STRENGTH AND EQUIPMENT OF THE ANTAGONISTS

The first campaign between the Austrian army and the Russian legions began on August 6, 1914, when Austria declared war on Russia. We have witnessed in the preceding chapters the German invasion of Belgium and France, and the Austrian invasion of Serbia; we will now view the fighting of the Russians and the Austrians on to the frontier, as it progressed simultaneously with the Russian and German campaigns to be described in subsequent chapters.

For some days before war was declared, as noted in Volume I of this work, Austria-Hungary and Russia understood each other thoroughly. Russia was satisfied that Austria intended to force war on Serbia, and Russia was pledged to protect and uphold the little nation, which was really her ward and over which she had announced a protectorate.

A review of the situation at this time shows that while mobilization was being hastened, Russia had joined the Slav kingdom in asking for a delay on the ultimatum that Serbia had received from Austria on July 24, 1914. On July 27 Russia notified Austria that she could not permit Serbia to be invaded. On July 29 an imperial ukase issued by the czar called all reservists to the colors.

On July 31, 1914, M. Goremykin, President of the Council of the Russian Empire, issued a manifesto which read: "Russia is determined not to allow Serbia to be crushed, and will fulfill its duty in regard to that small kingdom, which has already suffered so much at Austria's hands."

Germany on July 30, 1914, had asked Russia to stop its mobilization, and had demanded a reply within twenty-four hours. Russia had ignored the ultimatum, and on August 1 the German Ambassador had handed a declaration of war to the Russian Foreign Minister. On August 6, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia, and the Austrian Ambassador left St. Petersburg. In such wise was the eastern arena cleared for action.

Before describing in detail the Austro-Russian campaign, it is necessary to bear in mind the conditions in the opposing armies. The strength of the Austrian army is discussed in the chapter on the Austro-Serbian campaigns, while the fighting forces of Russia are discussed in the chapter on the Russian and German campaigns.

Much has been said, and justly, in criticism of Russia's army at the outbreak of the war and afterward, but there is no disputing the fact that it had been improved wonderfully as the direct result of the war with Japan. In the strenuous years that followed that war, with revolution an ever-present menace, the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, and the granting of religious toleration to the many creeds and sects which helped to make up the population, awakened its diverse people to a new unity, inspired the people with hopefulness and activity, and the morale of the Russian army improved accordingly.

The army, at the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, on a peace basis included about 50,000 officers and more than 1,200,000 men, which included about 1,000,000 actual combatants. In recent years preceding, the annual contingent had been about 430,000. At the end of July, 1914, the ukase, which proclaimed a general mobilization, summoned to the colors five classes, or about two million men. The total number was increased by other reservists and volunteers to 4,100,000.

There had been a wave of reform in every branch of the military service. The men who were conscripted to form the main strength of the army were young and possessed more initiative than had the recruits of years before. Every effort was made to encourage this initiative under the new field service regulations.

In creating a new army with real fighting spirit, cohesion, and ability, Grand Duke Nicholas, who was made Generalissimo, was conspicuous. Each year the progress made under his direction has been displayed at the autumn maneuvers. Another member of the imperial family, Grand Duke Sergius, was largely responsible for the excellent showing made by the Russian guns and gunners after war began.

For purposes of administration all of European Russia was divided into eight military districts—the Caucasus, Kazan, Kiev, Moscow, Odessa, Petrograd, Warsaw, and Vilna. There were also four Siberian districts, making twelve in all. To each district were assigned two or more army corps. In war, these were grouped in varying numbers from three to five to constitute an army or army group.

The equipment of the Russian infantry soldier comprised at the outbreak of the Great War a rifle, a 299-mm. weapon with a quadrangular bayonet—which also was carried by noncommissioned officers—a waistbelt supporting a pouch for thirty rounds on each side of the clasp, an intrenching tool, a bandolier holding another thirty rounds carried over the left shoulder under the rolled greatcoat, and a reserve pouch also holding thirty rounds, which completed the full load of 120 rounds for each man, suspended by a strap over the right shoulder.

