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Chapter 101 Untergang
Chapter 101 Untergang
"I have done it! I have completed Frederick's dream! Germany is ours and it is an empire that shall last for a thousand years!"- Kaiser Wilhelm I 1864
"I fear we have gotten rid of a corpse and instead given rise to a monster."- Emperor Napoleon III 1865
"The position of Prussia in Germany will not be determined by its liberalism but by its power [...] Prussia must concentrate its strength and hold it for the favorable moment, which has already come and gone several times. Since the treaties of Vienna, our frontiers have been ill-designed for a healthy body politic. Not through speeches and majority decisions will the great questions of the day be decided, but by iron and blood."- Foreign Minister Otto von Bismarck 1862
Among Germans and Austrians today many regard Franz Joseph as one of the worst rulers in German history. His haphazard ruling of the remnant of the Austrian empire and the disastorous decision to declare war on Germany with his weak "alliances" and the rather poor and corrupt state of the Austrian Army, leads many to consider him as the penultimate failure of the once hegemonic Hapsburg dynasty. Even among the modern Hapsburgs, Franz Joseph's name is reviled and despised, not a single Hapsburg since his generation sharing the same name and Franz Joseph's legacy barely having a presence within the Hofburg besides a few paintings and some artifacts that used to belong to the last Emperor. This opinion is also shared by most historians, though a few tend to disagree. A popular theory that has been rising in recent years is one that is attributed to Doctor Wolfgang Koller in his book, "Dynasty of the Sun", explains that Franz Joseph declaring war on Germany was an utter necessity at that point in time and had he not declared war, then Austria would've collapsed in the near future in another revolution anyways. Contemporary evidence shows high discontent among all corners of the population against the Imperial leadership, with only the staunchest conservative Austrians being a stable base which the Hapsburgs could rely upon. With thousands of deaths all over the nation on an annual basis thanks to racial riots and insurgencies, it was only a matter of time until the spark lit the fuse and Austria truly collapsed on itself. Franz's actions were merely a premature death that spared Austria most of the effects that a civil war would bring about, said civil collapse most likely only resulting in the same foreign intervention as seen in the Second War for Unification. Had Germany truly acted in such an aggressive manner and Austria manage to rally true allies to their cause then maybe the Empire could move forward in the coming years. As it was, 1864 marked the final days of Austria's independence as a sovereign nation.
Bukovina: Out of all the fronts in the war Bukovina is the one which is traditionally considered to be the least intense in terms of fighting. This was due to Austria placing the least amount of their available troops in the province with Bukovina being the least economically developed province within the entire Austrian Empire and being a state that had almost no German Austrians within their borders. Only 10,000 troops were stationed there at the start of the conflict with a large majority of them being conscripts with little training. Against this motley bunch the 30,000 trained Hungarian soldiers under the command of Major General Gyorgy Klapka were practically assured victory, only an act of God seemingly able to save the Austrian forces. On March 20th the Hungarian IX corps crossed the borders and entered into Bukovina. On March 25th the Battle of Lemberg took place with Austrian General Klaus von Higenfild desperately trying to rally a defense of the capitol against the approaching Austrian forces. The first half of the battle commenced with Klapka ordering his cavalry to charge towards the Austrian artillery encampments and destroy their artillery pieces. While to most this would seem suicidal, Austria only had about 13 cannons on hand and little ammunition to fire, the crew having barely any experience with them anyways due to lack of funding and little need to bring about cannon fire against Romanian peasants. The gamble worked and at the cost of 23 Hungarian casualties, what little artillery pieces Austria had were destroyed. Hungarian artillery then began to rain down upon the city and enemy encampments, while waves of Hungarian soldiers rushed forward. Seeing the situation as hopeless and not wanting to fight against the tide, most Austrians laid down their arms upon seeing the Hungarians cross and many began to run away, trying to flee into the countryside. A few units dared to make a stand and fought fiercely with whatever they could, sadly their efforts would be for naught against the overwhelming Hungarian numerical superiority. Lemberg was over within two hours and cost the Hungarians 345 killed, and 407 wounded, while the Austrians suffered 621 killed, 638 wounded, and over 8,000 taken prisoner, Higenfild himself surrendering to Klapka. By the end of the month Bukovina was fully conquered by Hungary, or so it seemed.
