The Capitulation of Germany's Allies: 1 - The End for Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary. The unsustainable empire of 1914
shown in today's money.

The great swathes of Eastern Europe occupied by Germany and her allies not only created an enormous buffer zone to the east of Germany’s border, but also provided essential food and raw materials for the German war effort. Since Bulgaria’s entry war in 1915 – swiftly followed by the occupation of the Balkans (see Post 29/9/2015) there had been no real threat to the communications between Germany in the west and Turkey’s (now shrinking) Ottoman Empire in the east, despite Roumania’s brief ambitious flickering in1916.

Now, as the one hundred days on the Western Front unfolded, all was about to change. Austria-Hungary’s last major front in Italy was far from secure, although nearly impregnable in its northern and western reaches in the mountains. Allenby and the Arabs had opened up northern Syria (See Post 30/8/2018) and General Marshall’s British forces were pushing into north Mesopotamia. The largely forgotten front at the Salonika beachhead now stretched for more than 200 miles to the Adriatic coast of Albania. The Allied forces comprised a multinational force of 26 Divisions. From Salonika at its eastern end, Greek, British, French, Serbian, South Slav and Italian troops lined up against modest Bulgarian forces but formidable geographical barriers. The Commander-in-Chief was now General Franchet d’Esperet, previously the French 5^th Army commander, and another hero of the first Battle of the Marne (See Post 13/12/2014).

The days were numbered for Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey – in fact they had less than the one hundred being endured by the Germans in the west.

Austria-Hungary. The Austria-Hungary Empire, created in 1867 and ruled with difficulty by the Habsburg Dynasty, had been in trouble since before the war. A largely unsuccessful war had brought it to its knees – militarily and in morale terms. Its armies’ greatest success had been in the German-led rout at Caporetto in late 1917 (See Post 13/11/2017). Then, the advance on the plains had been held at the River Piave in front of Venice and was in a precarious position (although the Italians were still weak after Caporetto and posed little offensive threat). As Germany’s longstanding and closest ally, the Austrian leadership was, however, put under pressure by Ludendorff to contribute to his Kaiserschlacht. Some Austrian troops were sent to the Western Front (for the only time in the entire war), but principally Ludendorff wanted them to advance in Italy to keep up the pressure on that front.

C-in-C Armando Diaz. More
human and more effective
than predecessor Cadorna.

The Italians, under their new Commander-in-Chief General Armando Diaz, became aware of Austrian movements all along their front in late May. Diaz made prompt and effective improvements to his defences, even though he had lost the British and French Divisions (and even some of his own troops) to the crisis of Kaiserschlacht in France. The Austrians’ aim was to sweep down from the higher ground they occupied in the north and west of the front, thereby isolating the coastal front at the Piave. The two Austrian army groups were led by the long suffering Boroevic (See Post 16/9/2017 and 13/11/2017) in the plains, and the hapless, deposed Chief of Staff von Hotzendorf. They disliked each other, and were badly divided in their tactics and communications. This contributed to a feeble implementation of an ‘Operation Michael style’ offensive in mid-June. Just before this, as some kind of harbinger, the Austrian Grand fleet had been effectively neutralized by the loss of its two dreadnought battleships to an Italian torpedo boat raid – a further embarrassing blow to depressed Austrian morale. True to form, Hotzendorff’s offensive from the mountains failed miserably, and with it went Austria’s last chance. Although Boroevic had more success initially, crossing the Piave in several places, poor back up and communications meant that his advance stalled. Within a few days Diaz’s planned counter-attack was ready, and by late June Boreovic was forced to retreat across the Piave river, and by July the Austrians were back beyond their starting lines. They had suffered 150,000 casualties and lost 20,00 prisoners, and Austria-Hungary was all but finished. 

Diaz decided, for his own reasons, not to pursue the enemy out of the country and further into the Alps at that point. Shrewdly, he developed his plans gradually until October, by which time Austria-Hungary was in even greater disarray. President Wilson had rejected emphatically a desperate appeal by Emperor Charles for peace negotiations in mid-September. Czechoslovakia; the South Slavs, and Croatia were issuing independent state claims. Hungary wanted a divorce. Diaz judged that the time was right to attack the last vestige of Habsburg power – the Austrian army in Italy. By means of three main assaults on the plains and through the mountains, the final campaign began on 23^rd October. It must be said that it faced fierce and determined initial resistance, but by 2^nd November the Austrian army was collapsing at all points.

Anticipating this, the government in Vienna had, on 27^th October, declared itself ready to agree to any conditions set by the Allies for an armistice and separate peace, regardless of Germany’s intentions.

Austrians arriving in Padua 4th
November 1918 to sign the Armistice

At 3pm on 4^th November an armistice was signed at Villa Giusti in Italy, ending all Austro-Hungarian hostilities. By this point, most of the empire was in open revolt. On 31^st October the Hungarian President, Tisza, was murdered in Budapest. Ironically, in July 1914, he had been the one person in Government who had argued against declaration of war on Serbia. He now paid the price for losing the argument. The Emperor Charles retreated to his palace and awaited his fate.