Rating Ludwing von Benedek, Josef Radetsky von Radetz, and Archduke Albrecht:

Austrian Generals Rating:

  • Austrian warmaking suffered from poor leadership and Radetsky also is a poor leader

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These three men represented the *other* Germany's military. At least part of the issues of the WWI Austro-Hungarian state in a military sense must be put on Benedek, but there's the other two who are more strictly speaking worth grading on quality as well.

First, there's Radetsky, who was a Czech, and who was perhaps the great general of Franz Josef's Austria. He managed to derail the first attempt to establish a European united nation-state in a sequence of victories that saw skillful use of terrain and helped save Franz Josef's reign from falling apart at the very start. He was perhaps the greatest single general of the late Habsburg dynasty's era.

Archduke Albrecht, of course, was the guy who won Custoza. On the one hand he won one of the few land battles Austria actually won in that war, on the other hand he was facing Piedmont-Sardinia.

Then there's Benedek, who was promoted despite never having fought a battle. He was pretty much schooled by Moltke in the lead-in to Koniggratz, then failed entirely to follow through with the options he had during the battle to win it from sheer passivity. His leadership style consisted primarily of standing there on the field, and he made no real efforts to direct the Austrian side in what was the biggest battle in Europe since Leipzig. After the war he began the process of Dolchstosslegende that ensured that Austro-Hungarian officers never altered a number of the military defects in organization of 1866, which coupled with the profoundly sclerotic bureaucracy of the last days of the empire did not and could not end well.

So how do we rate these examples of the *other* Germany's generals?
 
I won't go so far as to say that it is all Franz Ferdinand's fault, but certainly the Hapsburg Austrians weaknesses in the later 19th century largely stemmed from the clusterfuck of a government and the lack of strong political leadership.
 
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Where's the Albrecht and Radetsky were good, Benedek was over promoted option? Benedek's actions were the only good Austrian leadership to come out of the 1859 War, suggesting a degree of aggression that didn't emerge in 1866. Albrecht was the opposite: the bespectacled bureaucrat who, ultimately, made good.
 
I won't go so far as to say that it is all Franz Ferdinand's fault, but certainly the Hapsburg Austrians weaknesses in the later 19th century largely stemmed from the clusterfuck of a government and the lack of strong political leadership.

Franz Josef, not Franz Ferdinand. FJ was the guy who held onto power and refused to give it up. I think there's some truth to that, but I also think Austria's generals just plain blamed defeat on their leaders to avoid facing up to actual defects, such as an overly rigid staff system and generals who were relatively poor at either responding to events or even using terrain well when it might well have favored them.

Where's the Albrecht and Radetsky were good, Benedek was over promoted option? Benedek's actions were the only good Austrian leadership to come out of the 1859 War, suggesting a degree of aggression that didn't emerge in 1866. Albrecht was the opposite: the bespectacled bureaucrat who, ultimately, made good.

Good point, that one should have been there.
 
I won't go so far as to say that it is all Franz Ferdinand's fault, but certainly the Hapsburg Austrians weaknesses in the later 19th century largely stemmed from the clusterfuck of a government and the lack of strong political leadership.

Franz Ferdinand was the heir apparent to the austro-hungarian empire, whose death lead to crack of tensions between the major powers and the excuse to go to war

Franz -Josef was the guy who fucked everything up in the 19th centuary, with his refusals to listen to other people and arrogance that lead to his families split
 
Franz -Josef was the guy who fucked everything up in the 19th centuary, with his refusals to listen to other people and arrogance that lead to his families split

Not to mention the fact that he ruled for so goddam long that he was a significant chunk of Hapsburg legitimacy by the time he died (A guys who's been ruling for a solid couple generations accumulates a bit of loyalty, and there was IIRC quite a bit of worry about instability if he had died in peacetime.)
 
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