Hungarian soldiers resting during the Bukovina campaign.
While the Kossuth administration had taken a far lighter stance in their treatment of the Romanian Transylvanians in comparison to the Hapsburgs, to the Romanian population of Bukovina it looked merely that they were having one master replaced with another. In the weeks after the initial occupation of Bukovina began, reports began to filter into Budapest of peasant uprising and insurgent attacks against the Hungarian soldiers. In April of 1864, Hungary suffered over 400 casualties brought on by conflicts of the Romanian people. In return Klapka was given authorization to institute total martial law for the province, and began a brutal campaign to weed out the rebels and bring the province into the fold of Budapest. By the war's end Hungary would suffer 724 casualties while the Romanian rebels are estimated to have taken over 6,000 casualties in return. While the resistance to Hungarian occupation was squashed, said actions only inflamed all Romanians within the region, this was especially seen within Transylvannia which brought new life to rebel groups which began what is known as the Second Transylvannian War, a general uprising across the province from 1864 that lasted until late 1866. The most heated calls for action took place in Romania were tens of thousands of people took to the streets and demanded that their brethren be liberated from the "Foul Hungarian scum". Demonstrations popped up in the capitol of Bucharest and Prince Nicholas was hounded to take action, though the monarch was under strict orders from his brother Tsar Alexander to stay neutral in the current conflict. Not wanting to appear weak, Nicholas ordered 50,000 Romanian troops to take to the border, promising to cross unless Hungary ceased their attacks on the rights of the Romanian peoples. An intense deployment by both sides arrived on the border with each looking gladly to fire upon the other. Thankfully cooler heads prevailed and thanks to the efforts of Berlin and St. Petersburg, both Hungary and Romania backed off with Bucharest being promised some settlement in the peace treaty. Unfortunately the lingering hatred between the Romanian and Hungarian peoples would continue on for the next half a century, coming to brutal blows in the Great War.
A Transylvanian village ravaged by the uprisings.
Galicia: Having plotted with Bismarck beforehand and fully aware of the details of the upcoming partition, Tsar Alexander had been preparing for months to strike the deathblow against Austria. Late in 1863 he had gathered approximately 230,000 soldiers on the border of Galicia, to Franz-Joseph he claimed that they were preparing for war with Germany, which alleviated the fears of the Hapsburg. On the 16th Alexander's lie would be revealed when the behemoth of the Russian Army descended not on Germany, but on Galicia, tens of thousands of Russian soldiers overwhelming the Polish countryside in the quest to "liberate" their Slavic brethren from the shackles of Vienna. The only major battle that took place in this campaign was the Battle of Krakow from March 19th-20th. Here Russian General Mikhail Gorkachov surrounded the city and bombarded it relentlessly with hundreds of artillery cannons. Afterwords Russian regiments rushed into the streets and made quick work of whatever defenses that the Austrians could put up with. Gorkachov received the surrender of the historical Polish city on the 20th, taking only 3,459 casualties in comparison to the 5,281 of Austria. For the rest of the war Russia would spread its troops across the countryside and establish a new law and order, hoping to integrate Galicia into the Congress of Poland. Much to the surprise of the Russian Army however (although expected from the other European powers), most of the Polish citizenry even with their poor treatment in the last decade by Vienna, despised and hated the Russians even more for the poor treatment of their brethren within the Polish Congress, Russia reacting to Polish Nationalism with harsh and brutal suppression which made German and Austrian governance seem far more benevolent in comparison. Tens of thousands in Galaicia would rise up and try to make a stand against the Russian horde, unfortunately for them it was all in vain as the poor Polish peasants could do little serious harm against the trained and well-equipped Russian army. In 1864 an estimated 16,000 Polish Galicians died in conflict with the Russian Army while Russia took 1,874 casualties in return. After the signing of the Treaty of Vienna, Tsar Alexander would find that its aggressive behavior would have immense consequences for his empire with the beginning of the Polish Insurrection, the latter conflict having a stain that would last for decades, coming to full fruition during the Great War.
