Origins

The Austro-Hungarian military was a direct descendant of the military forces of the Habsburg sections Holy Roman Empire from the 13th century and the successor state that was the Austrian Empire from 1804. For 200 years, Habsburg or Austrian forces had formed a main opposing military force to a repeated Ottoman campaigns in Europe, with the Ottoman forces being stopped in battles around Vienna, which was besieged twice, in 1529 and again in 1683. Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg, commanding troops in the city, broke the siege in 1683 with the aid of German and Polish forces under the King of Poland, Jan Sobieski, and pushed the besieging Ottoman armies toward the Balkans, ending its further engagements in Central Europe.

Prince Eugene of Savoy, after a brief raid into Ottoman-held Bosnia, culminating in the sack of Sarajevo in 1697, returned to Vienna in November to a triumphal reception.^[1] In coordination with the Duke of Marlborough, Savoyard prince won a series of victories over Louis XIV in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14). Wars fought with the Prussia of Frederick the Great over Silesia in 1740–48 (the War of the Austrian Succession) and 1756–63 were less successful, although Austria still could keep up as contesting power and did not get partitioned like Poland in 1795 nor suffered major losses like France in 1763. The monarchy's military potential during the eighteenth century was limited by the emperor's dependence on provincial Diets for recruits and tax receipts while the nobles of the imperial lands who controlled the enserfed peasantry had no fixed obligation to provide soldiers to the Habsburg.

Austria was prominent in the coalitions that tried to contain Napoleon but was defeated in 1800, again in 1805 when Napoleon occupied Vienna after the Battle of Austerlitz, and finally after the bloody Battle of Wagram in 1809, despite inflicting Napoleon's first major defeat at Aspern-Essling. Austria still joined the final campaign resulting in Napoleon's defeat in 1814. One year later Austria crushed the pro-Napoleonic Kingdom of Naples in the Neapolitan War.

From 1815 to 1848 Austria experienced a rather peaceful era, only launching two successful naval expeditions (Austrian expedition against Morocco (1829) and Oriental Crisis of 1840), and putting down minor rebellions.

Armies displayed their loyalty to the monarchy in 1848 and 1849, suppressing the revolutionary regimes that had swept into power in Vienna, Budapest, Milan, and Prague. In 1859 Austria was provoked into war with Piedmont and its supporter, the France of Napoleon III. The Austro-Piedmontese War lasted only three months, but both sides mobilized large armies. The Austrians were defeated after bitter fighting at Magenta and Solferino, the young Emperor Franz Joseph assuming personal command during the Battle of Solferino.

The following Second Schleswig War with Prussia against Denmark was more successful, winning the battles of Königshügel, Sankelmark and Vejle, thus breaking the Danish blockade. However, Prussia established its domination over other German states by its victory over Austria in the Seven Weeks' War in 1866. The critical battle was waged at Königgrätz (Hradec Králové in the present-day Czech Republic). The Austrians armed with muzzle-loading rifles sustained 20,000 casualties and 20,000 prisoners. The battle overshadowed Austria's victories over Prussia's Italian allies at Custoza and in the naval Battle of Lissa (Vis) off the Dalmatian coast in which a smaller Austrian fleet of ironclads overcame the Italians by ramming them. Following the end of the Seven Weeks' War, Austria experienced fifty years of peace until World War I broke out in 1914.

1867–1914

The creation of Austria-Hungary under the Compromise (Ausgleich) of 1867 separated the Empire into independent Austrian and Hungarian governments. Only the army, foreign affairs, and related budgetary matters remained with the emperor, who held supreme command of all forces in time of war. A new army law decreed universal three-year conscription followed by a ten-year reserve obligation. In practice, only about one in five of those liable to service were called up, and many were sent on leave after two years. The army of Austria-Hungary has been described as a state within a state. In an empire of ten nationalities and five religions, marked by ethnic conflict and sharp political and economic divisions, the army formed the only real bond among the emperor's subjects and the sole instrument through which loyalty to him could find expression.

