Let's Build a Properly Funded AH Army!

  • Thread starter Deleted member 1487
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Deleted member 1487

Let's Build a Properly Funded Habsburg Army (1914)!

Alright, this is a scenario that is politically impossible because of structural problems with the Habsburg monarchy, but one that I think would be an interesting thought experiment.
Historically AH spent less proportionally on their military than any major power in Europe:
http://books.google.com/books?id=2c...age&q=habsburg military spending 1914&f=false

http://books.google.com/books?id=ld...age&q=habsburg military spending 1914&f=false

AH apparently even spent less than Italy (!) on defense, despite having a much larger population (3rd largest in Europe) and GDP and with more men under arms. AH also conscripted far fewer men than any other country in Europe and only had a standing army of <450k, about half that of Germany and only 78% larger than Italy. Russia had about 1,500,000 peacetime soldiers in over 100 divisions and Serbia had 52k.

AH was also badly outnumbered in the quantity of artillery pieces and was far behind in modernized artillery, mainly having bronze (!!!!) barrels that did not have a modern recoil system or adequate stocks of shells, nor domestic shell production, having bought her shells in peacetime from Germany.

Comparisons:
GDP spending on military:Germany 3.5%, Britain 3.1%, France 3.9%, Russia 4.6%. AH 2.8% (including special spending bills to increase size of navy and modernize army).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Hungarian_Army#Funding_and_Equipment
While the budget continued to rise — from 262 million crowns in 1895 to 306 million in 1906 — this was still far less per capita than for other major European states, including Italy, and about on par with Russia, which had a much larger population.[16] Further contributing to the monarchy's military weakness was the low rate of conscription: Austria-Hungary conscripted only 0.29% of its population, compared to 0.47% in Germany and 0.75% in France. Attempts to increase the yearly intake of recruits were proposed but repeatedly blocked by officials in Budapest until an agreement was reached in 1912.[9]

In the emerging field of military aviation, Austria-Hungary lagged behind other European states. While balloon detachments had been established in 1893, they were mostly assigned to the fortress artillery, except for a brief period from 1909 to 1911 when they were under command of the multifaceted Verkehrs Brigade.[17] Realization that heavier-than-air machines were necessary or useful came late, and Austria-Hungary acquired only five airplanes by 1911. In 1914 the budget for military aviation was approximately 1/25th the amount spent by France. Austria-Hungary entered the war with only 48 first-line aircraft.[17]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Hungarian_Army#Size_and_ethnic_and_religious_composition
Though the population of the empire had risen to nearly 50 million by 1900, the size of the army was tied to ceilings established in 1889. Thus, at the turn of the century Austria-Hungary conscripted only 0.29% of its population, compared to 0.47% in Germany, 0.35% in Russia and 0.75% in France.[9] The 1889 army law was not revised until 1912, which allowed for an increase in annual conscriptions.[10]
Edit:
It has been estimated that if AH had German levels of conscription they could have had 80 divisions in 1914.
Whoops, that was for French level spending and conscription...the German level would mean about 60-65 divisions.


So: supposing the Austro-Hungarian military in the 20th century was properly funded, that is had proportionally equal spending to that of the German military and conscripted an equal proportion of her population, what would it have looked like by the time 1914 rolled around?
I'm going to hold my ideas until I've given others a chance to present ideas first.

Historical peacetime forces 1914:

30,000 Officers
410,000 NCOs and troops
87,000 horses (estimate)
1,200 artillery pieces (about half were without steel barrels or modernized recoil systems including about nearly off of the howitzers; only the field guns had been modernized)
(AH also had only 42 artillery pieces per division, compared to the 48 of Russia or 72 of Germany, while having no howitzers at division level; both Germany and Russia had howitzers in their divisions, AH had them only at corps level and only 16 corps, compared to the 25 of Germany, and 51 of the Russians.

