The post Eastern Front general offensive culminating in the Great Retreat had straightened the front, leaving the Central Powers the masters of the field. Though strategic success had been achieved, the Austro-German alliance had frayed. Still not fighting under a unified command, it seemed that the more the Germans had fought to preserve the Austrian forces, the more they wanted to assert their independence. In fact the liberation of Przemysl by Mackensen the previous year had only made Conrad more intractable. Convinced his rebuilt and modernized army was just as capable as his German allies, he used every opportunity to assert his independence, which, he discovered, only increased the casualties of his armed forces. The Austrians were still not a modern force in their command, operational, or tactical methods. But every failure made the command staff of the Habsburg forces more bitter and even meager successes were vastly inflated to bolster the low esteem that even the commanders had of themselves and their army. In fact, the soldiers had lost faith in their commanders and in the authority of the Habsburgs to rule. The Czechs and other Slavic groups were experiencing greater desertion rates, even as the army was advancing. Call from several junior officers for a change in command were going unheard, but by September a decisive shift in Austro-German relations was planned by OHL.
Falkenhayn finally approached the Kaiser about a joint trip to Vienna to resolve the situation. Once operations had wound down the pair finally made the trip with their entourage. They found Franz Josef quite cordial and receptive to their requests, but as always the old man was tired and quite fearful of confrontation, something that Conrad excelled. However, after the parade of witnesses to the incompetence of Conrad and his staff, as well as a list of grievances and threats to ensure that a change was made. Resigned and exhausted, Franz finally gave in, summoning Conrad to his palace in Schönbrunn. Under the flinty stare of Falkenhayn, Conrad was informed by the Emperor of his fate; he was to be removed from high command and made the general of the 5th army at the Asiago front on the Italian border. Cursing his monarch with insults relating him to a lap dog of the Germans, he departed after being “escorted” by the bodyguard of the Emperor. Intent on starting a rebellion against German domination, he quickly found that he was not the only one removed from command.
On recommendation of Karl, heir to the thrown of the dual monarchy, Arz von Straußberg obtained the highest command of the army and began to remove ineffective and negligent commanders. Generally these were the appointees of Conrad and his supporters. It removed much of his support, and the impetus for the anti-German resistance. The ones that could not be removed due to political connections, mainly the nobility, had their power curtailed, and had proven chiefs-of-staff appointed to actually wield the authority. The new command choice was especially well received by the Germans, as OHL and Mackensen had worked with him at the front and he had proven himself a very able commander and organizer. Not only that, but he was fully committed to the German alliance, an endearing trait after Conrad’s tenure.
The vast differences in command style made themselves apparent quickly. Armies were reorganized, the Austrians subordinated to German command, tactics and operational procedures were reformed and modernized with German advice, exchanges were made with between the armies so that both sides could learn from one another (though mainly the learning was done on the Austrian side; the Germans mainly just discovered what was wrong with the Austrian system and “suggested” corrections), training was modernized under German supervision, production rationalized, and political goals unified. The changes became apparent rapidly, as the Austrians were able to capture Tarnopol in
November with minimal losses and without the help of the Germans. In fact by December there were no German forces present south of the Pripet marshes other than training cadres and officers attached to various command staffs. A drive on Rovno still did not succeed over the winter, but a Russian attack was beat off in turn with heavy losses to the attackers. The front was fortifying and deeper defensive lines of increasing sophistication were built, a focus on the subsequent lines, based on German suggestions from experiences in France.
The Germans also renewed some limited pushes in the Baltic area, aiming the breach the Riga line, but he extension of supply lines and exhaustion of troops prevented a success. The Russians were determined to resist and in prepared positions of sophistication, so no great change in the line occurred either. As it was, the Ober Ost command changed, Ludendorff and Hindenburg were put in charge of administration, something that Ludendorff excelled. Military command was give over to Prince Leopold of Bavaria with Hoffmann as his Chief-of Staff, a potent combination. Forces began to be transferred west to counter some of the larger allied moves late in the year, something that contributed to the failure of the Riga operation. Ultimately the situation in the East quieted down over the winter, with Russian moves in the German sector failing spectacularly, with many casualties to the undertrained conscripts brought into line in December.
OHL was finally secure enough in their estimation to shift the gravity of the war to the West. Trusting the new Austrian leadership more than the previous administration, Falkenhayn informed them that German forces would begin a draw down in the East for the time being, but left the statement at that. Straußberg was an astute individual and assumed that an offensive was in the works and the importance of secrecy was understood. He did not inform any outside of his inner circle of his staff, but kept it known that offensives were not in the works for his forces. Denying Conrad’s demand for forces to be transferred to his front for a “Strafexpedition” against Italy, instead, Straußberg kept his reserves in the East and took the time to rebuild his forces. He still did not entirely believe the Russian offensive strength was destroyed, the evidence being the winter attacks on this front. The Austrians prepared, readying themselves for another attempt at Rovno in spring 1916. For the moment the Italian front had held up admirably, but the increase in pressure and repeated offensives by Cadorna had left both the Austrians and Italians battered. Reinforcements kept pouring in, but losses could be made good by both sides still, so the bloody game continued.
