Seite - 783 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

Operation ‘Loyalty to Arms’ 783 of necessity have a direct impact on the alliance between the German Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy, lead to even greater enmeshment of the two empires, and once again chain Austria-Hungary to German strategy. The obstinacy of the Germans certainly came very close to a humiliation of Aus- tria-Hungary, since, quite clearly, the Imperial and Royal Army would not succeed in keeping the Italians in check on its own. There were further strings attached to the matter, however. German troops on the Italian front could, indeed almost of necessity, automatically lead to a reinforcement of the Italians by the British and French. If this were to be of long duration, the Imperial and Royal troops would be in an even worse position than they had been previously. A further question was : how would the USA react to the presence of Germans in Italy ? America was at war against the German Empire, but not against Austria-Hungary. It was therefore to be feared that the USA would extend its war efforts to Italy, and would also enter the war against Austria-Hun- gary. What therefore appeared at first to be logical and relatively simple needed to be carefully considered. However, once Ludendorff had decided that German troops with over six divisions should participate in the war against Italy in the short term, the mat- ter was closed. Ludendorff also coined a code name for the operation : ‘Loyalty to Arms’ (Waffentreue). Once the Chief of the Operations Division in the Army High Com- mand, General Waldstätten, had been informed of the decision and had telegraphed to Vienna ‘Loyalty to Arms assured’, for the time being, everything had been clarified. During the second half of September 1917, Emperor Karl visited Army Group Con- rad. The Field Marshal had to be made to understand that he would not be playing a significant role during the offensive, and that it was not to be carried out in accordance with Conrad’s favourite idea. It is likely that on this occasion, Conrad decided to call a spade a spade. After all, a great deal of frustration had been pent up. The Field Marshal spoke his mind, saying everything he could to the Emperor without becoming insult- ing. The conversation culminated in a discussion about an incident that had occurred just several days previously. A Slovenian reserve officer, Ljudevit Pivko, had attempted to guide the Italians towards the rear of the Austro-Hungarian troops on the plateau of the Sette Comuni. The attempt failed and the Slovene had deserted, but there had been some extremely critical moments. The Emperor asked Conrad what on earth such people might be thinking of. The Field Marshal replied : ‘They will be thinking that they will be amnestied after a short while anyway.’1826 However, it was by no means just the reserve officers who were the problem. The entire officer corps was in crisis. In August, such clear signs of resignation had been observed among those who had sworn to remain ‘loyal unto death’ that the Chief of the General Staff, Arz von Straußenburg, formulated his own order with which he attempted to return to the professional officers their belief in the purpose of the war and encourage them to hold out.1827 That it had come to this already spoke volumes. And a glance at the faces of the soldiers could in