16 Corps
49 Infantry Divisions - 76 Infantry Brigades - 14 Mountain Brigades
8 Cavalry Divisions - 16 Cavalry Brigades

The common Army (k.u.k. - Kaiserlich und königlich)
16 Corps
49 Infantry Divisions - 76 Infantry Brigades - 14 Mountain Brigades
8 Cavalry Divisions - 16 Cavalry Brigades
102 Infantry Regiments (four battalions each) - 4 Bosnian-Herzegovinian (Bosnisch-Hercegowinische) Infantry regiments (four battalions each)
4 Imperial Tyrolian Rifle Regiments (Tiroler Kaiserjäger) (four battalions each)
32 Rifle-Battalions (Feldjäger) - 1 Bosnian-Herzegovinian Rifle Battalion (Bosnisch-Hercegowinisches Feldjäger Bataillon)
42 Field Artillery Regiments (Feldkanonen-Regimenter) - 14 Field Howitzer Regiments (Feldhaubitz-Regimenter)
11 Mounted Artillery Battalions (originally named Reitende Artillerie Division) - 14 Heavy Howitzer Battalions (originally named schwere Haubitz-Division)
11 Mountain Artillery Regiments (Gebirgsartillerie Regimenter)
6 Fortress Artillery Regiments (Festungsartillerie Regimenter) - 8 independent Fortress Artillery Battalions (selbst. Festungsartillerie Bataillone)
15 Regiments of Dragoons (Dragoner) - 16 Regiments of Hussars (Husaren) - 11 Regiments of Lancers (Ulanen)
16 Transportation Battalions (Railroad)
23 Engineers Battalions (Sappeure/Pioniere) - 1 Bridge Construction Battalion (Brücken Bataillon) - 1 Railroad Regiment (Eisenbahn-Regiment) - 1 Signal Regiment (Telegraphen-Regiment)

k.k. Landwehr (kaiserlich österreichisch/königlich böhmisch)
The k.k. Landwehr was the standing army of Austria entended to be responsible for the defense of Austria itself.
35 Landwehr Infantry Regiments - 3 battalions each (Landwehr Infanterie-Regimenter)
6 Landwehr Regiments of Lancers
8 Landwehr Field Artillery Battalions (Feldkanonen) - 8 Landwehr Field Howitzer Battalions (Feldhaubitz)
The Mountain Infantry with the following units:
2 Landwehr Mountain Infantry Regiments (Gebirgsinfanterie-Regimenter) No. 4 and No. 27
3 Tyrolian Fusiliers Regiments (Tiroler Landesschützen Regimenter) - since January 1917 named Kaiserschützen
1 Mounted Tyrolian Fusiliers Battalion (Reitende Tiroler Landesschützen)
1 Mounted Dalmatian Fusiliers Battalion (Reitende Dalmatiner Landesschützen)

k.u. Honvéd (königlich ungarische Landwehr)
The k.u. Honvéd was the standing army of Hungary. A part of the Honvéd was the Royal Croatian Landwehr ( Kraljevsko hrvatsko domobranstvo ), which consisted of 1 infantry division (out of 7 in Honved) and 1 cavalry regiment (out of 10 in Honved).
6 k.u. Honvéd Landwehr Districts (Distrikte)
2 k.u. Honvéd Infantry Divisions (Infanterie Truppendivisionen)
2 k.u. Honvéd Cavalry Divisions (Kavallerie Truppendivisionen)
4 k.u. Honvéd Infantry Brigades (Infanteriebrigaden) - 12 independent k.u. Honvéd Infantry Brigades
4 k.u. Honvéd Cavalry Brigades (Kavalleriebrigaden)
32 Honvéd Infantry Regiments (Infanterie-Regimenter)
10 Honvéd Regiments of Hussars (Husaren-Regimenter)
8 Honvéd Field Artillery Regiments (Feldkanonen Regimenter) - 1 Honvéd Mounted Artillery Battalion (Reitende Artillerie Abteilung)

Mobilized the Habsburg army historically had 1,338,000 men under arms.


Resources:
http://www.austrianphilately.com/dixnut/index.htm

http://www.austro-hungarian-army.co.uk/
http://www.austro-hungarian-army.co.uk/oob.htm
http://www.austro-hungarian-army.co.uk/orb14.htm
http://www.austro-hungarian-army.co.uk/div1918.html

http://www.wien-vienna.com/austrohungary.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hungary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Hungarian_Army

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemeinsame_Armee
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Österreichisch-Ungarische_Landstreitkräfte_1867–1914
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Österreich-Ungarns_Armee_im_Ersten_Weltkrieg

http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armia_Austro-Węgier
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizacja_Armii_Austro-Węgier_w_1914
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storia_dell'esercito_austriaco_dopo_le_riforme_di_Francesco_Giuseppe
 
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another thing I'd include is to have all soldiers speak either German, Hungarian (or Czech) while on duty, but not as an all out germanization campaign.

