Austro Hungarian Forces in World War I: 1914-16 (Men-At-Arms (Osprey))

Rating:
Summary: The Forgotten Many
Review: I am writing this having a) had the book for some time now, and b) in response to the previous review.

I found the book particularly informative - especially after "Armies in the Balkans 1914-18" - and, some minor details apart - a reasonable review of the Habsburg armies in the first half of the First World War. Re. the uniform plates, I agree entirely that they are excellent and well worth the purchase price of the book alone.

However, although the previous reviewer highlights the, shall we say, negative spin of apparent lack of success of the kuk armee in 1914 and 1916 and, to a lesser extent 1915, the fact remains that - with German assistance admittedly - the Habsburg armies remained in the field in fighting order until almost the last. Indeed, given that Austro-Hungarian military spending pre 1914 was by far the lowest of the Great Powers (which includes Italy I am told) and that the German Empire was the great, powerful "new kid on the block" (from, bear in mind, 1871), the Habsburg armies' ability to survive deserves recognition. Given that the brash, new, powerful German Empire was outlived by the arthritic, "ramshackle" Austro- Hungarian state (held together by the army) for a mere matter of weeks in 1918, there must be a case for some recognition. PLUS, Imperial Russia knocked out of the war in 1917 in part due to the (admittedly) supporting role played by Austria-Hungary (NB not Austro-Hungary!). This is an old army worthy of attention. I for one think Peter Jung's book is generally well balanced and look forward to part two.

Rating:
Summary: The Forgotten Many
Review: I am writing this having a) had the book for some time now, and b) in response to the previous review.

I found the book particularly informative - especially after "Armies in the Balkans 1914-18" - and, some minor details apart - a reasonable review of the Habsburg armies in the first half of the First World War. Re. the uniform plates, I agree entirely that they are excellent and well worth the purchase price of the book alone.

However, although the previous reviewer highlights the, shall we say, negative spin of apparent lack of success of the kuk armee in 1914 and 1916 and, to a lesser extent 1915, the fact remains that - with German assistance admittedly - the Habsburg armies remained in the field in fighting order until almost the last. Indeed, given that Austro-Hungarian military spending pre 1914 was by far the lowest of the Great Powers (which includes Italy I am told) and that the German Empire was the great, powerful "new kid on the block" (from, bear in mind, 1871), the Habsburg armies' ability to survive deserves recognition. Given that the brash, new, powerful German Empire was outlived by the arthritic, "ramshackle" Austro- Hungarian state (held together by the army) for a mere matter of weeks in 1918, there must be a case for some recognition. PLUS, Imperial Russia knocked out of the war in 1917 in part due to the (admittedly) supporting role played by Austria-Hungary (NB not Austro-Hungary!). This is an old army worthy of attention. I for one think Peter Jung's book is generally well balanced and look forward to part two.

Rating:
Summary: Decent, but Uneven in Places
Review: The Osprey Men-at-Arms series recent volumes on various armies of the First World War, while brief, have helped to shed some light on the more neglected military forces that participated in that conflict. Dr. Peter Jung, who works at the Austrian War Archives, brings his professional knowledge to bear in the first of two volumes on the Austro-Hungarian army in the First World War. The first volume covers the period 1914-1916. Overall, this volume is decent but not great, while the color plates make this volume an essential purchase for any student of the First World War.

After a short introduction, Dr. Jung has a brief section on the organization of the Austro-Hungarian army, followed by eight pages on major operations in 1914-1916. A 26-page section on uniforms, equipment, the branches and volunteer units comprises the bulk of the volume. Most welcome is the author's inclusion of a map of corps districts in 1914, a detailed order of battle for August 1914, a chart of rank insignia, and lists of the infantry and cavalry regiments in 1914. These charts alone make this volume useful. As usual, the color plates are the main effort in this thin volume and these include: officers in 1914, infantry in 1914, cavalry in 1914, winter uniforms, mountain troops, specialist troops, foreign volunteers and Austrian troops serving in Gallipoli and Palestine. While the Austro-Hungarian Army may not have won many battles, they certainly had some of the most attractive uniforms of any combatant in the First World War.

Dr. Jung does pack a fair amount of information into this 48-page format, but his coverage is sometimes uneven. The discussion of the organization of Austrian divisions is overly succinct; although he notes that the Austrian divisions had only 46 artillery pieces compared to 50-72 for everybody else, it is unclear what size weapons were in their divisional artillery (plus he notes that Austrians had six gun batteries, but 46 is not divisible by 6, so the organization is unclear). Dr. Jung also pretty much ignores the Austrian artillery contribution on the Western Front in 1914, but then gets rather blabby about the minor operations in Albania and Palestine. Nor is there any discussion of tactical or operational doctrines.

There's also an obvious bias in these pages - not unexpected from someone working in the Austrian archives - to sugarcoat some of the worst aspects of this misfortune-plagued army. Dr. Jung's description of the campaigns in Serbia and Galicia make it sound like the Austrians did pretty well and were only occasionally forced to give up some ground. The author admits that the 1916 Brusilov Offensive did some damage but downplays the fact that the Austrian army virtually disintegrated and were saved only by Russian mistakes and quick German reinforcements. There is also very little mention of tactical innovation or assistance from the Germans in this volume. Obviously, a 48-page account has to be concise and skim over much ground (although it seems that no uniform detail - however trivial - must be omitted), and Dr. Jung achieves the main objective of providing a summary of Austrian forces in 1914-1916.