BLOOD, FIRE AND STEEL ; THE COLLAPSE OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY AND END OF WW1

THE COLLAPSE OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY

The dual system of Austro – Hungary was from the very start of the war, a factor in the politics of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and how it conducted its war. Whereas the Austrians’ parliament had ceased to meet since March 1914 following its suspension, the Hungarian parliament had continued to meet regularly but had refused to make itself amenable to the demands of the military and the demands of the war.

The Slav minority had however remained loyal to the union until the Russian revolution of March 1917 which whipped up socialist and nationalistic instincts. At the resumed sitting of the Austrian Reichserat (parliament) a note was passed round by the Czech intelligentsia to its deputies calling for reforms and a democratic Europe made up of autonomous states.

Feelings however got to a high, following the Russian Revolution of October 1917 and the Wilsonian peace pronouncements which advanced the cause of independence for ethnic nationalities bound in the Habsburg Empire, alongside a free Poland. In September 1918, the Austro – Hungarian government proposed a peace conference on neutral grounds to deliberate these issues.

The US government quashed the proposal on the grounds that the issues involved had already been dealt with in the Wilsonian peace proposals. However in October 1918, when Austro - Hungary asked for an armistice based on the fourteen points, the Americans responded by saying that new independence promises made and guaranteed to Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia now precluded the US government from upholding the Wilsonian peace points in its original  context.

To compound issues, King Charles had chosen to grant autonomy to the Austrian peoples of the empire as opposed to the Hungarians. This move however failed to receive international recognition and only escalated the tension among the Slav- speaking people of the empire who promptly prepared internal organs for take – off of a separate Slav state from among the northern Slavs to be called Czechoslovakia and the southern Slavs to be named Yugoslavia.

On October 24^th when the Italians launched their last offensive in the war, the disintegration of the Habsburg’s empire of Austro-Hungary became inevitable as the Hungarians set up a national peace council in Budapest calling for peace with the Allies and severance from the union with Austria.

Similarly on October 28^th 1918, the Czechoslovakian committee in Prague passed a motion for an independent Czech state while a similar Polish committee called for the setting up of an independent Poland comprising amongst other provinces; Galicia Austrian and Silesia.

On October 29^th while the Austrian high command was seeking an armistice with Italy, the Croats in Zagreb proclaimed an independent Slav state comprising Slovenia, Croatia and Dalmatia pending the formation of a national state of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. On October 30^th the German members of the Reichscrat in Vienna proclaimed the independent state of German Austria.

Austro – Hungary and the Allies finally signed an armistice at the Villa Giusti near Padua on November 3, 1918 which took effect the following day. Under the terms of the armistice, the Austro- Hungarian forces were required to withdraw from all territories occupied since 1914 and also from its native provinces of South Tyrol, Tarisio, and the Isonzo valley, Gorizia, Trieste, Istria, Western Carniola and Dalmatia.

All German forces were to be expelled from Austro – Hungary within 15 days or interned and the Allies were to have free use of Austro –Hungarian communications and to take possessions of most of her warships.

 Count Mihaly Karolyn chairman of the Budapest National committee had been appointed Prime Minister of Hungary by Emperor Charles, but he was rather bent on severing Hungary from the dual monarchy and making a separate peace with the Allies which plan never came to fruition.

However as events unfolded, Emperor Charles later abdicated his rights over Hungary on November 13 after earlier abdicating his right over Austria on November 11. The Austro – Hungarian empire thus came to an end to be succeeded by the new states of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Poland.

The Final Offensive on the Western Front

The Allied strategy in the closing days of World War 1 involved  American forces under Gen John J. Pershing advancing across the difficult terrain of the Argonne forest so that the Allies could mount a coordinated offensive along the entire German frontlines in the West running from Ypres to Verdun.

The Americans eventually pushed forward from their position northwest of Verdun, and the French from Eastern Champagne on September 26^th, with Mezieres as their objective, in order to threaten not only the German supply line along the Mezieres – Sedan – Mountmedy railway and the natural route of withdrawal for the Germans across Lorrain be, but also the crest of the Antwerp – Meuse defensive lines that the Germans were constructing.