Just make sure all soldiers are trained to speak the same languages to prevent any problems between the diferent ethinicities/language groups.
 

Deleted member 1487

I thought AH.com was acquiring an army for a minute there
I have to see how well you do with this first before I let you loose on Alternate History's army! ;)

Edit:
another thing I'd include is to have all soldiers speak either German, Hungarian (or Czech) while on duty, but not as an all out germanization campaign.

Just make sure all soldiers are trained to speak the same languages to prevent any problems between the diferent ethinicities/language groups.

Historically they had to learn some 50 commands (200 words total IIRC) in German in the Combined Army, mostly spoke German anyway in the Landwehr, or spoke Hungarian in the Honved. Teaching German as a language is difficult for political reasons in much of the Combined Army, either because of the lack of time/resources in the army (of three years of service one year equivalent was spent on leave to help with harvests), ethnic tensions and hate of German or Germans, or lack of development and educational infrastructure in poor parts of the Empire...so its tough to teach the language to people in the army or before given the resources available even with a properly funded army.

Replacements too aren't going to get the time to learn either once the war starts, even the 50 commands and 200 words. Still even the basic 'drill German' seems to have been enough, even with regimental languages other than German. I think it was a matter of recruiting the right officers other than just German, Czech, or Hungarians and not proportional ethnicities or reserve officers with the right language skills.

Of course with a larger army pre-war that means much more of the population is going to get to learn some German in the army, so the large number of reservists are going to have basic language skills even though they lack formal education. They will also have more military skills too, so can perhaps spend some time brushing up on language skills when getting retrained once a war starts. Plus more divisions and corps mean more officer slots, so more effort can be put into finding active duty officers with the right language skills/making them learn more regimental languages (IOTL they had 2 years IIRC to learn all of the necessary languages in their units or would be retired IIRC) and create a better, more representative reserve officer base, so they won't have to pair officers without necessary language skills with the 'wrong' units.
 
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I thought AH.com was acquiring an army for a minute there

I did as well; hence ...


BE IT KNOWN, THAT from this time forth and forevermore, or until this proclamation is forgotten about, which ever comes first,

The proper and official abbreviation Austria-Hungary shall be A-H and the proper abbreviation for this Alternate History website shall be AH.

Done as of the date and time stamped on this post. :)
 

Deleted member 1487

I did as well; hence ...


BE IT KNOWN, THAT from this time forth and forevermore, or until this proclamation is forgotten about, which ever comes first,

The proper and official abbreviation Austria-Hungary shall be A-H and the proper abbreviation for this Alternate History website shall be AH.

Done as of the date and time stamped on this post. :)

Can't edit the title though...
 
Presumably the A-H economy can support this funding, but I do wonder where it'll come from, and on who or what the burden will fall.

Where did most of A-H's tax revenue come from, and was there the potential (politically and administratively) to obtain more from those same sources?
 
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A-H generally distrusted their "troops", so the troops levied in one part of the Empire usually weree garrisoned far away from this place. To increase quality you should garrison the troops where they are levied (training for reservists, bonding with population, etc...)

The navy was small but relatively modern and well equipped.

So one has to focus on the army and by extension the airforce (not including Marineflieger)

Small arms were adequate in quality, but machine guns were scarce IIRC (the Schwarzlose was a good quality simple MG)

Artillery was not as bad as you put it, problem was that A-H did not stockpile enough units and not enough ammo, and production lagged from the start (to replace losses). So older gun WERE used.

So the first thing to do is stockpiling MORE weapons during peace

AH had good works (SKODA guns was a 1st quality producer)

AH also HAD invented Armored cars and the so called burstyn tank during the 190xs - so it would be possible to have armored car and tank units (if you can overcome the inflexible emperor and his inflexible general staff).

Morale was quite high during the start of the war (no real problems with the nationalities, even czech and Italians showed up when called)
 

Deleted member 1487

Presumably the A-H economy can support this funding, but I do wonder where it'll come from, and on who or what the burden will fall.

