Military History of the First World War
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Serbia and the Eastern Front, 1914
Habsburg forces crossed the Danube and occupied Belgrade. Conrad underestimated Serbian resistance and diverted troops northwards. The Austrians were forced out of Belgrade by a Serbian counter-attack and pushed back across the Danube. Habsburg forces met a similar fate on the Carpathian front, where after pushing the Russians back they were in turn forced to retreat with over 300,000 casualties and 100,000 soldiers taken prisoner. They also lost a substantial number of their junior officers. This was particularly significant for the Austrians as theirs was a multi-national force held together principally by loyalty to a common monarch (Franz Joseph). The replacement officers in general failed to manage troops of different nationality. It is one factor that explains the relative weakness of the Habsburg armies in the Great War. Austro-Hungary was also not an industrial power on the scale of Germany, France and Britain. From the second half of August 1914 the Russian first and second armies advanced into East Prussia; they moved separately and allowe dthe Masurian Lakes to divide them. The Germans intercepted their uncoded telegraph messages so knew their positons and were able to prepare accordingly. They were able to concentrate their smaller numbers of men against the two Russian armies separately. Firstly, they defeated the Russian Second Army at Tannenberg in East Prussia. The surrounded Russian army of 125,000 men surrendered. The Russian First Army was forced to withdraw from East Prussia in order to avoid a similar fate.
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Contents of
Military History of the First World War
1 The Central Powers and the Entente
2 The run-up to the war: The July Crisis, 1914
3 Military Planning in Advance of the War
4 Serbia and the Eastern Front, 1914
5 The Battle for the Marne
6 The Race to the Sea and the First Battle of Ypres
7 First Battle of Ypres
8 The Pacific
9 Africa
10 The Eastern Front during 1915
11 Italy enters the war
12 The Balkans
13 The Western Front
14 Gallipoli
15 The Western Front, 1916
16 Verdun
17 The Battle of the Somme
18 The Trentino Offensive
19 The Brusilov Offensive
20 Romania
21 The Russian Front in 1917
22 Mesopotamia
23 The Nivelle Offensive
24 The Third Battle of Ypres (The Battle of Passendaele)
25 Cambrai
26 Caporetto
27 German offensive in Russia, 1918
28 Ludendorff's offensive in the West
29 Allied counter-offensive
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