War Plans
Germany was committed to the Schlieffen Plan, which meant seven of its eight armies where in the west, where they were meant to knock France out of the war quickly and then turn to the east before Russia had arrived. Most of the initial responsibility for stopping Russia’s attack was thus left with Austria-Hungary, a failing empire with a large population but no ability to field a multimillion strong army like the other belligerents. If the west went wrong, Germany would be open to attack from the east… Austria-Hungary knew this, and the dislike between the two powers, built over years of territorial rivalry, was in evidence. There was little effort at joint planning, beyond Austria-Hungary telling Germany to reinforce the east properly. For their part, Austria-Hungary remained wildly optimistic that they could conquer parts of the Balkans and defend it from Russia.Russia had an army which was out of date and poorly led. The infrastructure of Russian industry and agriculture was not suitable for a long war, although the rail system had improved to the extent that Russia could get troops to the front much quicker than their enemies believed. However, the Russian army was torn over their commitment to France to attack Germany, and their desire to conquer territory from hated rivalry Austria-Hungary. Consequently, the Russians split their attack between both and reduced their chance of succeeding against either.
1914
Russia mobilised quickly, as France demanded and Germany feared, but doing so left troops ill equipped. Two Russian armies attacked into East Prussia and advanced, both larger than the single German army facing them. However they were led by two commanders who hated each other. Initial Russian success caused the Germans to replace their commander with two new ones: General Hindenburg supported by General Ludendorff. They took charge, borrowed someone else’s plan and discovered that the Russians weren’t encrypting their communications, so the Germans knew where the disorganised Russian troops were (well, as much as the Russians ever did). The Germans quickly enveloped one army, and 100,000 men surrendered; the Russian commander shot himself in shame. Germany decided to call this the Battle of Tannenberg, and it became a German military legend along with Hindenberg.German forces now turned to face the other Russian army, and won a smaller victory that pushed it back into Russia. Meanwhile Austria-Hungary operated on multiple fronts. They attacked into Serbia – as you might expect given how the war started – whose smaller army caused them trouble, and led to a pushing back and forth with no real gain, which severely damaged the Serbian forces. Austria-Hungary also planned to attack Russia in the Polish salient and asked Germany for help; Germany refused aid, and Austria-Hungary went on anyway. Initial success against a larger force was pushed back, before the Russian attack also stalled, but not after causing great damage to Austria’s forces, and almost removed their ability to fight alone. The costs in human life were already huge. Austria-Hungary began to grow ever more distrustful of German intentions, because they blamed them for the year’s failures. There were multiple battles and troop movements to close the year, but neither side made much progress.
1915
The German command was now divided over whether to reinforce the Western Front, where their plans had clearly failed but whose commander promised a decisive victory, or the Eastern Front, where Hindenburg and Ludendorff had already experienced success with little. The Kaiser decided to split the reinforcements between both, leading to the Eastern Front commanders wondering if they were supposed to be trying to break Russia or just hold them. Meanwhile Russia believed that Austria-Hungary could be beaten, but couldn’t devote all their resources to the attack as Germany threatened, so they also split their reinforcements. Many Russian soldiers still didn’t even have a gun.Germany and Austria-Hungary overcame their divisions to launch a joint attack in the Carpathians, while Germany thrust out of Prussia. This latter offensive saw the first German use of poison gas, but ran into troubles and stalled. Russia then counter-attacked under a talented commander called Brusilov, having success, but he lacked the resources to follow it up. Germany decided to send more troops from the west to try and improve the situation, but ignored Hindenburg and Ludendorff’s belief they could be decisive in the north and sent them to the Carpathians instead, where success forced Russia back. Germany decided to push forward carefully, but Russia collapsed and the Central Powers captured large areas of Eastern Europe – Poland, Belorussia, Lithuania, Latvia, Galicia - only stopping from a mixture of fear of stretched supply lines and a need to aid other less successful fronts. Russia had already lost two million soldiers. Austria-Hungary, feeling embarrassed by the dominant role of Germany in this success, tried a solo attack to boost morale, but it failed.
Bulgaria was bribed into joining the Central Powers in October 1915. Meanwhile, in April Italy joined the war on the side of the Entente, coveting both land and the nearly million strong Italian population that was inside Austria-Hungary. Their unprepared army tried to attack out of Italy into Trieste, but the attack failed to get close.