Further south, the Allies had evacuated their bridgehead in Gallipoli, as the rail lines opened to Istanbul had brought in vast quantities of ammunition (at least by Balkan standards) making the offensive untenable. The operation was ended in August after pointless extensions by Churchill, causing immense loss of life to the new ANZAC formations, as well as the other Allied units. Churchill lost much of his prestige as a result of the failure, another reason he was so obstinate in his demand to maintain the offensive. The units pulled out were used to enlarge the Salonika bridgehead in Greece. Ostensibly there to refit, many of these units became a more-or-less permanent feature in the Balkans. Later many on both sides would refer to the deployment as the largest prison camp of the war, as many soon became victims of Malaria and could not leave until recovered. Several hundreds of thousands were rotated through the area, all would be glad to leave. The ANZACS were to remain their until 1916 after which they would appear on the western front. The Serbs also came back into the line during this period, with over 100,000 men. Sarrail, the darling of the French left, dismissed by Joffre later in 1915 made an appearance as commander of the front after his political allies secured a position for him. He had a disturbing tendency to interfere in Greek politics, helping set up a pro-allied dictatorship that marginalized the pro-German and –neutrality king. The Bulgarians maintained the front mostly by themselves, which caused some trouble with their farming, as many of the soldiers were farmers, but the Austrians also contributed forces to the region, and the ever present groups of bandits in Albanian caused trouble to both sides, but significantly more to the Allies (as the
Habsburgs had come to an “agreement” with them).
For the moment, the East had quieted down, as the years changed. The Russians were desperately trying to plan an offensive, but no one was particularly enthusiastic about fighting the Germans again after the last debacle over the winter. Resigned to another bloodbath on the Northern Front, the Czar was surprised to discover the newly appointed commander of the Southwestern Front, Brusilov, was offering to conduct and offensive against the Austrians with no request for additional troops or artillery. He felt that he possessed all necessary components, he just needed the proper command and operational doctrine to make it work. Brusilov, probably the best commander that Russia would produce during the war, also possessed an exceptional group of subordinates, who would make his job that much easier when he conducted his offensive. The operation was slated for July, while the northern and western fronts would conduct smaller operations to tie down the Germans.
OHL was in the midst of planning their own offensive, but this time in the West. Falkenhayn was insistent on secrecy, even going so far as to cut out most of his staff from planning. Each army on the Western front had to submit a proposal for an offensive in their sector. As he was selecting the operation that he felt was most favorable to the attrition strategy that had worked so well in Russia, he had parts of his staff start planning for operations that were never intended to be conducted. His inner circle would tour the front, observing terrain and conditions to understand where the offensive would most likely succeed. Finally settling on either the Verdun or Belfort region, the actual planning began in the earnest.
Artillery was horded, as were shells, and operational secrecy became the by-word of the day. Not only that, but more formations were formed, units were pulled from the east, and the infantry divisions in the West experienced the final implementation of the three regiment per division policy, the elimination of the two brigade structure was final. Despite protests, the new structure was appreciated by the majority of commanders, happy about the artillery regiment that gave extra fire support to the reduced numbers of soldiers. The German version of the light machine gun was finally produced in enough numbers to fully equip every platoon, but as yet each squad was not in possession of one. At 43 lbs, the Maxim 08/15 was by far the heaviest of the squad machine guns in the war, but it was better than none. New models of artillery were also appearing, and the artillery construction program was bearing fruit. Its full expression would only occur later in the year and 1917, for now it was working quite well.
For the moment, both sides tried to court the remaining neutrals that looked likely to participate in the war. The Allies played hard to drum up sympathy with the Americans, but so far propaganda wasn’t very effective despite attempts by the admiralty, headed by Churchill, to use neutral shipping and neutral flags to goad the U-boots to fire on neutrals. Even with the Q-boats, disguised civilian ships that were manned by the Royal Navy and armed, the Germans still concentrated on interdicting shipping in the Channel and mine laying to devastating effect. Though the Germans had lost heavily in the campaign, their torpedo boats and U-boots were making a worrisome dent in supplies to the continent, periodically shutting down shipping, especially when the threat of a sortee by the High Seas Fleet. So far the German fleet had suffered in the small engagements they had fought with the Royal Navy and despite some successes with their raider strategy, the remaining ships outside the cordon had been sunk or captured. For now, the most major successes had been the sinking of three armored cruisers, obsolete ships, by an enterprising U-boot commander, Weddigen, in 1915. He was later sunk himself when his boat was rammed by a British battleship.
The Romanians, the other minor neutrals, were actively courted by both sides, but they remained steadfast in their neutrality. Wishing the join the Allies so that they could gain Transylvania, the losses suffered by the Russians in 1915 dissuaded them from taking the plunge. So far they traded in limited amounts with the Germans to keep them happy, but sold most of their goods to the Allies, which they had no way of exporting. For the moment, large quantities of oil and wheat remained stockpiled. Their position would change in the coming year.
The lessons learned this year were important to future conduct. The defense in depth was proven yet again to be an effective doctrine, which led to its nearly universal implementation. More use of the reserve slope concept was put into the main battle line, generally the 2nd line of defense. More concrete pill boxes and bunkers for counter attack troops were prepared, and more tunnels were dug where applicable. The front was thickening. The defensive lessons had also taught the Germans that a breakthrough on a large scale, even with vast artillery support was impossible in the West. In fact, the use of large numbers of men generally resulted in more casualties for the same gain. Also, suppression worked just as well, if not better than destruction in bombardments, as a stunned enemy required less shells and time to create than dead enemy soldiers. Further, advantageous ground should be seized as quickly as possible to reduce casualties and so that artillery observation can resume as quickly as possible. All these lessons would be used in the formation of the offensive in 1916, which made the previous plans written in for 1915 obsolete. OHL was hard at work on Operation Gericht.