bodies or of their component parts to do their duty. Command- ers were interrogated, and reported of the hardships, of the scorching heat in Serbia in which the troops marched for days on end, receiving hardly any food or drink and suffering from thirst before being taken directly into battle against the enemy. They gave reports of the dust and then the rain in Galicia, which made advancing a torture. During night attacks, which were successful since no guard posts had been set up, panic erupted, and entire units fled and had with great effort to be gathered together again. Officers, including commanding generals, failed in their duty and were dismissed. Then the next mishap occurred. The supreme commanders made attempts to improve matters, in the north as well as in the south, with severity and exemplary punishments. When on 20 September 1914 the fortress commander of Kraków (Krakau), Major General Karl Kuk, reported that the 95th Landsturm Brigade, which had been replenished from other locations including Pisek and České Budějovice (Budweis), was ‘so utterly unre-