Talk about how useless the Austro-Hungarian army was in World War I. ...

For a long time, the study of World War I was not as hot as the study of World War II, and in the study of World War I, it was mainly concentrated in Germany, Britain, France, Russia and the United States. For Austria-Hungary, a powerful country in Central Europe, the assassination of its crown prince was the fuse of the war from beginning to end. China did not discuss much, and the author was unable to make up for it.

The so-called "Austro-Hungarian Empire" is essentially the helpless concession of the ancient Habsburg dynasty to the rise of the modern nation. In the Middle Ages when national consciousness was not strong, the Habsburg royal family ruled a large number of territories, from the Rhine River to western Ukraine. The royal family ruled this vast land and the subjects of different nationalities living in it with a series of titles such as "King, Prince, Grand Duke, Duke and Earl". This medieval ruling structure was out of date even in the17th century. The rise of monarchies in France, Britain and Prussia is in sharp contrast to the decline of Habsburg dynasty.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the royal family lost the holy Roman throne, which had always been a facade, and had to be renamed the Austrian emperor. However, in the 1960s, even the Austrian Empire could not survive. With the empire's two successive defeats in Italy against France and in Bohemia against Prussia, the once suppressed national JF movement rose again. In order to win over the Hungarian nobles who have been loyal to the royal family since Mother Teresa's time, the royal family had to grant Hungary autonomy in 1867. This is the origin of the so-called "Austria-Hungary dual monarchy", which is called "Austria-Hungary Empire" for short, and its full name is "the kingdom and territory represented by the imperial parliament, and the territory directly under the jurisdiction of St. Stephen of Hungary". It is still a mixed system of medieval and modern times. Therefore, the author believes that the so-called "dual monarchy" generally refers to the geographical and administrative significance of the main alliance formed by Austria-Hungary, but at a deeper level, it is a very appropriate description of the mixture of medieval political structure and modern political structure of Austria-Hungary.

In essence, with the defeat of Sadova, the hope of the empire to restore its influence in Germany was dashed, and the empire began to expand its power in the southeast of the Balkans, trying to seize the Slavs-dominated areas occupied by Turkey after Turkey withdrew from Eastern Europe, which made the empire and its close allies for centuries turn against Russia, which claimed to be the protector and big brother of Slavs, and had to tie itself to rammstein against the powerful czar.

With the development of the second industrial revolution m, the empire surfaced in the last 30 years of the19th century, so that before the war, the empire actually seemed to be one of the great powers in Europe and even the world with its vast territory (the second in Europe), huge population (52 million, the third in Europe) and strong industrial strength (especially military industry). It was this illusion and the firm belief in Germany's guarantee that made the empire throw itself into the war without hesitation, and then it was shattered by the war.

There is no shortage of talents in imperial military bureaucracy. On the contrary, Sadova's defeat made the empire quickly absorb the experience of Germany, its former enemy and current ally, and established its own general staff and large-scale mobilization system.

Reflected in the specific military deployment, it is to upgrade the "Army Defence Force" originally as a reserve army to the status of a regular army. Because this upgrade started at the same time as Hungarian autonomy, Hungary was allowed to establish its own "Honvéd".

Therefore, before the war, the imperial army was composed of the following three parts:

Imperial Defence Force (? Bewaffnemacht "or? Defence Force ")

Royal and Royal Local Defence Forces (Kaiserlich K? Nigliche Landwehr, the emperor here, refers to the Austrian emperor and king, and also refers to the king of Bohemia, but Bohemia has only the name of a kingdom, but it has no autonomy like Hungary. This is the local defense force of the non-Hungarian part of the empire (also known as the Neretania region). Although it is called the local defense force and has field capabilities, according to the law, its deployment and operations have certain geographical restrictions, unlike the imperial defense force.

The tasks and nature of the Royal Hungarian Local Defence Force (Honvéd) are the same as those of the Royal and Royal Local Defence Forces. It is a local defence force in the Hungarian part of the Empire (Outer Letania) and a regular field force.