The British on the other hand were to attack the German frontlines between Cambrai and St Quentin on September 27, with a view to securing the key rail junction at Manbeague. The Belgians with Allied support were to push on from Ypres towards Ghent on September 28. The Americans seized Vauquois and Montfaucon in the first two days of their attack before being held back by the German defenses.

By October 14^th 1918 when the attacks were suspended they had advanced only halfway to their original objective Mezieres. The French attack on the other hand was held up at Aisne.

The British who had succeeded in piercing the Hindenburg line and breaking out into open country however could not outpace the German forces and endanger their orderly withdrawal. The German positions were made more perilous by the Belgian occupation of all the heights around Ypres By September 30.

THE LAST OFFENSIVE AND THE END OF THE EUROPEAN WAR 1918

Following the withdrawal of Russia from the war, the Germans were now in a position to significantly bolster their position in the west following the mass transfer of battle tested divisions to the west from the east where the fighting had ceased.

This strengthening of the German position in the West was a source of considerable worry for the Allied high command that was in a quandary as to what to do stave off the impending blows before considerable US forces could be dispatched to Europe to stem the German tide.

French General Henri Petain was able to convince a reluctant British General John Haig to increase his front lines from the 100 miles he had to contend with, to 125 miles for his sixty divisions while the French now had to hold 325 miles with their 100 divisions .

Haig thus devoted 46 of his divisions to a front stretching from the English Channel to Guizean court (South west of German held Cambria and 14 divisions to the remaining third of the front from Guizean court past German – held Saint – Quentin to the Oise River).

For the Germans their troop strength following the armistice with Russia in November 1917 grew from 146 divisions to 192, totaling approximately 570,000 men. Ludendorff therefore planned to break through the Allied lines before the American army could become a significant factor in the war.

His offensive was premised on the need to breach the Allied lines by attacking the points of least resistance using new methods of attacks. His plan involved a barrage that was brief but intense involving poison gas and smoke shells.

 These were designed to blind the forward machine gun positions and observation trenches. His well trained and disciplined shock troops were to advance along the sectors of least resistance bypassing the strong defenses.

The advance was to be preceded by a light – artillery barrage that was to creep forward at a walking pace to keep the enemy under fire while the German infantry advanced behind it as it sought to gain territory. Ludendorff chose the 47 miles between Arras and Leafier (on the Oise River).

 Two German Armies, the 4^th and 17^th were to break through the front between Arras and Quentin, north of the Somme and then wheel right so as to force most of the British forces back towards the channel while the 18^th Army between the Somme and Oise protected the left flank of the advance against counter attacks from the south.

Code – named Michael, this attack was to be supplemented by three other drives against the British and the French. The main attack was carried out by 62 divisions of the German army. The attack started on the 21^st March 1918, preceded by a barrage involving 6,000 guns and a morning mist that concealed the attack from the British observation posts.

Although the ensuing battle which is known as the Second Battle of the Somme caught the British unawares and resulted in a major breakthrough by the German 18^th Army under General Hutier south of the Somme, the northern part of the offensive was held up by strong concentration of British forces in the Arras sector.

For a week Ludendorff vainly sought to break the Allied lines in the Arras sector instead of exploiting the breakthrough that had gone 40 miles deep in the southern sector up to Mont Didier by March 27^th. The Germans finally began to push towards Amiens by March 30^th.

By now the Allies had recovered from the surprise assault and began to slow down the German advance with the help of French reserves to a line east of Amiens. A renewed German attack was also halted on April 14^th. At this point the offensive was finally brought to a halt by the Allies.

The offensive had yielded the greatest territorial gains in the war on the western front since the first battle of the Marnes in September 1914. The offensive resulted in the collapse of one third of the British front and resulted in Marshal Foch being appointed on April 14^th the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces on the recommendation of British General, John Haig.

Further German attacks were launched on April 19^th on the extreme northern front between Armentieres and the canal of La Basses, followed by an attack that led to the capture of Kummel Hill southwest of Ypres that also led to the fall of Armentieres. A further German push was halted after 10 miles by the British with the help of French reserves.

Ludendorff thereafter suspended further attacks; fearing that the bulge created might invite Allied counter strokes against his lines. Thus far, even though Ludendorff had fallen short of his strategic objectives, he had achieved a huge tactical success with British casualties alone mounting up to 300,000 men, the destruction of 10 British divisions while German strength mounted to 208 divisions with 80 being held in reserves.