Russian soldiers looting a Polish tavern.
Bohemia: With the taking of the Sudetenland and Silesia, Germany had the Bohemia province surrounded on all sides with its most productive and defensible territories firmly in German hands. All that was left was roughly flat and forested terrain. After a week of organizing on March 21st a German Army of 160,000 men led by Field Marshal Frederich Graf von Wrangel, German forces practically blitzkrieged through the Bohemian land, taking most of Bohemia and completely occupying Moravia by the middle of April. With most of the Austrian offensive forces moving through Southern Germany in Bavaria , along with the Hungarian advance on Vienna as well as the concurrent German sweep through Austria proper led by von Multke severely depleted any available troops in Bohemia. With Austria under attack on all fronts, miscommunication and confusion ran high through the ranks of the Austrian defenders, most not knowing what to do by the time the Germans came right on them. With little hope to stop the far superior German force, Prague surrendered without a shot on the 9th of April, unofficially bringing the Bohemian campaign to an anti-climatic end. While Germany experienced immense success on this front, German troops were on high alert due to the potential backlash from the Czech population. With the Czechs having been wrongly mistreated by Vienna for the past decade for the failures of the Revolutions, few were in any mood to fight for the Hapsburg dynasty. Yet most Czechs reacted lukewarmly to the German Army as they saw Kaiser Wilhelm as simply another German master that would use Bohemia for their benefit. Unfortunately for Bohemia it was either join Germany or be swallowed by Russia, the Czech kingdom stuck in a state of political limbo with few ways out.
Slovenia/Mediterranean: While Italy had gained its territorial goals in its own war of unification and the Italian Federation had been doing well off for the past decade, for many of the people of Italy this was not enough to satisfy their Nationalist urges. Ever since the creation of the Federation, growing sentiments had been spreading across the peninsula that now was the time for Italy to rise up and claim the mantle of the Roman Empire, unifying the entire Mediterranean under Pax Romana. The irrendentionist movement became widely popular thanks to the support of Prime Minister Garibaldi, and with the decay and stagnation of the Austrian Empire, Tyrol and the Slovene region made the perfect targets to begin the birth of this New Rome. Immediately after the declaration of war by the Italian Parliament, the Holy Italian Navy began going to work by blockading the port of Trieste and setting out to destroy whatever remnants of a Navy that Austria had left. Over the course of the spring and summer of 1864, Austria lost almost their entire Navy with 13 ships destroyed and four remaining in port with the crews either deserting or entering into mutiny. With most of the Austrian Army focused on the German threat, Italy faced little resistance when crossing into Tyrol and Slovenia. Upon hearing that "Papal Knights" had entered into their borders, mass uprisings of the remaining Italian minority within Austria occured practically overnight, ensuring that most Italian units received a warm and grateful welcome upon entering an Austrian village. Even in Slovenia which despite being a Slavic region, most of the population joined the Italian uprisings and stated their support for Italy due to the Slovene peoples devotion to the Catholic faith. If Pope Pius supported the actions of Italy and proclaimed them to be righteous in this war, then what right did the Slovenes have to question His Holiness? The fighting that took place was primarily thanks to the Austrian contingent of 40,000 troops led by Archduke Albrecht, the Austrians augmented by a small number of Slovene Nationalists who had no wish to be ruled by the Italians.