Nevertheless, Austria-Hungary gave the impression of being a highly militarized nation. According to British historian Edward Crankshaw who noted that not only the emperor but most males in high society never wore civilian clothes except when hunting. Select regiments of the army were splendidly outfitted, but, with a few dedicated exceptions, the officers, so magnificent on the parade ground, "shrank ... from the arbitrament of arms as from an unholy abyss". In reality, Austro-Hungarian military spending remained the lowest among the Great Powers. More of its GDP went to wine, beer and tobacco than to the armed forces.^[2]

Regiments were organized along linguistic lines, although German was the language of command. Ethnic factors did not prevent recruitment of non-German speakers to the officer corps or their regular promotion. Hungarians, Croats, Serbs, Poles, Italians, Czechs, Slovenes, and Romanians could be found in senior positions. In the more prestigious units, most field-grade officers owed their ranks to birth or wealth. In 1900, a majority of the officer corps in the Austro-Hungarian army were native German speakers, although only one-fourth of the empire's total population was German speaking.

During the late 19th and early 20th century leading up to World War One, the Austro-Hungarian Military underwent a process of modernisation in all service branches in terms of training, equipment and doctrine, although many traditions and old practices remained in force. As a result of the efforts chief-of-staff Montecuccoli and heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand the navy underwent considerable modernisation with the commission of a number of new units, and specifically three up-to-date battleships delivered by 1914. The army too underwent gradual and constant modernisation but maintained an unhealthy commitment to fortress-warfare as evidenced by concentration on giant artillery pieces and fortification building along the empire's eastern frontier. Although sometimes dismissed as fanciful and lacking touch with the realities confronting the forces at his disposal, as a chief of General Staff Conrad had ensured the army had remained vigilant and planning for war was at an advanced stage by 1914, although it has been argued that reorganisation and redeployment should have been sweeping in the aftermath of the Redl affair.

During the period of 1867–1914, Austro-Hungarian forces were stationed on a number of national and international assignments. Although the empire exhibited no colonial aspirations, forays abroad including the military occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Novi Pazar, the expedition to Crete and involvement in the Boxer Rebellion.

1914–1918

At the start of the war, the army was divided in two, the smaller part attacked Serbia while the larger part fought against the massive Russian army. The 1914 invasion of Serbia was a disaster. By the end of the year the Austro-Hungarian Army had taken no territory and had lost 227,000 men (out of a total force of 450,000 men); see Serbian Campaign (World War I).

On the Eastern front, things started out equally badly. The Austro-Hungarian Army was defeated at the Battle of Lemberg and the mighty fort city of Przemysl was besieged (it would fall in March 1915).

In May 1915, Italy joined the Allies and attacked Austria-Hungary. The bloody but indecisive fighting on the Italian front would last for the next three and a half years. It was only this front that the Austrians proved effective in war, managing to hold back the numerically superior Italian armies in the Alps.

In the summer, the Austro-Hungarian Army, working under a unified command with the Germans, participated in the successful Gorlice–Tarnow Offensive.

Later in 1915, the Austro-Hungarian Army, in conjunction with the German and Bulgarian armies, conquered Serbia.

In 1916, the Russians focused their attacks on the Austro-Hungarian Army in the Brusilov Offensive, recognizing the numerical inferiority of the Austro-Hungarian Army. The Austrian armies took massive losses (losing about 600,000 men) and never recovered. The huge losses of men and material inflicted on the Russians during the offensive contributed greatly to the causes of their Communist revolution of 1917. The Austro-Hungarian war effort became more and more subordinate to the direction of German planners, as it did with the standard soldiers. The Austrians saw the German army positively, but by 1916 the general belief in Germany was that they were "shackled to a corpse". Supply shortages, low morale, and the high casualty rate seriously affected the operational abilities of the army, as well as the fact the army was of multiple ethnicity, all with different race, language and customs.

The last two successes for the Austrians: the Conquest of Romania and the Caporetto Offensive, were German-assisted operations. Due to the fact that the empire had become more and more dependent on German assistance, the majority of its people, not of Hungarian or Austrian ethnicity, became aware of the empire's destabilization.

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