Where did most of A-H's tax revenue come from, and was there the potential (politically and administratively) to obtain more from those same sources?
The debt burden of the government was AFAIK pretty low for the Habsburgs in 1914 so they could have easily sustained more borrowing to pay for the expansion of spending.

As to taxation, I'm not sure and I'm not turning up anything easily on google. AFAIK no European nation had an income tax at this point in history, so perhaps they could have instituted something like that, a financial transaction tax maybe, as there was a pretty big investment bubble that broke around the turn of the century that could result in the government wanting to moderate future bubbles.

There wasn't political will to cooperate on much, so I doubt that it was feasible in that way, but I acknowledged that at the very beginning of the OP, as I was interested in focusing on the result of such spending, not the way that it would be achieved.

edit:
http://books.google.com/books?id=cz...Bg#v=onepage&q=habsburg taxation 1914&f=false

http://english.habsburger.net/schla...iew?epochUID=bd42af46ee8e80296fdf7ebdd5796311
The financial watchmen were posted in front of the gates to the city and imposed the so-called consumption tax (Verzehrsteuer) on everyone who wanted to go into Vienna. This tax was levied primarily on foodstuffs, but also on other products. In Vienna there were over 220 articles of everyday consumption that were subject to this tax – out in the countryside there were just seven: wine, fruit juice, beer, brandy, sugar and cattle for slaughter. Hence at a stroke many foodstuffs and products became more expensive when they were brought into Vienna. It was the poorer sections of the population who were particularly affected by the consumption tax, because they were hit hardest by this tax imposed on food. The Monarchy’s taxation policy was the subject of many caricatures criticizing the expensive army and administration which the population had to finance.

The most important sources of revenue for the state were taxes, customs duties, fees and monopolies (e.g. salt, tobacco, lotteries). In addition to indirect taxes like the consumption tax, stamp duty and tolls there were also direct taxes on the ownership of land and buildings as well as on income.

Approximately one per cent of total annual state expenditure went on the imperial family and the Court, only a tiny share in comparison with other forms of expenditure. The army received one of the largest shares, namely around a quarter. The Liberals criticized the high percentage that went on military expenditure.

Nevertheless the Imperial-Royal (after 1867 Imperial and Royal) Army complained repeatedly that they were totally underfinanced and even made the Imperial Parliament (Reichsrat) responsible for their defeat by Prussia at Königgrätz (Sadova) in 1866, because it had not approved a large enough budget. Compared with other European armies the Austrian (after 1867 Austro-Hungarian) army was indeed financially less well endowed, although it is likely that if was military skill that ultimately determined victory or defeat. That we have any more or less accurate idea of what the state spent its money on has to do with the establishment of the Finance Ministry. Before the revolution of 1848 the Court Chamber (Hofkammer) was responsible for the state finances, but it drew up budgets only sporadically. The Imperial Diet (Reichsrat), which had been established as an advisory body in the constitution of March 1849 and upgraded to a genuine parliament in the constitution of February 1861, demanded annual budgets from the new Finance Ministry, because such plans gave a better overview and could be checked much more easily. After the compromise (Ausgleich) of 1867 the Austrian and Hungarian halves of the Empire pursued their own financial policies; when it came to the so-called ‘joint matters’ (gemeinsame Angelegenheiten) 70 per cent was financed by Austria and 30 per cent by Hungary. However, the budget situation remained tight and the state or the emperor often had to depend on loans from private financiers from the ‘second tier’ of society. Overall state expenditure increased sharply in the second half of the nineteenth century, above all as the result of the development of transport (especially railway) and telecommunications networks. The state was not responsible for providing social security, as this was paid for either by the provinces, towns and parishes or was financed on a purely private basis.
 
