Seite - 352 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
Bild der Seite - 352 -
Text der Seite - 352 -
352 Under Surveillance
divested himself of a sworn obligation and in so doing, not only breached a code of
conduct to which he was bound, but also of a duty to which he had committed himself
in the eyes of God. Even so, thousands, then tens, and finally, hundreds of thousands of
soldiers deserted all the same. Did God have no importance at all in the Imperial and
Royal Army ? Was the God of the Ruthenians different to the God of the Styrians, or
of the Bosnians different to the God of the Czechs ? Had nationalism won over God,
the Emperor,and the Fatherland ? There is no entirely satisfactory explanation for the
behaviour of the nationalities in the war, and the more one focuses on an individual
case, the more frequently the question arises : why him, why them, and why not the
others ?
Long before comparisons were made between the two World Wars and attempts
then made to equate them, there was a historiography that differentiated between the
judgement and contempt for desertion on the one hand and blanket idealisation on the
other. The fact that for most cases of desertion, it was by no means political, national
and ideological reasons that were decisive may be sobering, since it contradicts so very
many national myths. And in this, desertion is relegated to the place where it in all like-
lihood really belongs, namely in a chain of motives that spans a century, in which what
were to some extent traditional reasons for desertion far outweighed others. For weeks
on end, heavy fighting, dramatically high demands on the ability of people to fulfil their
duty and to suffer, malnutrition and lack of sleep, and finally, the noise of the war and
the sight of the dead, the groaning and screaming of the wounded, was demoralising at
all times. And often, just a small trigger was all that was needed.
Even so, the increasing frequency of the cases of desertion in the Imperial and Royal
Army and the comparison with the Germans, or with any other army fighting in the
First World War, brings particular features to light. It has been calculated that the cases
of desertion in the Imperial and Royal Army were ten times higher than in the German
Army. When examined more closely, the differences become even more noticeable. This
naturally also made it tempting to exaggerate, trivialise and provide an explanation. The
exaggeration of the relatively low proportion of cases of desertion among regiments
with a share of German Austrian soldiers of over seventy per cent then read as follows :
‘[…] of all nations, the Germans remained dependent upon themselves as the only
reliable support of the state and of the army.’825 This sounded a highly emotional and
arrogant note, with a huge degree of German nationalism. And naturally, there were
also troops from the German lands of the Habsburg Monarchy among whom there
was failure of duty, desertion and breach of military service obligations. However, such
cases were far fewer than among the Czechs or Ruthenians, for example. The reasons
for this were obvious : the German Austrians regarded their goal in the war as being
to fight for the cohesion of the Empire, and possibly also to ensure that the desire
for separation among numerous peoples of the Empire came to nothing. By contrast,
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