In military management, the Imperial Defence Force is directly under the Imperial War Department of Vienna, the Royal and Royal Local Defence Forces are under the Austrian Local Defence Department, which is also located in Vienna, and the Royal Hungarian Local Defence Force is under the Hungarian Local Defence Department located in Perth Port (now part of Budapest, the port area). These two local defence departments are the same as the Imperial War Department of Vienna.

In the military command system, the imperial army, which consists of these three parts, is under the command of the imperial general staff in Vienna.

The two lines from military administration to military orders point to the same person: the theoretical supreme commander of the imperial army: the Austrian emperor and the Hungarian king.

But in essence, because the empire has been constitutional, the monarch's influence on the imperial Ministry of War is not as good as that of the imperial prime minister. More importantly, because the monarch Franz Joseph I of Austria is old, the military command is actually exercised by the Chief of Staff. After the fiasco at the beginning of the war, the military command fell into the hands of German advisers. This situation changed after the death of the old emperor. The young and experienced Karl I, the emperor who succeeded to the throne, made him a captain.

Theoretically, the Imperial War Department Minister is higher than the Imperial Chief of Staff. In addition to the chief of staff, his subordinates also include the directors of various arms and services and the commander-in-chief of the field rescue team, the head of the Imperial Officer Corps (honorary position, the first officer in the country), the chief engineer of military construction, the Military Medical Committee (note that its director and the commander-in-chief of the field rescue team are not the same position, and the Committee and the general command of the field rescue team are not the same department), the director-general of the field religious officer, the military technical Committee and various administrative departments. Although it is a cabinet department, the Imperial War Minister must be an active soldier.

The imperial army department divided the empire into several military zones. After the general mobilization of military regions, several divisions of combat troops and auxiliary forces are generally stationed or expected to be established. The commander of the military region concurrently serves as the commander of the army, and the command of the military region consists of four parts:

Military Department: The Chief of Staff of the Army is in charge of military affairs.

Ministry of Military Construction: responsible for military construction affairs.

Management department: responsible for logistics and military and economic affairs.

Auxiliary Forces Department: includes Army Artillery Brigade Commander, Military Law Director, Battlefield Rescue Director and Military Religious Affairs Committee. Due to the extremely complex beliefs of all ethnic groups in the empire, all churches and sects have their own clergy, including chaplains, rabbis and imams. Of course, because there are no Buddhist nationalities in the empire, there are no monks. )

The basic unit of the imperial army's combat troops (including infantry, cavalry and artillery) is the regiment.

According to the different operational command languages, the battle regiments of the Imperial Defence Force are divided into two types: the Austrian (German) regiment and the Hungarian regiment.

This rough division is also a last resort. There are many M families in the empire, and their languages are mixed. It is impossible for an officer to be familiar with all the more than 20 languages of the empire (it is said that only the emperor can speak all these languages, which is worthy of being a symbol and link of imperial unity). Therefore, as long as the soldiers recruited from the non-Hungarian part of the empire are all assigned to the Austrian regiment with German as the command language, no matter whether he is Bohemian or Italian; Soldiers recruited from the Hungarian part of the empire were assigned to the Hungarian regiment, which used Hungarian as the command language, regardless of whether they were Romanian, Polish, Croatian or Slovenian. This situation worsened after the general mobilization, and a large number of peasants who spoke various languages were recruited into the army. In the end, even the platoon leader could not make all the messy people he collected understand his orders. The entire grass-roots combat command tends to collapse, and the entire imperial defense force and the expected imperial main force become a huge monster suffering from terminal paralysis, which can not operate normally at all, let alone fight.

This situation is much better in the local defense forces. Most of the soldiers in these units are from their hometown, and the commanders at lower levels are locals. The language problem is not serious. Therefore, in the later period of the war, the record of local defense forces was obviously better than that of imperial defense forces. In the later period of the war, it is estimated that this experience was learned and the Royal Hungarian Local Defence Force was divided into the Royal Hungarian Local Defence Force and the Royal Croatian-Slovenian Local Defence Force. As a matter of fact, as early as 1868, Croatian has become the command and service language of Croatian troops in the local defense forces of Hungary, according to the "Small Ping Rights Act" applicable to Croatia (compared with the "Great Equal Rights Act" applicable to Hungary, according to which Hungary achieved the same status as Austria).