As the Russian soldiers moved to the Austrian frontier, there was slung over the right shoulder kits containing food and clothing and cooking utensils, and over the left shoulder one-sixth part of a shelter tent. The total weight borne by the regular Russian infantryman was nearly 58-¼ pounds.

When the war started, the Russian army, in its invasion of Austria, had its full complement of officers, and because of the great capacity of its military schools, it was as well able as other nations engaged to make up for losses in battle. One sweeping and beneficial change that had been made was that promotion no longer went by seniority but entirely by merit: the higher the position the more rigid the tests. Incidentally, it was Russia's good fortune that the war came at a time when the noncommissioned ranks were full and it was possible to promote many of these men to fill vacancies in the commissioned service.

The use of Russian infantry on the battle fields, as we shall soon see, differed in no essential way from that common to other nations of Europe. An advance under fire was almost identical with that of other nations. A single company in attack would dispatch two platoons as a firing line, retaining two in reserve, each of the platoons in front providing its own protection for skirmishing, according to the nature of the ground.

If the cover was adequate, a few rifles were enough to locate the enemy, and either they could be reenforced or the front could be extended. If the ground were quite open, the two leading platoons were extended at once, so as to oppose the enemy with an equal extent of fire, and then advanced by rushes, each section covering the rush of the other by alternate firing. The two reserve platoons could be used either to outflank the enemy, if the nature of the ground permitted, or for direct reenforcement in any formation required.

As has been said, all the nations engaged in the great conflict pursued similar tactics in this respect, and the only advantage possessed by Russia in their use was that both her infantry and artillery possessed a much larger number of officers, who had been trained to understand how, against a powerful opponent, to carry out efficiently in practice and in times of great stress the theory which all nations held in common.

The observer of the battles in the Russo-Austrian campaigns will see that the Russian cavalry was inadequate, because its horses were too small, of inferior strain, and lacking the stamina needed in modern warfare. They were valuable, however, because of their large numbers, and the fact that during the winter months, being acclimated and to the country born, they were able to pick up a living in the snow when other horses would starve.

As regards field batteries, near the western Russian frontier and in Asia, nearly all of them had, when war was declared, eight guns. In most of the batteries in Asia the number of men maintained in peace was the same as in war.

The Russian army moved forward with adequate aerial corps. The keenest interest in military aviation had been taken in Russia during two years before the war. Grand Duke Alexander was one of the founders of the aviation school at Sebastopol, where two-thirds of the Russian aviation officers obtained their training. In the spring of 1914 the air fleet consisted of 16 dirigibles and 360 aeroplanes, while orders for 1,000 aircraft of different descriptions had been placed with various firms in Russia.

The army of Austria-Hungary which faced the Russians was composed of men from a country where universal military service prevailed. In theory only the physically unfit were exempt from service, and the liability extended from the beginning of the nineteenth year to the close of the forty-second. Actual service in the ranks and with the reserve was twelve years. After the men had served ten years with the army and in its reserve they were included in the Landwehr for another two years. It is likely that Austria had at the outbreak of war from 1,200,000 to 1,300,000 men at her disposal. During the three years preceding she had greatly strengthened her equipment.

The infantry of the joint Austrian army, which had to fight the campaigns against the Russians on the east, and against the Serbians on the south, comprised 102 regiments of infantry, 27 battalions of Jaegers, 4 regiments of Tyrolese Jaegers, and 4 regiments of Bosnia-Herzegovina infantry. Every infantry regiment had four field battalions and a depot battalion. The duty of the latter was to fill up the ranks of the others. Each infantry regiment had at least two machine-gun detachments of two guns each, and in many there were two guns per battalion. In Bosnia and Herzegovina every battalion had four, and this also was true of every Jaeger battalion.