The first major battle of the campaign was the First Battle of Trieste, a battle that took place on April 13th when the Vangaurd of the Italian forces led by Major General Alberto Mizanni tried to take the port of Trieste in order to entirely cut off Austria from the Mediterranean. However in his haste to claim glory, Mizanni only took 18,000 men with him to capture the city, expecting a general uprising within the city to support the Italian advance and hoping that the supposed "Austrian incompetency" would grant the Italians a major victory, no matter how outnumbered the Italian forces were. Unfortunately for Mizanni Trieste had been one of the more Liberal administrative centers of Austria, thus when war broke out only minor riots occured within the city which Albrecht was able to contain. Mizanni's cavalry found themselves running into a well-fortified city and suffered heavy losses in their suprise. Not knowing how to respond and most of his army still catching up, Mizanni was unprepared for Albrecht's counterattack with 11,000 if his infantry which overran the Italian positions. By the end of the day the Italians had been pushed back at least 15 kilometers and Trieste was temporarily secure. Italian losses were somewhat high with 1,302 killed, 967 wounded, and 543 captured. The Austrians in turn suffered 769 killed, 844 wounded, and 130 captured. Trieste was one of the few victories that Austria would be able to claim in the war, but overall it would be of little use to them. At the same time of the Italian advance, an Hungarian force of 60,000 led by Croatian General Lothar Tomic, invaded the Slovene countryside in a preemptive strike to save Croatia from suffering any attacks. While Albrecht put up a sufficient defense in Trieste, by doing so he had neglected the majority of Slovenia which allowed the Hungarians to practically steamroll through the countryside, taking Ljubljana on April 22nd. After some communication was exchanged between Rome and Budapest, the Italian and Hungarian/Croatian forces resolved to combine their numbers to take the city of Trieste. Joint command of the forces was undertaken by Italian General Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora, and together a total of 110,000 Italian and Hungarian forces reached the outskirts of Trieste on May 11th. A short siege with many frequent skirmishes then proceeded for the next four days, making up the Second Battle of Trieste. Knowing that he was completely outnumbered and had little chance of victory, along with receiving news of collapses on all fronts, Albrecht gave in and surrendered the city on the 15th. For the rest of the war Italy would secure the region along with the Tyrol province while Hungary shifted its focus to Vienna and the Romanian buildup near Bukovina.
View attachment 371843View attachment 371844
The Holy Italian Army marching into Tyrol (Left). Second Battle of Trieste (Right)
Austria: In the beginning of the war Franz Joseph had made the strategic mistake of sending most of his professional army into Bavaria in the hopes of hurting Germany by pushing through their southern flank, hoping somewhat that a South German/Catholic uprising would rise up against the leadership of Prussia. Franz Joseph had been relying on the Russian tide along with a possible strike from Alsace-Lorraine by Napoleon to completely encircle and surround Germany before the British could make any moves. While this may have worked with allies, the nightmarish situation of continental Europe abandoning Austria completely left the capitol of Vienna open to attack, one which Hungary gleefully exploited. In the beginning of April, Hungarian Field Marshal Artur Gorgie led a force of 125,000 Hungarians to the gates of Vienna, encamping on the cities outskirts and starting a siege on April 27th, cutting of the capitol from the rest of Austria. While Gorgie could've just as easily marched into Vienna and taken the city by force, doing so would've brought on high casualties of his men from the Imperial Guard and would end the war too soon before Hungary ensured that the situation would be a favorable advantage for them in the peace talks. This way Hungary could achieve all of its other primary objectives in the conflict and its fellow belligerents would be able to secure its slice of Austrian territory in the war, Austria unable to resist due to being split all across the Empire. With the siege breaking out, Franz Joseph ordered most of the Austrian Army to rush onto the capitol and preserve it from capture by the Hungarians, this was a nearly impossible task with the rest of the Austrian professionals trying to protect their own piece of Austria, volunteer regiments were also unable to be formed because those few who did want to join soon found their homes occupied by Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Russia. As the war dragged on those Austrians who did enter into battle soon either surrendered to the enemy forces or deserted en masse and headed back towards their homes. Most saw the writing on the wall and knew that Austria had little time left, there was little use laying down one's life for a corpse after all. With these conditions Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke was able to sweep Austria proper with his force of 110,000 men, heading directly for Vienna. There Moltke met with Gorgie on the 9th of June, the next day the combined forces entered the city and proceeded to battle with the Imperial Guard and whatever scrap of civilians that took up resistance. With overwhelming firepower and superior arms on their side, the German-Hungarian forces triumphed and captured the city by the end of the day, Emperor Franz Joseph and much of the Hapsburg dynasty captured in the Hofberg. On June 11th Franz Joseph would sign an unconditional surrender, thus signaling the end of the Second War of German Unification.