Due to the poor record and the test of war, it is outdated and does not meet the needs of actual combat. By 19 15, the Imperial War Department cancelled the historical honorary titles and subsidiary symbols of all troops and called them directly by numbers.

Different from the local defense forces, the regiments of the imperial defense forces often change their posts, mainly to prevent the soldiers of the defense forces from establishing too deep friendly relations with the local residents, which leads to the political consideration that Z pressure cannot be put down during the rebellion, which is also determined by the role of the imperial defense forces. Different from the local defense forces, it is a mobile strike force directly under the emperor. This was even more obvious before the general mobilization. The Royal Defence Force, which is commanded by officers who are loyal to the Habsburg royal family and noncommissioned officers who are basically born in the families of junior civil servants who are also loyal to the royal family, is not only a force to deter rebellion, but also a force to deter local defense forces as its supplementary force, especially those unstable areas composed of dissatisfied locals, according to the official view that has never been publicly expressed but privately acquiesced. Directed by squires who tend to break away from Z, they are regarded as a threat to the imperial government F except rebellion, because they are organized, armed and legal.

This is also a helpless compromise response of the Austro-Hungarian Empire system in the Middle Ages to the war between modern nation-states. Different from the royal mercenary war in the middle ages, the war between modern nation-states needs to mobilize a large number of countries to participate in the war. In this case, if we don't establish our own mobilization system, the Austro-Hungarian Empire will be flooded by the enemy's troops carrying out the universal compulsory military service system, so we must establish our own mobilization system and reserve forces. However, the loyalty of these troops is very fragile because of the lack of national identity.

Ironically, it was the imperial defense forces that were submerged by mobilization, not the local defense forces that were considered unstable and threatened. After the general mobilization order was issued, a large number of imperial subjects were added to the imperial defense forces, from 300,000 to nearly 2 million. However, the result was disastrous. Those noble officers, junior noncommissioned officers and standing soldiers who were loyal to the royal family because of long-term training were submerged by the mobilized army and became isolated islands. A large number of troops filled with separatist national soldiers soon lost their combat effectiveness. Refusal to fight, surrender and mutiny are called commonplace. Only those troops composed and supplemented by soldiers from Austria and Mazar, Hungary, have super-standard combat effectiveness, and it is also a good thing that other troops do not defect.

In sharp contrast with the imperial defense forces, the local defense forces that fought to defend their homeland often fought to the death in the later period of the war and became the pillars of the imperial army, represented by local archers in Tyrol, who were part of the royal family and the royal local defense forces and local troops in the border areas of Tyrol (Austria and Italy). There were only four regiments before the war. In the border battle after Italy declared war on Austria, this small unit stuck to the border between Austria and Italy. Delayed the attack of Italy's famous alpine infantry and the Italian main force (150: 1), and won valuable time for the Austro-Hungarian troops and German reinforcements to move south. Otherwise, Austria-Hungary collapsed at 19 15. Therefore, after Karl I succeeded to the throne, he was awarded the "Tyrol Shooter Unit".

However, after all, local defense forces are not the main force of the empire, and there are many legal restrictions on their deployment and use. For example, the above-mentioned local shooter troops in Tyrol were clearly limited by the Tyrol State Assembly to participate in the battle to defend Tyrol or strategically defend Tyrol. Therefore, in the subsequent attack on Italy, the troops stood by until the Imperial War Department misinterpreted and extended the legal provisions, claiming that the attack on Italy was "strategically conducive to defending Tyrol" and was able to mobilize them to participate in the war.

It can be seen that although the local defense forces have strong combat effectiveness, they can only carry out defensive operations or small-scale offensive operations.

