Seite - 337 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

Of Heroes and Cowards 337 Prague and the Vltava River had turned red with Czech blood,788 became a parody of themselves. The Governor of Bohemia, Prince Franz Thun-Hohenstein, also had no trouble in describing the mood among the population of his crown land as ‘irreproacha- ble’. The Prince could also not restrain himself from making a sideswipe : since the army ‘was concentrating on moving backwards’, those with Russophile tendencies would nat- urally have been given new impetus and would spread word about the victories of the Russian Army. Overall, this was of no significance, however.789 And anyway, Russian proclamations had been disseminated by a man who was proven to be of unsound mind, and rumours of the imminent ceremonial entry into Prague by the Tsar were also un- founded. For the time being, the War Surveillance Office had to satisfy itself with this information, as did the Ministry of the Interior. The analysts made their doubts as to the accuracy of the report extremely clear through countless comments.790 For example, notifications had been received from Olomouc (Olmütz) claiming that in the commu- nities bordering the Přerov (Prerau), Prostějov (Proßnitz) and Litovel (Littau) districts, there certainly were significant Russophile tendencies.791 It appeared not to be as calm as the governor had claimed after all. The area around Olomouc also emerged during the period that followed as a centre of Czech nationalism and resistance against the imperial military authorities, until finally the relocation of the replacement battalion of Light Infantry Regiment No. 13 from Olomouc to Hungary was considered as a last resort.792 However, far more alarming than the reports coming from the Bohemian crown lands were the messages coming from the troop commanders. During the battle near Lviv (Lemberg) / Horodok in mid-September 1914, as The- odor von Zeynek noted, the position of the northern wing of the 4th Army became untenable, since the 10th Infantry Division (Infantry Regiments No. 36, 98, 18, 21 and Light Infantry Battalions No. 2 and 12) had failed in its duty.793 In Zeynek’s view, the division had been indoctrinated by the leader of the Czech nationalists, Václav Klofáč, although here he was mistaken in that the regiments that were the subject of complaint came from northern Bohemia, whilst Klofáč was responsible for Prague. On 27 October the XI Army Corps reported that the excessively high losses from the previous day were primarily due to the fact that six companies of Infantry Regiment No. 36 (‘Jungbunzlau’) and divisions of Landwehr Infantry Regiment No. 30 (‘Hohen- mauth’) had surrendered without sustained fighting. This was indirectly confirmed by the Russians, who also reported on the 27th that 1,500 Czech prisoners of war had been brought to Lviv and that they were very relieved that they no longer had to fight against the Russians.794 At the end of November, the Serbs succeeded in an incursion against the 29th In- fantry Division, which was advancing towards Belgrade, which could only be made good thanks to the bravery of two Hungarian Landsturm regiments. ‘Unfortunately, the cause of this debacle was the poor behaviour of Czech March Regiment No. 15’,