German occupation of Vienna
"I have done it! I have completed Frederick's dream! Germany is ours and it is an empire that shall last for a thousand years!"- Kaiser Wilhelm I 1864
"I fear we have gotten rid of a corpse and instead given rise to a monster."- Emperor Napoleon III 1865
"The position of Prussia in Germany will not be determined by its liberalism but by its power [...] Prussia must concentrate its strength and hold it for the favorable moment, which has already come and gone several times. Since the treaties of Vienna, our frontiers have been ill-designed for a healthy body politic. Not through speeches and majority decisions will the great questions of the day be decided, but by iron and blood."- Foreign Minister Otto von Bismarck 1862
Among Germans and Austrians today many regard Franz Joseph as one of the worst rulers in German history. His haphazard ruling of the remnant of the Austrian empire and the disastorous decision to declare war on Germany with his weak "alliances" and the rather poor and corrupt state of the Austrian Army, leads many to consider him as the penultimate failure of the once hegemonic Hapsburg dynasty. Even among the modern Hapsburgs, Franz Joseph's name is reviled and despised, not a single Hapsburg since his generation sharing the same name and Franz Joseph's legacy barely having a presence within the Hofburg besides a few paintings and some artifacts that used to belong to the last Emperor. This opinion is also shared by most historians, though a few tend to disagree. A popular theory that has been rising in recent years is one that is attributed to Doctor Wolfgang Koller in his book, "Dynasty of the Sun", explains that Franz Joseph declaring war on Germany was an utter necessity at that point in time and had he not declared war, then Austria would've collapsed in the near future in another revolution anyways. Contemporary evidence shows high discontent among all corners of the population against the Imperial leadership, with only the staunchest conservative Austrians being a stable base which the Hapsburgs could rely upon. With thousands of deaths all over the nation on an annual basis thanks to racial riots and insurgencies, it was only a matter of time until the spark lit the fuse and Austria truly collapsed on itself. Franz's actions were merely a premature death that spared Austria most of the effects that a civil war would bring about, said civil collapse most likely only resulting in the same foreign intervention as seen in the Second War for Unification. Had Germany truly acted in such an aggressive manner and Austria manage to rally true allies to their cause then maybe the Empire could move forward in the coming years. As it was, 1864 marked the final days of Austria's independence as a sovereign nation.
Bukovina: Out of all the fronts in the war Bukovina is the one which is traditionally considered to be the least intense in terms of fighting. This was due to Austria placing the least amount of their available troops in the province with Bukovina being the least economically developed province within the entire Austrian Empire and being a state that had almost no German Austrians within their borders. Only 10,000 troops were stationed there at the start of the conflict with a large majority of them being conscripts with little training. Against this motley bunch the 30,000 trained Hungarian soldiers under the command of Major General Gyorgy Klapka were practically assured victory, only an act of God seemingly able to save the Austrian forces. On March 20th the Hungarian IX corps crossed the borders and entered into Bukovina. On March 25th the Battle of Lemberg took place with Austrian General Klaus von Higenfild desperately trying to rally a defense of the capitol against the approaching Austrian forces. The first half of the battle commenced with Klapka ordering his cavalry to charge towards the Austrian artillery encampments and destroy their artillery pieces. While to most this would seem suicidal, Austria only had about 13 cannons on hand and little ammunition to fire, the crew having barely any experience with them anyways due to lack of funding and little need to bring about cannon fire against Romanian peasants. The gamble worked and at the cost of 23 Hungarian casualties, what little artillery pieces Austria had were destroyed. Hungarian artillery then began to rain down upon the city and enemy encampments, while waves of Hungarian soldiers rushed forward. Seeing the situation as hopeless and not wanting to fight against the tide, most Austrians laid down their arms upon seeing the Hungarians cross and many began to run away, trying to flee into the countryside. A few units dared to make a stand and fought fiercely with whatever they could, sadly their efforts would be for naught against the overwhelming Hungarian numerical superiority. Lemberg was over within two hours and cost the Hungarians 345 killed, and 407 wounded, while the Austrians suffered 621 killed, 638 wounded, and over 8,000 taken prisoner, Higenfild himself surrendering to Klapka. By the end of the month Bukovina was fully conquered by Hungary, or so it seemed.