The mobilization and integration system of Austro-Hungarian Empire is different from that of Germany. Instead of setting up the same number of supplementary regiments as each regiment to be responsible for the regiment's troop supply, it adopted a complex system of combining reserve forces, supplementary battalions, supplementary areas and "local reserve forces"

The Austro-Hungarian Military Service Law stipulates that all healthy young men must perform universal compulsory military service. Healthy males over 265,438+0 years old are selected and assigned by the Conscription Bureau. They serve in the Imperial Defence Force for 3 years, then in the Reserve Force for 7 years, then in the local defence force for 2 years, or in the local defence force for 65,438+00 years (several weeks each year). Soldiers who have finished their active service in the imperial national defense uniform can continue to volunteer for one year. During the period of voluntary military service, they are paid and have the opportunity to enter the junior military school based on the camp. The technical forces and navy encourage voluntary military service. All other men over the age of/kloc-0 and under the age of 43 who have not been recruited into the national defense forces, reserve forces and local defense forces must serve in the local reserve forces.

Unlike Germany's local defense forces, which are reserves, Austria-Hungary's local defense forces are active.

The Austro-Hungarian mobilization plan is that after the mobilization order is issued, men serving in the reserve army will be transferred to the Imperial Defence Force immediately, soldiers serving in the reserve of the local defence army will be transferred to the local defence army, and the reserve personnel of the local reserve team will be trained intensively to make up for the loss of troops in wartime.

During the mobilization period, the newly formed troops of the Austro-Hungarian Defence Force were few, mainly using reservists to fill the existing troops, mainly the unsatisfied part of the troops and some supplementary battalions below the regimental level. The battalion has all officers, most non-commissioned officers and a small number of soldiers. After the mobilization order was issued, the troops were deployed. After the battalion was filled with reserve soldiers, most of them fought with the regiment, and a few formed new regiments. After the regiments enriched the supplementary battalions and put them into battle, they immediately set up new supplementary battalions to receive and train new recruits from the rear. These newly-built supplementary battalions after mobilization remain in the original station of the regiment and are supplemented by local reserve personnel in the supplementary areas to which the regiment belongs. Usually, they join the original regiment and set up a new supplementary camp immediately after completing the training. The highest record in wartime was that a Hungarian regiment of the Imperial Defence Force used 20 supplementary battalions. If you count the four battalions it owned before the mobilization, and suppose that the regiment had four battalions at the end of the war (even if it was full), the regiment has been wiped out five times, which shows that the battle damage of the Austro-Hungarian army is incredible.

Before the war, the Austro-Hungarian Defence Force had the following infantry units:

62 Austrian infantry regiments

40 Hungarian infantry regiments

Four infantry regiments in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1908, the newly annexed area of the empire lost the crown prince and even the whole empire).

28 battlefield hunting camps (what is a battlefield hunter will be introduced later)

1 Bosnia and Herzegovina Battlefield Hunting Battalion

Four Tyrol Hunting Corps (note that this is a unit under the Imperial Defence Force. As mentioned above, the Tyrol archer units under the Royal and Royal Local Defence Forces are not a unit).

The organizational structure of the specific infantry regiment is as follows:

Regimental headquarters, 4 field infantry battalions, 16 field infantry company.

Regimental headquarters:

A colonel, a field officer, a chief of staff, three to five junior officers, a staff officer, a deputy colonel, a regimental engineering director, a regimental chief engineer, four assistants to the chief engineer, a regimental quartermaster, a regimental mechanical maintenance director, a regimental barracks management director, a regimental military music captain, a regimental military medical director, four senior military doctors, and regimental officers.

4 battalion commanders (lieutenant colonel or major), 4 deputy battalion commanders, 1 regimental clerical officers and their assistants, trumpeters, 5 first-class soldiers, 30 private soldiers and 2 cadets.

A regimental headquarters * * *: 2 1 officer, 73 non-commissioned officers and soldiers.

16 company commanders are captains, and each company has a company sergeant. The deputy company commander is usually a lieutenant or a second lieutenant, and the platoon leader is a warrant officer.

Excluding the regimental strength, there are 64 officers, 2,488 non-commissioned officers and soldiers.

The supplementary construction system of the regiment is as follows:

1 Major Battalion Commander, 2 recruits from supplementary areas, 1 Senior Military Doctor, 1 Chief Accountant, 3 Assistant Chief Accountant of Sergeant rank, 1 Quartermaster, 1 Battalion Commander, 4 Captain (future company commander), 4 Sergeant (future company commander), 65438.

