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3. The Change in Falkenhayn’s Plans
- Wilfrid Laurier University Press
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3 The Change in Falkenhayn’s Plans Fortunes slowly changed in the east during the winter of 1915. The joint operation in the Carpathians, which had caused so much controversy between OberOst and the OHL earlier in the month, was launched on 23 January. Conrad’s plan called for the new Südarmee to seize passes through the centre of the mountains while an Austro-Hungarian army did the same to the West and another struck the Russians in the East. The goal was to get beyond the peaks and relieve the besieged city of Przemysl. The battle conditions were unimaginable: rifles locked up in the cold, shells bounced off icy glaciers, and whole units froze in the mountain passes. It took more than a week for Südarmee to reach its objectives for the first day. Although the Austro-Hungarian armies initially did better, the battle soon evolved into a series thrusts and retreats through frozen peaks and valleys. By the beginning of March, the offensive had already cost more than 800,000 AustroHungarian and German casualties. In March alone, Südarmee lost two-thirds of its strength. On 22 January, Przemysl fell and 120,000 men trapped inside surrendered to the Russian Armies.1 1 Stone, The Eastern Front 1914–1917, 109–16; DW VII: 74–152. Meanwhile, the German Armies to the north met with more success as Ludendorff launched a separate attack in Eastern Prussia. On 7 February, General von Below’s Eighth Army made a surprise assault in a blinding snowstorm and within a week had advanced more than 110 kilometres against the Russian Armies.2 A second attack by the newly formed Tenth Army under General von Eichhorn led to the surrender of an entire Russian corps. Between 7 and 22 February the Germans captured 92,000 prisoners—including nine Russian generals, 295 guns, and 170 machine guns. In comparison, they lost only 120 officers and 5,600 men.3 Thus in the winter of 1915, Falkenhayn faced an improved albeit still ominous strategic situation. While all fronts were more stable than they had been in December , the question of whether the war would be won in the East or in the West had yet to be settled. Ludendorff’s offensive at the Masurian Lakes had achieved success , while Südarmee’s joint attack resulted in disaster. As Falkenhayn had warned, the Russians were battered but remained far from beaten while Austria-Hungary’s situation grew worse. In what Norman Stone called “the Austro-Hungarian emergency ” in the spring of 1915, the Dual Monarchy lost more than two-thirds of its August 1914 strength, was having difficulty replacing casualties, and could not supply its guns with ammunition.4 The loyalty of ethnic minority groups in the army was also becoming increasingly questionable. The possible collapse of Germany’s closest ally weighed heavily on the Chief of the German General Staff. At the same time, Serbia had yet to be defeated and a land connection to Turkey had not been secured. In the Mediterranean, Entente forces were poised to exploit Turkey’s isolation with a naval attack in the Dardanelles. As at the beginning of the year, the attitudes of the neutral Balkan powers and Italy remained at the forefront of German strategic thinking. A Balkan Alliance 82 part i: winter and spring 2 DW VII: 172–238; Stone, The Eastern Front 1914–1917, 116–21; see also Hans von Redern, Die Winterschlacht in Masuren (Der grosse Krieg in Einzeldarstellungen, Heft 20) (Oldenburg: Gerhard Stlling, 1918). 3 DW VII: 237. 4 Stone, The Eastern Front 1914–1917, 122–23. [54.224.52.210] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 23:23 GMT) against the Central Powers could now, more than ever, turn the war’s tide against Vienna and Berlin. While storm clouds continued to gather in the East, in the West the German defences were holding. The French had failed to break through in the Champagne in January; the British had been rebuffed at Neuve Chapelle in March. When a late-winter proposal for the reorganization of the German Army promised to create a new strategic reserve, the question of its deployment took centre stage at the OHL. The decision would determine the emphasis of the war effort for the coming months and perhaps its final outcome. The Creation of a New GHQ Reserve In January, circumstances compelled Falkenhayn to allow the new formations raised in Germany to be deployed to the Eastern Theatre. Yet...