Seite - 530 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

530 Lutsk : The End of an Illusion (II) only be won in the Arsiero region that were easier to defend. Then, the fronts should be stabilised everywhere. On 10 June, however, Pflanzer-Baltin’s 7th Army disintegrated. The balance had been tipped because the South Tyrol offensive had not only been abandoned, but the rapid transportation of troops and artillery to the Russian front had been ordered. There, two developments took hold : the Brusilov Offensive continued, omitted the Germans, re- peatedly affected the Imperial and Royal troops, forced them back, scattered them and called into question their manageability. In order to re-establish order, ever more Aus- tro-Hungarian large military formations were subordinated to General Linsingen and his army group, so that the German area of command was suddenly extended. As a result of the catastrophe with Pflanzer-Baltin’s 7th Army, stabilisation could once more only be achieved with German assistance. General von Seeckt, who since the end of the Balkan campaign had been more or less idly hanging around with the still extant Army Group Mackensen in Skopje, directly applied for a command on the Russian front in the area of the 7th Army, though everything had to be placed under German command in order to establish order and achieve results. Conrad fought tooth and nail against this German dominance. He attempted to avert this development by making counter-proposals. Sch- neller noted on 12 June : ‘We are now without doubt in the hands of the Germans.’ On this day, Seeckt’s insertion as ‘Senior Chief of Staff’ (Oberstabschef) with the Imperial and Royal 7th Army was announced. The incumbent ‘normal’ chief of staff of the 7th Army, Colonel Zeynek responded to this by saying : ‘Here a firstborn really has been sold for a pot of lentils, since it was a question of the fundamental issue of the quality of military leadership by Austrian or Prussian generals.’1250 Zeynek departed for a long vacation, since he did not want to serve as chief of staff under Seeckt. On the same day, Falkenhayn made the suggestion to place the entire territory south of the Pripyat Marshes  – and this was the territory in which the Austro-Hungarian armies were fighting  – under the command of Field Marshal Mackensen. Conrad again made counter-proposals, which Falkenhayn rejected. Falkenhayn now had a clear objective in mind, and the events of 8 to 12 June had ultimately only been a foretaste of what was to come. The Army High Command ordered the South-Western Front in Tyrol to go on the defensive. A dispatch to the army group command stated that the Army High Com- mand would shortly make its personnel decisions. Practically the entire leadership was to be replaced. Beforehand, Archduke Friedrich wanted only to liaise with his brother, Archduke Eugen. Archduke Eugen, however, had very similar intentions. He dismissed the Commander of the 11th Army and former National Defence Commander in Tyrol, Baron von Dankl, due to the ‘insubordination’ of the command. Dankl had apparently taken too literally the order of the heir to the throne to spare lives, and refused to allow troops to attack without sufficient and systematic artillery preparation. The army group command could demand whatever it wanted, but Dankl simply refused to follow the