Infantry officers above the lieutenant are issued with sabers, which are 82 cm long and have blood grooves on both sides and a front opening on one side. They are used to command and issue orders, and can also be used for close combat. The chief planner, chief of staff and band leader of the regiment are equipped with M 1863 saber for etiquette, which is 65.8 cm long and cannot be used for combat.

Officers, trumpeters and drivers of engineering corps are equipped with M 1862 engineering corps knives.

Sharpshooters and sharpshooter officers among soldiers can wear "shooter signs".

Each group has its own flag as a symbol of the group.

Like the infantry, the artillery of Austria-Hungary belonged to three armies, namely the Imperial Defence Force, the Royal and Royal Local Defence Forces and the Royal Hungarian Local Defence Forces.

Among them, the imperial defense artillery unit has the strongest strength and the most complete subordinate arms.

The artillery units of the Imperial Defence Force can be divided into:

Wehrmacht field artillery unit

Defence force fortress artillery unit

Defence force mountain artillery unit

Defence force artillery technical support unit

Defence force artillery training team

Among them, the national defense artillery force is as follows:

42 field artillery regiments

14 field howitzer division (battalion organizational system)

1 1 gunner (battalion level)

14 heavy howitzer division (battalion level)

1 1 mountain artillery regiment

Six fortress artillery regiments

10 independent fortress garrison artillery battalion

In artillery units and transport units, the establishment of "divisions" is a battalion-level organizational system.

Each division field artillery regiment has a supplementary battalion with the same functions as the infantry regiment. At the same time, each field artillery corps also contains a backbone ammunition team, with only two officers and nine soldiers, which is also a unit waiting for reserve personnel to supplement after mobilization.

A field artillery regiment with four artillery companies has 16 officers and 404 soldiers.

The fortress artillery regiment is much larger, with 54 officers 1251soldiers in the 3rd battalion12 company.

The artillery technical support unit is mainly responsible for the maintenance of artillery, building fortifications for artillery, setting up observation posts, setting up ammunition accumulation points, providing guards and other tasks. He is an indispensable assistant to the artillery force, and has served as a technical engineer, field engineer, scout and light infantry for four times.

Because the artillery technical support unit is a technical arm, the position of artillery engineer has been established, in which the chief artillery engineer is a major general and the senior artillery parts management engineer is a colonel.

Artillery officers and soldiers are equipped with revolvers as self-defense weapons, and officers are equipped with cavalry sabers.

The guards of the field artillery units themselves and the soldiers of the artillery technical support units that provide alert services for the field artillery units are equipped with rifles without bayonets.

The light infantry of the fortress artillery is equipped with rifles with bayonets.

There is a hole in the cap of the cannon. However, this is a decorative spike used only in peacetime. In wartime, the artillery wore a cylindrical soft cloth belt along the combat cap.

At the beginning of the war, the Austro-Hungarian artillery stored a large amount of ammunition, but only a small number of spare artillery. According to the theory put forward by some stupid people, artillery will not suffer too much losses in future wars. To make matters worse, Skoda Arsenal, the largest arsenal in Austria-Hungary, did not store raw materials, although its production capacity was still abundant. As a result, after the war began, due to the blockade of the British navy, the raw materials for the production of artillery were quickly consumed. Next, the Austro-Hungarian artillery suffered huge losses in the war between Russia and the Balkans, which made the artillery of the Austro-Hungarian artillery almost exhausted when Italy entered the war in 19 15, so that it was almost impossible to deploy an artillery on the Italian front. The Imperial War Department frantically searched for all the heavy guns that could still be fired to equip its artillery units. Those old guns without recoil reduction devices were redistributed to the troops, and even a 65mm Tongshan gun produced by 186 1 was pulled to the front. Nearly 300 Russian prisoners of war struggled to pull the gun to the Autler Peak in the Alps at an altitude of 3,905 meters.

The situation of the fortress gun is much better. The fortress gun protected by the fortress has little loss. Take Imperial Defence Force 1 Fortress Artillery Regiment as an example. The regiment 1 Battalion has two 305mm heavy mortars and two150mm heavy howitzers, while the other three artillery battalions each have1240mm heavy mortars and three150mm heavy mortars.

