Seite - 757 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The Czech Legion 757 Army had become in spite of a long lull in the fighting, and how comparatively easily the unstable conditions could be exploited. The two overwhelmingly Czech regiments of the Imperial and Royal 19th Infantry Division, namely the Infantry Regiment No. 35 and the Infantry Regiment No. 75, had initially fought quite normally and had not even been aware that the Czecho-Slovakian rifle brigade had been brought into position opposite them. Then there was contact, heavy fighting and, finally, a deep incursion into the 19th Infantry Division. The causes of this incursion were explained in different ways. The divisional commander, Major General Böltz, emphatically de- fended the impeccable conduct of his regiments. However, on 2 July alone, there were fifteen dead and 330 wounded as compared with 2,595 missing and twenty prisoners. The army commander, General Böhm-Ermolli, was convinced that the missing were largely ‘cowardly deserters’. As in the case of Infantry Regiments Nos. 28 and 36, in the framework of investigations by the military justice it was observed that the troops were not in fact at fault and that they had fought bravely and devotedly. The fact that the Czech brigade took up the cause of victory at Zborov and very much endeavoured to invoke a nationalistic harmony seemed once more to prove those right who were ready to condemn the conduct of the Czechs in the World War.1773 Apparently, there were also human tragedies, since it was not simply Czechs fighting against Imperial and Royal troops, but also compatriots against one other. Relatives were suddenly con- fronted with each other. By no means all Czechs of the 19th Infantry Division laid down their weapons or deserted. In one case, a father is said to have shot his son.1774 Nonetheless : a myth had been created. For the Imperial and Royal Army, the Kerensky Offensive had by no means become such a catastrophe that it could be compared with Lutsk. The Russians had only suc- ceeded in breaking through the Austro-Hungarian troops, and crisis had again arisen in a section that was held predominantly by Czech regiments. And this was precisely on the day on which the amnesty of their national leaders and the pardon of their of- fending compatriots had been announced. But it should not be overlooked that there was not a real connection between the two. The amnesty had been decreed on 2 July, on the same day as the crisis emerged in the 19th Infantry Division. The soldiers could not yet have known about events in Vienna. The conclusions that linked them to what occurred at Zborov were, therefore, largely incorrect. Notwithstanding this : the per- spective was askew. The Chief of Staff of the Army Group ‘Erzherzog Joseph’, the German General Hans von Seeckt, again came forward and expressed more than only his own personal opinion when he wrote : ‘In the moment that the Russians deployed a Czecho-Slova- kian division, which they were able to form with deserters, their instigators and friends are pardoned.’1775 The fact that it had been Czechs who were made responsible for the military setback was thoroughly instrumentalised. Evidently, everyone was to know of