Hungarian soldiers resting during the Bukovina campaign.
While the Kossuth administration had taken a far lighter stance in their treatment of the Romanian Transylvanians in comparison to the Hapsburgs, to the Romanian population of Bukovina it looked merely that they were having one master replaced with another. In the weeks after the initial occupation of Bukovina began, reports began to filter into Budapest of peasant uprising and insurgent attacks against the Hungarian soldiers. In April of 1864, Hungary suffered over 400 casualties brought on by conflicts of the Romanian people. In return Klapka was given authorization to institute total martial law for the province, and began a brutal campaign to weed out the rebels and bring the province into the fold of Budapest. By the war's end Hungary would suffer 724 casualties while the Romanian rebels are estimated to have taken over 6,000 casualties in return. While the resistance to Hungarian occupation was squashed, said actions only inflamed all Romanians within the region, this was especially seen within Transylvannia which brought new life to rebel groups which began what is known as the Second Transylvannian War, a general uprising across the province from 1864 that lasted until late 1866. The most heated calls for action took place in Romania were tens of thousands of people took to the streets and demanded that their brethren be liberated from the "Foul Hungarian scum". Demonstrations popped up in the capitol of Bucharest and Prince Nicholas was hounded to take action, though the monarch was under strict orders from his brother Tsar Alexander to stay neutral in the current conflict. Not wanting to appear weak, Nicholas ordered 50,000 Romanian troops to take to the border, promising to cross unless Hungary ceased their attacks on the rights of the Romanian peoples. An intense deployment by both sides arrived on the border with each looking gladly to fire upon the other. Thankfully cooler heads prevailed and thanks to the efforts of Berlin and St. Petersburg, both Hungary and Romania backed off with Bucharest being promised some settlement in the peace treaty. Unfortunately the lingering hatred between the Romanian and Hungarian peoples would continue on for the next half a century, coming to brutal blows in the Great War.
A Transylvanian village ravaged by the uprisings.
Galicia: Having plotted with Bismarck beforehand and fully aware of the details of the upcoming partition, Tsar Alexander had been preparing for months to strike the deathblow against Austria. Late in 1863 he had gathered approximately 230,000 soldiers on the border of Galicia, to Franz-Joseph he claimed that they were preparing for war with Germany, which alleviated the fears of the Hapsburg. On the 16th Alexander's lie would be revealed when the behemoth of the Russian Army descended not on Germany, but on Galicia, tens of thousands of Russian soldiers overwhelming the Polish countryside in the quest to "liberate" their Slavic brethren from the shackles of Vienna. The only major battle that took place in this campaign was the Battle of Krakow from March 19th-20th. Here Russian General Mikhail Gorkachov surrounded the city and bombarded it relentlessly with hundreds of artillery cannons. Afterwords Russian regiments rushed into the streets and made quick work of whatever defenses that the Austrians could put up with. Gorkachov received the surrender of the historical Polish city on the 20th, taking only 3,459 casualties in comparison to the 5,281 of Austria. For the rest of the war Russia would spread its troops across the countryside and establish a new law and order, hoping to integrate Galicia into the Congress of Poland. Much to the surprise of the Russian Army however (although expected from the other European powers), most of the Polish citizenry even with their poor treatment in the last decade by Vienna, despised and hated the Russians even more for the poor treatment of their brethren within the Polish Congress, Russia reacting to Polish Nationalism with harsh and brutal suppression which made German and Austrian governance seem far more benevolent in comparison. Tens of thousands in Galaicia would rise up and try to make a stand against the Russian horde, unfortunately for them it was all in vain as the poor Polish peasants could do little serious harm against the trained and well-equipped Russian army. In 1864 an estimated 16,000 Polish Galicians died in conflict with the Russian Army while Russia took 1,874 casualties in return. After the signing of the Treaty of Vienna, Tsar Alexander would find that its aggressive behavior would have immense consequences for his empire with the beginning of the Polish Insurrection, the latter conflict having a stain that would last for decades, coming to full fruition during the Great War.