The second fortress artillery regiment added a supplementary battalion at 19 15, with a horrible 420mm howitzer, which was aided by Germany.

19 18, all fortress artillery regiments were reorganized into heavy artillery regiments.

The technical standards for artillery of the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Army are as follows:

Artillery: 40 to 60 times the barrel, and the horizontal flame length reaches 10% of the gun length.

Heavy mortar: 6 to 10 times the barrel, and the vertical jet flame reaches 70% of the gun height.

Howitzer: 10 to 16 times barrel.

Model:

M6 1 cannon, 120mm caliber, M6 1 cannon, 150mm caliber, M95 cannon, 180mm caliber. 150mm mortar M78,150mm mortar M80,150mm armored mortar M80, 90mm cannon M75 and M75/96, 80mm armored artillery howitzer M94P,150mm armored artillery howitzer M94 and M99,/kloc

The cavalry units of the Austro-Hungarian Empire also belonged to the Imperial Defence Force, the Royal and Royal Local Defence Forces and the Royal Hungarian Local Defence Force. There are three types of cavalry: hussars, lancers and dragoons. But in essence, at the beginning of the war, there was no difference between the weapons and equipment of these three types of cavalry. The difference in names is just a historical relic, just as the empire itself is a historical relic.

The Imperial Defence Force has 16 light cavalry. Traditionally, these soldiers came from the Hungarian part of the empire. However, they are not all Hungarians, but also Croats, Romanians and Slovaks.

The standard organizational system of a title of generals in ancient times corps is 2 battalions and 6 squadrons, with 27 officers and 925 non-commissioned officers, riding 950 horses and pulling 16 horses.

By 19 16, due to the shortage of war horses, all the hussars were changed to "hussars archer regiment", which was essentially an infantry regiment.

The hussars wore a hard cylindrical cap with a big bottom and a small top. There are tassels hanging in the middle of the hat tube, spikes on the top of the hat and hard brim.

The uniform of hussars is called "Attila" uniform, which is said to commemorate Attila, the great ancestor of Hungarians (whether Hungarians are descendants of Hungarians is controversial). Its famous feature is that there are about five rows of symmetrical buttons on the chest of the uniform, and the buttons are wrapped in a butterfly shape with long tassels.

Groups are distinguished by the colors of uniforms, military caps and buttons, which will be introduced in detail later.

The hussars are equipped with M 1890 carbines, the officers are equipped with M 1870 military revolvers, and the health workers are not equipped with shooting weapons, but all hussars are equipped with M 1869 cavalry sabers.

The Imperial Defence Force has 65,438+00 lancers and cavalry regiments. Traditionally, these lancers and cavalry were recruited from Austria and Poland, and their establishment was completely different from that of hussars.

The lancer wears a helmet, and the top is decorated with a small Polish Biretta graphic, and there is a large piece of traditional lancer clothing cloth in front of the uniform. The cloth is trapezoidal, and its color is different from the shoulder to the waist. Today, although the Lance cavalry regiment in the British army has been transformed into infantry or mechanized infantry regiment, it still wears this uniform during the military parade.

Lancers are equipped with M 1890 carbine, officers are equipped with M 1870 military revolvers, and health workers are not equipped with shooting weapons, but all lancers, regardless of officers and soldiers, are equipped with M 1869 cavalry sabers.

The Imperial Defence Force has 15 dragoons, all recruited from upper and lower Austria and Bohemia. Dragoons are the same as hussars and lancers.

Like the ancient Greek helmet, the top decoration of the dragon knight helmet is an arch bridge-shaped decoration, but generally without tassels.

The uniform of dragoons is the same as that of infantry, but they wear the identification mark of our regiment.

The dragoons are equipped with M 1890 carbine, the officers are equipped with M 1870 military revolvers, and the health workers are not equipped with shooting weapons, but all dragoons, regardless of officers and soldiers, are equipped with M 1869 cavalry sabers.

***4 1 Cavalry Regiment, which belongs to the Imperial Defence Force, is used as cavalry brigade and cavalry division in wartime. Unlike the cavalry regiment which belongs to the local defence force, the cavalry regiment which belongs to the local defence force is divided into infantry divisions and used as cavalry division.