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Dang it, I thought this thread was going to allow me to create my ultimate allohistorical army. Panzer IVs fighting alongside T-34s while F-14s win dogfights overhead? Yes please.
 
the artillery and mg's would be the first and foremost items to be bought up; austria had good native designs in the former and just needed to make more of them

otherwise at least requiring the officers above company level to learn high school german would be tremendously helpful so they can be rotated as needed

with proper funding Austria should have had an active army of 35-40 divisions with a trained reserve of 1 million and a theoretical mobilization capacity of 4 million men
 
Would that be 4 million just for the Austrian part or for the whole of A-H, since I believe it should be closer to 6 for the whole A-H-
 

Deleted member 1487

otherwise at least requiring the officers above company level to learn high school german would be tremendously helpful so they can be rotated as needed
Every officers in the Landwehr and Combined army spoke German fluently to get promoted. All officers.
The problem was the NCOs and enlisted who couldn't understand German once the pre-war army was gone (they learned some in service). Most of the infantry was Slavic, while the technical services were German, Czech, or Jewish, all of whom were highly educated relative to the rest of the Empire and were likely multi-lingual.
But when the bulk of the army cannot understand German that is the problem.


with proper funding Austria should have had an active army of 35-40 divisions with a trained reserve of 1 million and a theoretical mobilization capacity of 4 million men
Would that be 4 million just for the Austrian part or for the whole of A-H, since I believe it should be closer to 6 for the whole A-H-

Given the A-H system of having no reserve divisions, they had 48 active divisions IOTL. Reservists just filled out the cadres. So it might be more like 60 divisions or more with reserves filling in the bulk, i.e. a larger version of OTL's structure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_Austria-Hungary
A-H had about 7.8 million deployed IOTL and for ages 15-49 around 9 million fit for duty.

I'd agree with Marko that the total mobilization would be closer to 6 million in 1914. IOTL they mobilized 3.35 million men by 1915 (2.5 million had military training), including new recruits with no training and everyone who ever had military training.

The Habsburg Empire had some 53,000,000 people in 1914, so that is quite a bit of manpower available for conscription. IOTL something like 29% of a conscription class was trained compared to the German totals of 47% trained. 423,809 reached military age in 1914, so 122,905 were trained under the A-H scheme, but under German conscription almost 200k could be trained, roughly 78,000 more each year. Add that up from 1900-1913 and that's over 1 million more men trained. IOTL there were 1,338,000 men mobilized in August 1914 (with about 1.1 million more with some form of military training), so with over 1 million more men (though some would not be available until later on, just as more than 1.5 million more men appeared within 6 months in the Habsburg military), there have have been a major expansion in the size of the military and not just in combat units.
 
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BlondieBC

Banned
Historically they had to learn some 50 commands (200 words total IIRC) in German in the Combined Army, mostly spoke German anyway in the Landwehr, or spoke Hungarian in the Honved. Teaching German as a language is difficult for political reasons in much of the Combined Army, either because of the lack of time/resources in the army (of three years of service one year equivalent was spent on leave to help with harvests), ethnic tensions and hate of German or Germans, or lack of development and educational infrastructure in poor parts of the Empire...so its tough to teach the language to people in the army or before given the resources available even with a properly funded army.

Replacements too aren't going to get the time to learn either once the war starts, even the 50 commands and 200 words. Still even the basic 'drill German' seems to have been enough, even with regimental languages other than German. I think it was a matter of recruiting the right officers other than just German, Czech, or Hungarians and not proportional ethnicities or reserve officers with the right language skills.

Of course with a larger army pre-war that means much more of the population is going to get to learn some German in the army, so the large number of reservists are going to have basic language skills even though they lack formal education. They will also have more military skills too, so can perhaps spend some time brushing up on language skills when getting retrained once a war starts. Plus more divisions and corps mean more officer slots, so more effort can be put into finding active duty officers with the right language skills/making them learn more regimental languages (IOTL they had 2 years IIRC to learn all of the necessary languages in their units or would be retired IIRC) and create a better, more representative reserve officer base, so they won't have to pair officers without necessary language skills with the 'wrong' units.

We had this in an earlier thread, but I will restate anyway. Only learning 50 commands and 200 words is a ridiculously small number. I easily learned that many commands and words in the US Army, and English is my only language. There are 10's of unique names associated with artillery peaces, many of them of French origin. Then all the parts of the M-16. I had to learn a 26 letter alphabet and to pronounce two number differently. And all this is excluding things learned for the Battalion TOC. So as a first step, it is mandatory that we get the basic military terms in German. Even if you decide let each soldier regiment operate in their native tongue, there is not excuse for not having 11 different names for the copper ring around an artillery shell, and if this is still hugely sensitive, you can use the Latin/French term. Life is so much easier if the proper nouns for items in the military is standardized.

