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Anonymous
Austro-Hungarian achievements on the Eastern Front 2017-01-19 07:06:41 Post No.
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Austro-Hungarian achievements on the Eastern Front 2017-01-19 07:06:41 Post No.
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Austria-Hungary rightly gets mocked for its incompetence in WW1, but are they actually underrated? Specifically I usually see people mocking them for WW2 Italy-tier incompetence based mostly on their performance in the first twelve or so months, most notably the Serbian Campaign, Battle of Galicia, and three consecutive Carpathian Offensives. This seems too drastic to be warranted. When put under better (read: German) leadership they could be capable foes. Ignoring Italy: on the Eastern Front alone, they:
>were the primary Central Powers presence for most of the war
>made up 46% of the forces involved in the initial blitz of Romania vs Germany's 22%, where they took 50,000 prisoners for the loss of only 5,500 casualties
>outnumbered the German force when they both executed the wildly successful Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive
>utterly steamrolled the Russians alongside the Germans during the Great Retreat, taking 194,000 prisoners in July alone
>overall took 1,269,000 Russian troops prisoner
>assuming the other casualties they inflicted were proportionate to the POW numbers, inflicted overall ~3.55 million casualties on the Russians, meaning they roughly broke even on the casualty ratio
They also won some battles on that front entirely on their own without even German leadership, such as Limanowa and Przezmysl (first siege).
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>>2245421
>They also won some battles on that front entirely on their own without even German leadership
This really doesn't speak well for Austria, that they need Germany to succeed at all. That said, Gorlice-Tarnow, Romania were the highpoints of the Eastern Front for them. That said, you have to remember that they were fighting a THREE-front war for four years, which is even more impressive if you think about it.
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>>2245437
Two of those fronts were shared with the germans, tho. That's half a front each, one front.
as for the italian front, not even worth mentioning. Austria-hungary, yeah we make fun of em, but it's simply insulting to compare them to italians.
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>>2245451
>not even worth mentioning
The War in the Dolomites was fucking incredible, anon. Have you ever been there?
And I don't recall much German support on the Salonika front either.
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>>2245451
>Two of those fronts were shared with the germans, tho. That's half a front each, one front.
What? A front doesn't cease to beexist a front just because you have allies on it. Not to mention the Eastern Front was friggin huge. The Austrian-dominated sector alone was larger than the Western Front in terms of area, and involved millions of casualties.
>as for the italian front, not even worth mentioning
The front that cost them 2.5 million casualties and delivered the death blow to the empire is definitely worth mentioning.
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>>2245466
The Brusalov offensive was the death blow.
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>>2245490
The Brusilov Offensive damaged AH, but the real deathblow was Vittorio Veneto. The Italians crushed the Austrians so hard that their government disintegrated before their military did.
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>>2245460
sauce on the pic?
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>>2245421
The Serbian campaign wasn't a real fuckup, they lost against an opponent that was numerically at least equal and possessed the advantage of defense, terrain and interior lines.
>>2245528
The political disintegration was not caused by Vittorio Veneto, the process was in full force since mid-October.
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>>2245421
You've really got to hand it to them being able to fight on three fronts for so long. Russia was the major drain, Serbia and Italy were simply deadweight fronts. Judging from Italy's performance along the Isonzo front and Serbia's once the fight was no longer equal, Austria-Hungary would have mopped the floor with either of them one-on-one.
Any more Austro-Hungarian soldier pictures?
>>2245466
>>2245528
>delivered the death blow
No, that was the Eastern Front. Italy's pathetic success (with Allied support after failing on their own) was because most of the Empire's manpower had been spent in the east.
Meanwhile the entire national war effort of Italy couldn't shift one front for three years, and took British/American/French help to do so first.
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>>2246203
I just got by googling "Austro-Hungarian soldier WW1" and sifting through the results. Sorry.
>>2247778
That they were in such a strategically untenable position to begin with and then squandered it from there was the fuck-up.
>>2248379
>You've really got to hand it to them being able to fight on three fronts for so long. Russia was the major drain, Serbia and Italy were simply deadweight fronts. Judging from Italy's performance along the Isonzo front and Serbia's once the fight was no longer equal, Austria-Hungary would have mopped the floor with either of them one-on-one.
Or two one one. But that's to be expected. Austria-Hungary was a much larger state than either. By the same token, however, if the Austrians weren't bailed out by Germany plus Germany's massive success in East Prussia, they would have been knocked out of the war in a few months.
>No, that was the Eastern Front. Italy's pathetic success (with Allied support after failing on their own) was because most of the Empire's manpower had been spent in the east.
It was not a "pathetic" success, but actually a large scale and genuine victory, and Allied support was always minimal. The Italians are the second most underrated army of WW1, next to the Austrians. Though it took them a while to unfuck themselves. Like the Austrians.
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Imagine being proud of getting an equal casualty ratio against Russia
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>>2250569
video game K/D memes aside, knowing russia's internal instability following their war with Japan inflicting any significant casualties is good
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>>2250504
>It was not a "pathetic" success
It was utterly one. Three years in the making, while Austria was more focused on TWO other fronts plus Romania, requiring Allied support and only coming after the Habsburg government was already dissolving. The Italian army was never underrated, it was objectively garbage in WWI.
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