Seite - 957 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

D uring the Piave Offensive, one of the rarer items included in the baggage in the imperial royal train was a marshal’s baton, which had been donated by German officers, and which Emperor Karl was supposed to present following the success of the campaign in Vicenza or anywhere else in the territory that it was hoped would be conquered.2312 The marshal’s baton was never unpacked. The Judgement of Austria-Hungary’s Final Offensive The June battle in Veneto had ended with defeat for the Imperial and Royal troops, and had become a catastrophe to the extent that the last intact instrument of power of the Habsburg Monarchy had been given the death blow. The knowledge that the offensive had uncovered chaos among the leadership was widespread. Those soldiers who had also time and again given their best for this offensive, lost faith in the middle-ranking leadership, which in turn had no trust in the higher levels of command, and, finally, it had to be acknowledged that this had been an offensive for which ultimately, the Army High Command and the commands on the Isonzo front and the Tyrolean front had made contradictory plans. An offensive had failed that had been intended to act as a di- version from the catastrophe at home, while at the same time, nothing was to be risked, and which ultimately had been started at the wrong time, and in some cases had been miserably led. Instead of achieving at least a limited success at the end, or providing an opportunity to stock up on food provisions and military equipment from the Allies for at least a few weeks, the final strategic reserves had been used up. The loss in terms of people was almost evenly shared : around 70,000 Imperial and Royal soldiers dead, wounded or taken prisoner compared to 84,000 Italian and Allied troops. In the area of Army Group Conrad alone, thousands of Italians had surrendered.2313 This had at least meant that for a time, the Italians had no further opportunity to conduct their own offensive. However, aside from this, the balance in Austria-Hungary was only negative. Four Imperial and Royal armies had participated in the June offensive, although of course they, too, were naturally not present in full. Ten times as many soldiers had played the part of more or less well-informed observers somewhere in the hinterland, and now felt that judgements made long since were being confirmed. It was said in irony that the prohibition on duels so vehemently imposed by Emperor Karl had only