Then we can get to the issue of using German as a language. I understand that teaching an illiterate person how to read and write takes too large a share of the 2 or so years of active service, this is not true to speak German. With the high illiteracy rates, i doubt written orders were used at below the rank of Platoon Sergeant. I have picked up many dozens of German words just on this board as a hobby. If you simply put me in a German military unit for 3 months, I am approaching functional German for a private. I have seen corporate training programs of 6 months of immersion training, and you are expected to read and write the language well enough to survive in a corporate office. There is not technical reason this could not have been done, even with illiterate peasants who spoke another language.

Now I understand the political issues related to the second part of this, but I don't understand the issue of going using German proper commands. There are many terms and phrase that I have not used since I left the military - names of parts of artillery shell and breach, SALUTE Report, NBC1, CS, Mogas, Hemmit, etc. I don't see why these cause political issues, I doubt most of the soldiers will ever use these words again once they leave the military. And if done decades before WW1, these words will just be transliterated. So in say Hungarian, the word for air force will be Luftwaffe, the word for armored vehicle will be panzer, etc. IMO, a lot more can be done in this area without causing race riots. There are lots of shades of grey between Germanizing everyone (black) and learning 250 military terms (white with a hint of grey).
 

BlondieBC

Banned
Every officers in the Landwehr and Combined army spoke German fluently to get promoted. All officers.
The problem was the NCOs and enlisted who couldn't understand German once the pre-war army was gone (they learned some in service). Most of the infantry was Slavic, while the technical services were German, Czech, or Jewish, all of whom were highly educated relative to the rest of the Empire and were likely multi-lingual.
But when the bulk of the army cannot understand German that is the problem.

Isn't what you need more of the Prussian model where many people are drafted, then discharge so they can be called back up. Then you have enough funding to go towards the German level of 72 guns per division and German levels of machine guns, the issue are largely fixed. You will need a few more fortress cities of quality in Galicia, but the rest of the borders are easy to defend.

I'd agree with Marko that the total mobilization would be closer to 6 million in 1914. IOTL they mobilized 3.35 million men by 1915 (2.5 million had military training), including new recruits with no training and everyone who ever had military training.

The Habsburg Empire had some 53,000,000 people in 1914, so that is quite a bit of manpower available for conscription. IOTL something like 29% of a conscription class was trained compared to the German totals of 47% trained. 423,809 reached military age in 1914, so 122,905 were trained under the A-H scheme, but under German conscription almost 200k could be trained, roughly 78,000 more each year. Add that up from 1900-1913 and that's over 1 million more men trained. IOTL there were 1,338,000 men mobilized in August 1914 (with about 1.1 million more with some form of military training), so with over 1 million more men (though some would not be available until later on, just as more than 1.5 million more men appeared within 6 months in the Habsburg military), there have have been a major expansion in the size of the military and not just in combat units.

OK say you went to the 49% German did, this boost the callable reserve of manpower near to 5 million. This largely fixes the manpower issues for the first year of the war. There was a respected model next door that could be copied. Since you have created the political will to improve, why not just have them copy the winning model?
 

Deleted member 1487

We had this in an earlier thread, but I will restate anyway. Only learning 50 commands and 200 words is a ridiculously small number. I easily learned that many commands and words in the US Army, and English is my only language. There are 10's of unique names associated with artillery peaces, many of them of French origin. Then all the parts of the M-16. I had to learn a 26 letter alphabet and to pronounce two number differently. And all this is excluding things learned for the Battalion TOC. So as a first step, it is mandatory that we get the basic military terms in German. Even if you decide let each soldier regiment operate in their native tongue, there is not excuse for not having 11 different names for the copper ring around an artillery shell, and if this is still hugely sensitive, you can use the Latin/French term. Life is so much easier if the proper nouns for items in the military is standardized.

Then we can get to the issue of using German as a language. I understand that teaching an illiterate person how to read and write takes too large a share of the 2 or so years of active service, this is not true to speak German. With the high illiteracy rates, i doubt written orders were used at below the rank of Platoon Sergeant. I have picked up many dozens of German words just on this board as a hobby. If you simply put me in a German military unit for 3 months, I am approaching functional German for a private. I have seen corporate training programs of 6 months of immersion training, and you are expected to read and write the language well enough to survive in a corporate office. There is not technical reason this could not have been done, even with illiterate peasants who spoke another language.