 By this time however about a dozen US divisions were already at the disposal of the Allies and more were arriving. Ludendorff launched the last of his offensives on May 27^th on a front extending from Cauchy north of Soissons eastward towards Reims. The attack involved 15 German divisions. The Germans swam over the ridge of the Chemise des Dames and across the Aisne River and by May 30th, were on the Marne between Chateau – Thierry and Dorman’s.

When the Germans further pushed westward against the right flank of the Allies’ Compiegne salient which was sandwiched between the German Amiens and Champagne bulges they were checked by counter attacks particularly by the newly arrived US divisions that held them at Belleau Wood for a fortnight. German attacks from No yon against the left flank of the Compiegne salient came too late by June 9^th to dent the Allied lines.

Ludendorff’s offensives had caused three deep bulges in the Allied lines, and had drained the best of the German forces including his reserves without a breaking through. With casualties mounting up to 800,000 at the end of the enterprise, the German army was drained of vital strength at a time US forces were beginning to arrive in France at the rate of 300,000 a month.

The next German offensive launched on July 15^th achieved little. A German advance from the front, east of Reims towards Chalons – sur-Marnes was frustrated by a new system of elastic defense that Petain was prescribing but which the local commanders had failed to practice in stopping the previous German advances.

A push from Dorman’s on the left flank of the German’s huge Soissons – Reims bulge across the Marne, simply exposed the Germans to greater danger when Foch’s long prepared counter offensive was finally launched on July 18^th. In this great offensive, the French army assailed the Compiegne bulge from the west, another from the southwest and another still from the south and a fourth from the area of Reims.

The advance was led by masses of light tanks that forced the Germans into a hasty retreat. By August 2 the French had pushed the Champagne front back to a line following the Vesle River from Reims and then along the Aisne to a point west of Soissons. Having recovered the initiative, the Allies were determined not to lose it and for their next blow, chose again the front, north and south of the Somme.

The British struck first with their First army comprising elements of Australian and Canadian units alongside 450 tanks on August 8^th 1918. They overwhelmed the German forward divisions who were not well dug in; in the bulge they had recently conquered.

The advance proceeded steadily for four days taking 21,000 prisoners and inflicting even more casualties than the 20,000 the British sustained. The offensive was only halted on the old battlefields of the 1916 offensive.

 The attack led to the collapse of many German battlefield divisions. The battle of Amiens as it came to be known was a source of great psychological boost to the Allies. August 8 in the words of General Ludendorff became the black day of the German Army. The events of that day came to convince the General that Germany could no longer afford to keep on with the war and needed to negotiate a peaceful settlement.

In his memo to the Emperor, he advised on a strategy that will leave Germany in a position to negotiate a settlement and avoid an outright surrender .The conclusions reached at the meeting of the German war council at Spa was that, “we can no longer hope to break the war – will of the enemy by military operations and the objects of our strategy must be to paralyze the enemy’s war will gradually by a strategic defensive.’’

By this time French forces had retaken Montdidier and were driving towards Lassigny (between Reye and No yon); and on August 17, they began a new drive from the Compiegne salient south of No yon. In the fourth week of August two more British Armies went on the offensive on the Arras – Albert sector with one advancing on Bapaume while the other operated further to the north.

At this time the Allies launched a series of closely co-ordinated attacks along the entire length of the western front that dazed the German armies and kept them off- balance in their desperate bid to plug in the holes scored, with reserves.

 The blows inflicted under the command of Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the French supreme commander drove back the German Armies behind the Hindenburg line where they had been tied down before the great offensives of March 1918 were launched.

At this time also, the US expeditionary forces under General John J Pershing further eroded Germany’s diminishing fortunes by acting as an independent force in erasing the triangular saint Mihiel salient that the Germans had been occupying since 1914 between Verdun and Nancy.

 This turn of events led the Allies to seek final victory against Germany by launching a series of coordinated major offensives against the German Army in the latter half of 1918.

VITORIO VENETIA, THE END OF THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN, 1918

The war between the Italians and the Australians had stalemated after the Italians had stabilized their front on the Piave River at the end of 1917. The Austrians in June 1918 decided to force the Tonale pass and enter north eastern Lombardy, they also decided to attack central Venetia from two directions: