THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN ARMY 1914-18

The purpose of this chapter is to explain the organisation of the field army in some detail. Chapter 6 will show how the various formations etc were moved, how they were composed and where they were at various times during the war. Let it be remembered, however, that formations and units did not remain fixed - in place, organisation or strength. So, what follows is in some degree, generalisation, and must be recognised and used as such.

AOK has already been introduced in the previous chapter. At first it commanded directly all the Army Headquarters deployed in the two theatres of war; northern and southern. But, with ever closer co-operation between the Central Powers in the field, the complexity of operations and the need for forward headquarters to be relieved of planning and detail other than of day-to-day and immediate importance, it became clear that another level of command was necessary between AOK (and its German equivalent - DOHL), and the various Army Headquarters. It must also be remembered that operations were being conducted over distances that often defeated the communications then available to commanders in the field. Radio telegraphy, and speech by that medium, were in their infancy; telegraph by land lines was excellent as long as armies operated in territory where its lines existed; the telephone was limited in the same way; and land transport depended on railways of various gauges, the horse and very few and under-powered motor vehicles - at least in the early days. The air arm was in its very early days and at the mercy of the weather, which itself was a most important and often totally limiting factor. As the troops moved into enemy territory, or were forced to retire, communications became stretched or fractured, and not infrequently their state dictated whether operations could continue or not. Out of this situation was born the Armee Gruppe, Heeres Gruppe and Heeres Front levels of command (AGp, HGp and HFront).

From this point levels of command and references to headquarters, units etc will be referred to, whenever practical, by their German language abbreviations as set out in App. A to Chapter 2.

The first use of an AGp was in Galicia in August 1914. As has been explained in Chapter 1, B-Staffel, which was in effect 2 Armee, had been sent to the Serbian front and thus AGp GdI Kövess was created to command two corps until 2 Armeekmdo and most of its formations arrived on the Russian front in late August. Secondly, by the end of October 1914 the forces in the Bukowina, Southern Carpathians and Siebenburgen were grouped under AGp GdK Pflanzer-Baltin, later in May 1915 to become 7 Armee. It will be seen that these ad hoc groupings bore the name of their commander: and their title changed as and when their commander moved away.

Thus, HGp EH Karl (Erzherzog-Thronfolger Karl), which was formed from 12 Armeekmdo but never used under that name, commanded all the Central Powers forces in Transylvania in July 1916 and became HFront EH Karl in October 1916. Then, upon the death of the Monarch in November 1916, EH Karl left to go to Wien and it became HFront EH Josef.

To further complicate the matter, the term 'Agp' was sometimes used for a level of command within an Army. And the term 'Gruppe' was not infrequently used, coupled with the name of the commander, for a group of formations or units placed under command for an Operation or limited purpose. Although these were normally in being for a short time, this was not always so: for example, Gp FML Szurmay, so named in January 1915, became in time Kps Szurmay and, in May 1917, XXIV Kps.

Suffice it to say that such groupings were more usual on the Russian front. In the mountainous area of the south-west front there were territorial groupings, the front being broken down into Rayons (regions) in the Tirol, and into Abschnitte (sectors) elsewhere, both with a Roman number thus - Rayon 1. Abschnitte were also found on the central Russian front with an area name, thus - Abschnitt Kowel.

Before moving on to consider Armies it is necessary to explain, in general terms, the organisation of the forward areas of a front. At the forward edge, facing the enemy, were units of infantry brigades grouped in divisions. Divisions were under command of corps, which in turn were commanded by armies. The zone from the rear of a corps area to the front line was called the Operationsbereich (combat zone). Within this zone, the back of the corps area was the Trainbereich where the administrative units of the corps were normally to be found: forward of that was the Truppenbereich where the combat units with their immediate administrative echelons existed. From the corps rear boundary to the army rear boundary was the Etappenbereich (communication zone) under command of the ArmeeEtappenkommando. Behind the army rear boundary was the Hinterland, under normal civil government, albeit with army units of all kinds located in, and passing through, it. Within the Armeebereich, that is from the army rear boundary to the forward edge of the Operationsbereich, civil government carried on where possible, although in occupied territory it would be under military control or even superseded by military government. The diagram at Appendix A to this chapter illustrates the above, whilst Appendix B gives details of the technical, aviation and administrative units that were in existence in the army during the war, both in the Hinterland and in the Armeebereich.

Before leaving the Etappenbereich mention must be made of fortresses (Festung), such as Krakau, Przemysl and Jaroslau. These were under AOK and each had its own commander, headquarters and allotted units of all types. When they lay within an Etappenbereich, the relevant army commander was responsible for them but the Festungskommandant remained in command of his fortress and remained so even if, as in the case of Przemysl, the tide of battle washed over and past his charge and he was besieged.

At this point the term 'Train' should be explained. In general terms, the Train is that part of a force in the field that maintains that force. It consists of a headquarters and elements under its control. Thus each combatant unit has a Train, or sometimes more than one, whilst a formation or communication zone has many units and installations of various types that sustain the formation of which it is a part. Every Train included transport, supply, medical and postal elements.

And now to consider Armies. An Armee consisted of a headquarters, two to four Korps and sometimes one or two KD. It bore a number thus - 2 Armee, and was commanded by a GdI, GdK or FZM, with an FML as Chief of Staff and an FML or GM as senior administrative staff officer. Its headquarters operated in two parts. The Operierendes Armeekmdo (op.AK.) executed the overall command and operational functions whilst the Quartiermeisterabteilung des (number) Armeekmdo administered the force according to the commander's orders, and formed the ArmeeEtappenkmdo (EK). Each part of the headquarters was established with staff and arms or service branches according to its function, and was itself administered in the field by a Platzkmdt and his staff, which included a unit Train, a Stabsinfanteriekompagnie and Kavalleriestabszug, together with a Feldpostamt. Thus there were two Feldpostamt for each Armeekmdo. As well as commanding the Korps and KD mentioned above, the Armee had units under its direct command known as Armeeunmittelbare. These would include SKomp, PKomp, perhaps two ArmeeTelegabtlgn and a SpezialTelegabtlg, and various Sanitätsabtlgn as required. In addition there would be artillery units of certain types and Kriegsbruckenequipagen, etc, according to the campaign in hand. The headquarters of an Armee (Armeekmdo) totalled some 1000 men.

Another term must be introduced here. With the Russian front ceasing to be active at the end of 1917, there was no real need for headquarters on the scale used until then. As will be shown in the next chapter, some were disbanded, and the majority of the troops under their command were redeployed to the Italian front. Of course the advance into the Ukraine of February 1918 took some troops and required headquarters to command them, but on the whole the command structure passed from being operational to one designed for internal security and administration. Thus the term 'General Kommando (GenKmdo)' came into use in the Spring of 1918. As an example, 92ID was disbanded in May 1918 and its Kmdt became commander of 16 GenKmdo at Pitésci in Romania, whilst VIII Kps became 1 GenKmdo at Kronstadt. Thus each would have an operational and an administrative staff, and terms such as Quartiermeisterabteilung 16 will be found, meaning the administrative staff of 16 GenKmdo.

A Korps was commanded by an FML, or sometimes by a GdI, GdK or FZM. It was usual to find a force of two ID and one LID or HID under command, with Korpsunmittelbare on much the same lines as described above for Armeeunmittelbare, but in this case the Korpstrain was included in this element. The Korpstrain would consist of the Korpstrainkmdo with artillery Munitionskolonnen, Kriegsbrückenequipagen, Divisionsschanzeugkolonnen, three Feldspitäler, three Korpsmagazine, a Korpsbäckerei, Korpstrainpark, Korpstrainwerkstätte, mobile Pferdedepot, mobile Pferdespital and a Feldpostamt. Kpskmdo included not only the staff and arms and service branches, but also transport, Feldgendarmerie and a Platzkmdt with the Stabsinfanteriekompagnie and a Kavalleriestabszug, Kmdotrainzug and a Feldpostamt. The establishment of a Kpskmdo was some 400 men.

The army mobilised some forty eight Infantry Divisions in July 1914. Initially these were called Infantry Troops Divisions, but the word 'Troops' was dropped shortly after war began. These divisions were numbered 1 to 48, with numbers 13, 21, 22, 26 and 43-46 being Landwehr Infantry Divisions. Numbers 20, 23 and 37-42 were Honvéd Infantry Divisions. The balance were k.u.k Infantry Divisions. It should be remembered at this point, that in May 1917 Kaiser und König Karl decreed that, in recognition of its bravery, the k.k. Landwehr was henceforth to be known as the k.k. Schützen; thus the LID changed their title to SchD and all other k.k. Landwehr formations and units changed accordingly.

These forty eight divisions were grouped, in general terms, in the sixteen Korps as explained in Appendix A to Chapter 3. There too it can be seen that eleven KavallerieDivisions were mobilised, initially as Kavallerie Truppen Divisions. Of these numbers 1 to 4 and 6 to 10 were k.u.k. KD; 5 and 11 were HKD.

A Division was commanded by an FML and had a headquarters some 300 strong. As in the case of Armee and Korps headquarters, the whole was administered by a Platzkmdt with the same scale of support as in a Kpskmdo. The Divisionstrain was commanded by the Kmdt of the Divisionstraineskadron, with under his control a DivMunKol including both artillery and other elements, the DivSanAnst, a VerpflKol with supplies for the division, the Divbäckerei and the DivFeldpostamt.

The organisation of an ID, LID/SchD and HID on the Russian front was not exactly the same as on the mountainous Italian or Balkan fronts. Nevertheless the principles were the same, although a division on mountain scales had little wheeled transport and more pack animals than one on normal scales. In this chapter, an infantry division will be treated as on normal scales and, unless specifically noted otherwise, will be taken as standard, whether ID, LID/SchD or HID. The differences will become apparent as the brigades and units under divisional command are discussed. However, it cannot be stressed enough, that after the first few months of war, changes were introduced to establishments, and to weapon types and scales. It then became unusual to find any formation conforming to the tables of organisation. The details given here must be regarded as indications, correct for August 1914 and not far from the truth thereafter in general terms.

An Infantry Division consisted of the Kmdo, DivTrain organised as shown above, two brigades - either IBrig or GbBrig (and occasionally more than two), two Esk DivKav from a cavalry regiment used for reconnaissance work, an FABrig, a DivTelephAbtlg and perhaps one or two SKomp or PKomp. It might also have attached to it some extra artillery and engineers from the Korpsunmittelbare.

A Cavalry Division consisted of the Kmdo, DivTrain organised as shown above, two KBrig, one or two KavMGAbtlgn, a rtAD - later in the war a KFABrig, and a KavTelegAbtlg.

It is worth noting at this point that certain elements in a Division bore the divisional number as part of their unit title, although it has to be pointed out that at times these did not serve with the division but were attached to another formation. The elements that are referred to were the FABrig, DivTrain, DivMunKol - but not the artillery MunKoln which bore the number of the artillery regiment from which they came, the VerpflKol, SanAnst and the Bäckerei. In a Cavalry Division these elements bore the letter 'K' in front of their unit title; eg. KDivBäckerei, so that there was no chance of them being mixed up with those from the Infantry Division with the same number. Army and Corps Train units also bore the number and title of the formation to which they belonged, providing the word 'Armee' or 'Korps' was part of their unit title.

Brigades of all types were normally commanded by a GM but on occasions could be commanded by an Oberst. The Austro-Hungarian army did not have the rank of brigadier-general.

An IBrig, LIBrig/SchBrig or HIBrig had a Kmdo, two IR, LIR/SchR or HIR respectively, and often one or more FJB as well. A GbBrig had six to nine IBaone or HIBaone trained in mountain operations, drawn from the normal infantry regiments for such training, one or two GbBt from a GbAR, and its own Train. Thus it could operate relatively free from higher formation support.

A KBrig or HKBrig bad a Kmdo, and two cavalry regiments. These were either k.u.k. DR, HR or UR; or, in the HKBrig, were HHR. The k.k. LUR - which became rtSchR in May 1917 - were all employed as divisional cavalry until mid-1917 when a twelfth cavalry division was formed from the k.k. Schutzen and called 12rtSchD. Then certain rtSchR served in its only brigade, 25rtSchBrig. As the war progressed changes took place: see Chapter 5.

A FABrig began the war with one or two field gun regiments and two batteries of the corps howitzer regiment. But this scale was increased as the lesson of artillery support was learnt. Further details are given in Chapter 5 where the organisation of infantry, cavalry and artillery is covered in detail.

However, before going on with that subject, something ought to be said about the numbering of Infantry and Mountain Brigades at the start of the war. Their fortunes thereafter, together with those of all other formations, are dealt with in Chapter 6.

The GbBrig first. These totalled fourteen at mobilisation, numbered 1 to 14. Five of these were in independent roles: 1, 2, 3, 11, 13GbBrig. The remainder were mobilised in four Infantry Divisions on the Balkan front:

There were ninety IBrig, LIBrig and HIBrig at mobilisation, with numbers between 1 and 122; the numbers 1, 2 and 6 not being allotted at the start of the war. Certain numbers in this sequence were allotted to k.k. or k.u. LstIBrig as shown in Chapter 6, whilst 88LSchBrig (from May 17, 88KSchBrig) was the only one of its kind in 1914. The allocation of these brigades was generally straightforward, only 13IBrig, and 88LSchBrig mobilising in independent roles. Each infantry division, except those referred to in the previous paragraph, had two infantry brigades, numbered in sequence so that the second bore a number that was double the division's number. For example, 2ID had 3 and 4IBrig. Only seven infantry divisions did not follow this principle. These were:-

Chapter 6 gives full details of these, together with the allocations of all types of brigades, and explains the changes that took place as the war progressed.

APPENDIX A - A TYPICAL ETAPPENBEREICH (COMMUNICATIONS ZONE)

The diagram below is not to scale and does not do more than depict a typical Eteppenbereich and the key units and installations that might be found in it. Note that there would be units not listed there in any Etappenbereich. Appendix B to this chapter gives a list of all technical, aviation and administrative units that could be found in the army, and certain of those might have been located in an Etappenbereich as circumstances demanded.

LEGEND

	Army boundary Corps boundary Armeekmdo ArmeeEtappenkmdo Korpskmdo Korpstrain
	State railway with its telegraph line Road Field railway with telephone line State telegraph line Reserve telegraph line Field telegraph line

The large diagram shows eight Etappenstation, lettered A to H. These have functions as follows:

• A and B - Points at which Army agencies assume responsibility for men and material moving forward and give up responsibility for such iteme moving to the rear. At both points are casualty clearing stations passing casualties to medical units and institutions in the hinterland.
• C - A river craft station and point where corps collect and hand over to communication zone agencies, casualties.
• D - The end of the state railway line, connected to F by field railway, and where corps collect and handover to communication zone agencies, casualties.
• E - A way station on the line of communication.
• F, G & H - Points where corps take over from communication zone transport agencies all men and materiel moving forward, and where men and materiel moving to the rear are collected.

Etappenstation are placed at a day's travel distance from each other, which was 30km where march route was used. The Etappenbereich agencies located at each of the above Etappenstation are shown below, but it must be recognized that only the main ones are shown here.

APPENDIX B - TECHNICAL, AVIATION AND ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS

The following list shows the technical, aviation and administrative units of the Austro-Hungarian army at three points during the war: Aug 14; the beginning of May 16; and in Jun 18. Titles are given in German in full, the British equivalent being noted where this is necessary. Where possible the number of units of each kind is shown. These numbers do not indicate the title of individual units: for example. in Aug 14 there were 44 Infanteriedivisionssanitatsanstalten, that is the medical branch and medical posts of an infantry division. There were in fact 49 such divisions at the time but certain were organized in such a way that they did not have these units. So, the figure 44 must not be taken to mean 1 to 44ID! Further detail on these matters will be found in Chapter 4 and other appendices to it.

The columns that follow are:

1. Unit etc title in German
2. No in being, Aug 14
3. No in being, May 16
4. No in being, Jun 18
5. Comments, British equivalent etc

Principal divisions of the table:

• A: TECHNISCHE TRUPPEN UND ANSTALTEN
• B: LUFTFAHRTRUPPE
• C: AUTOTRUPPE/ KRAFTFAHRTRUPPE
• D: TRAINTRUPPE
• E: FELDVERPFLEGS-ANSTALTEN
• F: SANITÄTSANSTALTEN
• G: SONSTIGE ETAPPENEINRICHTUNGEN UND FORMATIONEN

Last updated 25 Feb 2002