The Austro-Hungarian Army in the Great War from 1914 to 1918.
Uniforms, strength, organization, military leaders, losses.
Austria-Hungary had been worsted by the French in 1859, and in 1866 trounced by Prussia. Since then the army had been reformed on the Prussian model, but not for forty-eight years tested in war.
At the beginning of 1914 the peace strength of the Austro-Hungarian army was some 450,000. On mobilization, it rose to over 3,000,000, of which some 1,800,000 formed the field army of six armies, in all sixteen army corps – mostly of three divisions, some reserve divisions – and eleven cavalry divisions.
General Conrad von Hötzendorf, chief of general staff, sixty-two, a cavalryman, hard-working, spartan, a writer on tactics and training, was, like Foch, a firm apostle of the offensive. His recipe for victory against Russia was an early attack before the vast manpower of the enemy could be brought into action, but that plan was now seriously compromised by partial mobilization. Conrad would command the northern armies, General Potiorek, another spartan, keen, vain, incompetent, with powerful court connections, responsible for the muddle that had given the Sarajevo assassins their chance, would command against Serbia.
- Soldiers available on mobilization = 3,000,000+
- Army strength during the war = 8,322,000
- KIA Military = 1,200,000
- Wounded Military = 3,620,000
- Civilian losses (Serbia and Austria together) = 1,000,000
References and literature
History of World War I (AJP Taylos, S.L. Mayer)
Army Uniforms of World War I (Andrew Mollo, Pierre Turner)