Russian soldiers looting a Polish tavern.
Bohemia: With the taking of the Sudetenland and Silesia, Germany had the Bohemia province surrounded on all sides with its most productive and defensible territories firmly in German hands. All that was left was roughly flat and forested terrain. After a week of organizing on March 21st a German Army of 160,000 men led by Field Marshal Frederich Graf von Wrangel, German forces practically blitzkrieged through the Bohemian land, taking most of Bohemia and completely occupying Moravia by the middle of April. With most of the Austrian offensive forces moving through Southern Germany in Bavaria , along with the Hungarian advance on Vienna as well as the concurrent German sweep through Austria proper led by von Multke severely depleted any available troops in Bohemia. With Austria under attack on all fronts, miscommunication and confusion ran high through the ranks of the Austrian defenders, most not knowing what to do by the time the Germans came right on them. With little hope to stop the far superior German force, Prague surrendered without a shot on the 9th of April, unofficially bringing the Bohemian campaign to an anti-climatic end. While Germany experienced immense success on this front, German troops were on high alert due to the potential backlash from the Czech population. With the Czechs having been wrongly mistreated by Vienna for the past decade for the failures of the Revolutions, few were in any mood to fight for the Hapsburg dynasty. Yet most Czechs reacted lukewarmly to the German Army as they saw Kaiser Wilhelm as simply another German master that would use Bohemia for their benefit. Unfortunately for Bohemia it was either join Germany or be swallowed by Russia, the Czech kingdom stuck in a state of political limbo with few ways out.
Slovenia/Mediterranean: While Italy had gained its territorial goals in its own war of unification and the Italian Federation had been doing well off for the past decade, for many of the people of Italy this was not enough to satisfy their Nationalist urges. Ever since the creation of the Federation, growing sentiments had been spreading across the peninsula that now was the time for Italy to rise up and claim the mantle of the Roman Empire, unifying the entire Mediterranean under Pax Romana. The irrendentionist movement became widely popular thanks to the support of Prime Minister Garibaldi, and with the decay and stagnation of the Austrian Empire, Tyrol and the Slovene region made the perfect targets to begin the birth of this New Rome. Immediately after the declaration of war by the Italian Parliament, the Holy Italian Navy began going to work by blockading the port of Trieste and setting out to destroy whatever remnants of a Navy that Austria had left. Over the course of the spring and summer of 1864, Austria lost almost their entire Navy with 13 ships destroyed and four remaining in port with the crews either deserting or entering into mutiny. With most of the Austrian Army focused on the German threat, Italy faced little resistance when crossing into Tyrol and Slovenia. Upon hearing that "Papal Knights" had entered into their borders, mass uprisings of the remaining Italian minority within Austria occured practically overnight, ensuring that most Italian units received a warm and grateful welcome upon entering an Austrian village. Even in Slovenia which despite being a Slavic region, most of the population joined the Italian uprisings and stated their support for Italy due to the Slovene peoples devotion to the Catholic faith. If Pope Pius supported the actions of Italy and proclaimed them to be righteous in this war, then what right did the Slovenes have to question His Holiness? The fighting that took place was primarily thanks to the Austrian contingent of 40,000 troops led by Archduke Albrecht, the Austrians augmented by a small number of Slovene Nationalists who had no wish to be ruled by the Italians.