The Austrian infantrymen, as they met their Russian antagonists, carried a small-bore magazine rifle, in use in the army since 1895, and known after its inventor as the MÄnnlicher. It had a caliber of .315 inch and fired a pointed bullet. It was loaded by means of a charger which contained five cartridges, and it was equipped with a bayonet. The cavalry carbine was shorter but took the same bullet. One hundred and twenty rounds were carried by the infantry soldier, and there were forty rounds in the company ammunition wagon, and 160 in the infantry ammunition columns, in addition. The machine gun in use was of the same caliber and took the same ammunition as the infantry rifle. It was composed of few parts, and was a simple and highly effective instrument.

On these first days of August, 1914, the cavalry of Austria—the hussars, uhlans, and dragoons, but really all of one type—light cavalry—was equipped uniformly with saber and carbine. The noncommissioned officers and others who did not carry a carbine rode forth equipped with an automatic pistol. There were forty-two cavalry regiments in the entire Austrian army, consisting of six squadrons, each of which had a fighting strength of 150 sabers, not counting the pioneer troops. Every cavalry regiment had four machine guns with 40,000 rounds of ammunition. The pioneer troops of the cavalry, which first were introduced in Austria, were composed of an officer and twenty-five men, equipped with tools and explosives needed by an advance force to clear obstacles, destroy railways, etc. Besides the pioneer troops, eight men in each squadron were equipped with similar tools. The telegraph section, consisting of eight men, carried about seven miles of light wire.

The artillery of Austria-Hungary had been greatly modified in recent years. The gun used for horse and field batteries was known as M5—that is, the pattern of 1905. It was of 3-inch caliber, a quick firer, throwing a shrapnel shell which weighed 14.7 pounds. High-explosive shells also were carried in the proportion of two to five of shrapnel. The gun had a long recoil on its carriage, which absorbed the shock and the gun returned to its place. This made rapid fire possible.

Like the other powers, Austria-Hungary had adopted a howitzer for its heavy batteries. It fired a shell of 38.132 pounds. There was also a heavy gun in use, a 10.5 centimeter, corresponding to a 4.1-inch gun. The ammunition was like that of a howitzer—a shell weighing 38.132 pounds, which contained a high-explosive bursting charge and shrapnel with 700 bullets, fifty to the pound. On the march the carriage was separated from the gun, and each was drawn by six horses.

The mountain regions on all the frontiers of the Dual Monarchy resounded on these August days of 1914 with the mountain artillery. The 10.5-centimeter guns and 4.1-inch howitzer quick firers threw a shell of thirty-two pounds. This howitzer had a range of more than 6,000 yards, and was a powerful weapon. The 30.5-centimeter mortars fired a shell of 858 pounds with a bursting charge of 56 pounds of ecrasite. The extreme range of this mortar was about six miles. Ten rounds could be fired each hour. Two guns and their ammunition lorries were drawn by three large tractors. An hour was required to get one of these guns ready for action.

Let us enter the headquarters of the Austrian army at the beginning of the Russian campaign. There we meet the engineer staff, which built and besieged fortresses, and a military works department, which built and maintained buildings that were not immediately connected with fortifications. Austria-Hungary had only a few fortresses of modern construction. The intrenched camps in Galicia, Cracow, and Przemysl were soon to be besieged, and between them was a fortress known as Jaroslav, of insignificant value, like that of Huy between Liege and Namur in Belgium.

The Austrian army had not made as much progress in aeronautics as those of other nations. There was a depot for dirigibles at Fischamend, about eleven miles southeast of Vienna, but only a few dirigibles were ready for service. These were of the Parsefal type. There were a number of captive balloons. The number of aeroplanes available was very small. A school for teaching aviation had been established at Vienna-Neustadt.

The faces of the soldiers of the Austria-Hungarian army on the Russian frontier denoted many races, but it possessed considerable solidarity. Officers and soldiers recognized alike that they were all under a single head—the emperor. The officers were drawn from all classes of society, and this was also a unifying influence. They were on more intimate relations with their men than the Prussian leaders, and "led" instead of "drove" them. Commands for the whole army were given in German, but otherwise the language varied according to the composition of the various regiments as regarded races. The use of the German language for commands undoubtedly aided in unifying the army.[Back to Contents]