Now I understand the political issues related to the second part of this, but I don't understand the issue of going using German proper commands. There are many terms and phrase that I have not used since I left the military - names of parts of artillery shell and breach, SALUTE Report, NBC1, CS, Mogas, Hemmit, etc. I don't see why these cause political issues, I doubt most of the soldiers will ever use these words again once they leave the military. And if done decades before WW1, these words will just be transliterated. So in say Hungarian, the word for air force will be Luftwaffe, the word for armored vehicle will be panzer, etc. IMO, a lot more can be done in this area without causing race riots. There are lots of shades of grey between Germanizing everyone (black) and learning 250 military terms (white with a hint of grey).

The basic German learned was for basic training. Technical branches like the artillery learned much more AFAIK. Infantry at that time did not really need to know more than the basic drill commands for the quality of training at that time. Plus the officers new the language of units they were posted to, as they tried to keep peoples of the same language in the same units and random non-speakers of the regimental language were expected to pick up the regimental language on their own via immersion. This worked well until the war started and casualties picked up and the lack of trained manpower meant that various ethnic groups speaking different languages were tossed into the same unit unlike pre-war practice.

With more men trained, in reserve, and more divisions and corps pre-war the A-H army then can focus replacements to the linguistically appropriate units instead of 'making due' as massive losses required reasonable pre-war practices to break down because of lack of trained replacements. More trained men means more NCOs and officers with the necessary linguistic capabilities, unlike the rather limited pools IOTL.

Actually it would also mean a large training apparatus to accomodate the larger intake of men each year, so the replacements once the war starts will have more training, or at least more men can be trained at once, so that there will be less of a need to thrust under/untrained levees into combat as IOTL.

Isn't what you need more of the Prussian model where many people are drafted, then discharge so they can be called back up.
Every army including the A-H's had that system in place IOTL. Do you mean the reserve division system?

Then you have enough funding to go towards the German level of 72 guns per division and German levels of machine guns, the issue are largely fixed. You will need a few more fortress cities of quality in Galicia, but the rest of the borders are easy to defend.
They also have the money to go for the OTL plan of 160+ guns per corps and lots of howitzers, which IOTL they were slowly working toward thanks to lack of funds to do it rapidly. Yes, Lemberg and Przemyl need to be modernized like Krakow was, but that was only part of the issues, as even Przemysl's inner forts, though outmoded, where pretty much irrelevant compared to the earthworks and various other positions built by engineers in August around the city IOTL. So modernizing the forts is less important than having engineers fortify the city with outer rings of defensive positions like Przemysl was IOTL, which was cheaper, easier, and more effective than modernizing inner fortresses IMHO. Though building some outer ring positions wouldn't hurt around a city like Lemberg.

OK say you went to the 49% German did, this boost the callable reserve of manpower near to 5 million. This largely fixes the manpower issues for the first year of the war. There was a respected model next door that could be copied. Since you have created the political will to improve, why not just have them copy the winning model?
You're right, if we're assuming that there is proper funding and conscription we can safely create a modern military system like Germany's and disregard the historical three armies that existed in the Empire. Anyway Conrad wanted the reserve division system based on 60 divisions IOTL before the war broke out. Not sure how many corps that would be, I'm thinking at least 20 if not more.
 
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But how to deal with non germanic people resenting the use of german in the military? Without increesing tension within A-H the military must use a language that is spoken by none of its people so it doesn't look like favouring one over another. I would suggest latin which is quite easy it learn for Slavic, Romanian, Italian and German speakers and slightly more troublesome for the Magyars.
 
Every officers in the Landwehr and Combined army spoke German fluently to get promoted. All officers.
The problem was the NCOs and enlisted who couldn't understand German once the pre-war army was gone (they learned some in service). Most of the infantry was Slavic, while the technical services were German, Czech, or Jewish, all of whom were highly educated relative to the rest of the Empire and were likely multi-lingual.

you could have regiments be linguistic based like in canada, only generals and officers assigned to them or in support branches would be require to speak german & hungarian.
 
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