The first major battle of the campaign was the First Battle of Trieste, a battle that took place on April 13th when the Vangaurd of the Italian forces led by Major General Alberto Mizanni tried to take the port of Trieste in order to entirely cut off Austria from the Mediterranean. However in his haste to claim glory, Mizanni only took 18,000 men with him to capture the city, expecting a general uprising within the city to support the Italian advance and hoping that the supposed "Austrian incompetency" would grant the Italians a major victory, no matter how outnumbered the Italian forces were. Unfortunately for Mizanni Trieste had been one of the more Liberal administrative centers of Austria, thus when war broke out only minor riots occured within the city which Albrecht was able to contain. Mizanni's cavalry found themselves running into a well-fortified city and suffered heavy losses in their suprise. Not knowing how to respond and most of his army still catching up, Mizanni was unprepared for Albrecht's counterattack with 11,000 if his infantry which overran the Italian positions. By the end of the day the Italians had been pushed back at least 15 kilometers and Trieste was temporarily secure. Italian losses were somewhat high with 1,302 killed, 967 wounded, and 543 captured. The Austrians in turn suffered 769 killed, 844 wounded, and 130 captured. Trieste was one of the few victories that Austria would be able to claim in the war, but overall it would be of little use to them. At the same time of the Italian advance, an Hungarian force of 60,000 led by Croatian General Lothar Tomic, invaded the Slovene countryside in a preemptive strike to save Croatia from suffering any attacks. While Albrecht put up a sufficient defense in Trieste, by doing so he had neglected the majority of Slovenia which allowed the Hungarians to practically steamroll through the countryside, taking Ljubljana on April 22nd. After some communication was exchanged between Rome and Budapest, the Italian and Hungarian/Croatian forces resolved to combine their numbers to take the city of Trieste. Joint command of the forces was undertaken by Italian General Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora, and together a total of 110,000 Italian and Hungarian forces reached the outskirts of Trieste on May 11th. A short siege with many frequent skirmishes then proceeded for the next four days, making up the Second Battle of Trieste. Knowing that he was completely outnumbered and had little chance of victory, along with receiving news of collapses on all fronts, Albrecht gave in and surrendered the city on the 15th. For the rest of the war Italy would secure the region along with the Tyrol province while Hungary shifted its focus to Vienna and the Romanian buildup near Bukovina.
View attachment 371843View attachment 371844
The Holy Italian Army marching into Tyrol (Left). Second Battle of Trieste (Right)
Austria: In the beginning of the war Franz Joseph had made the strategic mistake of sending most of his professional army into Bavaria in the hopes of hurting Germany by pushing through their southern flank, hoping somewhat that a South German/Catholic uprising would rise up against the leadership of Prussia. Franz Joseph had been relying on the Russian tide along with a possible strike from Alsace-Lorraine by Napoleon to completely encircle and surround Germany before the British could make any moves. While this may have worked with allies, the nightmarish situation of continental Europe abandoning Austria completely left the capitol of Vienna open to attack, one which Hungary gleefully exploited. In the beginning of April, Hungarian Field Marshal Artur Gorgie led a force of 125,000 Hungarians to the gates of Vienna, encamping on the cities outskirts and starting a siege on April 27th, cutting of the capitol from the rest of Austria. While Gorgie could've just as easily marched into Vienna and taken the city by force, doing so would've brought on high casualties of his men from the Imperial Guard and would end the war too soon before Hungary ensured that the situation would be a favorable advantage for them in the peace talks. This way Hungary could achieve all of its other primary objectives in the conflict and its fellow belligerents would be able to secure its slice of Austrian territory in the war, Austria unable to resist due to being split all across the Empire. With the siege breaking out, Franz Joseph ordered most of the Austrian Army to rush onto the capitol and preserve it from capture by the Hungarians, this was a nearly impossible task with the rest of the Austrian professionals trying to protect their own piece of Austria, volunteer regiments were also unable to be formed because those few who did want to join soon found their homes occupied by Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Russia. As the war dragged on those Austrians who did enter into battle soon either surrendered to the enemy forces or deserted en masse and headed back towards their homes. Most saw the writing on the wall and knew that Austria had little time left, there was little use laying down one's life for a corpse after all. With these conditions Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke was able to sweep Austria proper with his force of 110,000 men, heading directly for Vienna. There Moltke met with Gorgie on the 9th of June, the next day the combined forces entered the city and proceeded to battle with the Imperial Guard and whatever scrap of civilians that took up resistance. With overwhelming firepower and superior arms on their side, the German-Hungarian forces triumphed and captured the city by the end of the day, Emperor Franz Joseph and much of the Hapsburg dynasty captured in the Hofberg. On June 11th Franz Joseph would sign an unconditional surrender, thus signaling the end of the Second War of German Unification.
German occupation of Vienna
- Kaiser Chris
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