The k.u.k. Army: Forward to the last war!

HGM Director Christian Ortner has revised his 2013 book “Die k.u.k.. Armee und ihr letzter Krieg” (The Austro-Hungarian Army and its Last War) and expanded it by several chapters. On 372 pages, Ortner reports on the reasons for the start of the First World War, the most important military events and some previously unknown aspects.

Anyone looking for information about the First World War in book form was already in good hands with Christian Ortner. The director of the Museum of Military History in Vienna has published numerous standard works in recent years (including “Die 7,5 cm Gebirgskanone” in the Winkler-Hermaden edition, “Der 30,5 cm Mörser”, “Unsere Kriegsflotte 1556-1908/18” and “Die k.u.k.. Armee im Ersten Weltkrieg: Uniformierung und Ausrüstung – von 1914 bis 1918” all published by Kral Verlag) and now publishes “Die k.u.k.. Armee und ihr letzter Krieg” (The Austro-Hungarian Army and its Last War) adds a further 372 pages. This is a generous and extremely successful revision and expansion of his work with the same title, which was published in 2013. In it, Ortner focuses on the most important military events from an Austro-Hungarian perspective and underpins these with numerous original photos that have never been published before. These come almost exclusively from his private archive, which he has collected over many years. Ortner begins with the armament efforts of the Danube Monarchy up to 1914, followed by the fateful assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie Chotek and the days leading up to the start of the war. The next chapters then concentrate on the individual years of the war, before focusing on the nationalization of the war, animals on the front, the development of the Austro-Hungarian combat procedure, the role of “army nurses”, “riflewomen” and “blessiers” as well as religion in war and the development of uniforms during the war years. The chapters on the Austro-Hungarian navy are particularly well done and interesting. Kriegsmarine and in particular the mechanization of the war, from flamethrowers, artillery, reconnaissance and combat aircraft to armoured cars and the first tanks. The contents of the chapter entitled “The Austro-Hungarian Desert War”, which focuses primarily on the war between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, are probably rather unknown even to those who are interested. Desert War”, which focuses primarily on the deployment of Austro-Hungarian troops at Gallipoli (Canakkale) and in the Ottoman Empire.

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