2nd Army (Austria-Hungary)

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The Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army was in the First World War a military major formation of the Austro-Hungarian army , in 1914 shortly in Srem and thereafter until the end of the war on the Eastern Front was used. After the armistice with Russia, the army command remained on the Eastern Front and was renamed the Austro-Hungarian Eastern Army in May 1918 .

history

Against Serbia in 1914

General of the Cavalry Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli, drawing by Oskar Brüch

The entire time of the war, the 2nd Army was subordinate to the General of the Cavalry (from May 1, 1916, Colonel General ) Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli , while Major General von Mecenseffy initially served as Chief of Staff .

Feldzeugmeister Oskar Potiorek was able to get the Chief of General Staff Conrad von Hötzendorf to get the 2nd Army to take part in the battles against the Serbs with 6½ infantry and 1 cavalry division. The army remained in support of the Austro-Hungarian Balkan forces until August 20, 1914, although according to the deployment plans it was immediately intended for the fight against Russia .

  • IV Corps under General Tersztyánszky von Nádas with 31st and 32nd Divisions, ½ 7th Infantry Division (ITD)
  • IX. Corps Command, 29th ITD, ½ 7th Infantry Division and 10th Cavalry Division, as well as Landsturm troops secure in Syrmia.
  • The VII Corps (17th and 34th ITD as well as 2 Landsturm infantry and 1 marching brigade) had to stay defensive between Pancsova and Báziás and to force the Danube at Orșova with a weak group .

But the right wing of the army took part with the IV. Corps on the offensive by attacks on the Save on Sabac . The IX. "Prager Korps" operated with the 29th ITD and 21st Rifle Division from the north and west against Mitrowitza and Sabac. On August 12, 1914, the Landsturm Brigade under Major General Letovsky attacked Sabac. A brigade under Major General von Dáni crossed the Sava at Klenak and took Šabac with heavy artillery support. On August 19, the Corps Command IX went with the 23rd Honved Division and the 10th Cavalry Division to the 4th Army in Galicia. Army Command 2 left the Balkan Front on August 21, Corps Command VII left the East on August 24, Corps Command IV only on August 30. The latter units strengthened the Kövess army group in the battle in Galicia .

In Galicia 1914

The 3rd Army front in Galicia, which was already heavily pressed at the end of August, forced the 2nd Army to be evacuated from Serbia. From August 25, the first parts of the VII. Corps arrived at the Dniester bridge head near Halicz , until then the Kövess Army Group, with the III., XII., XI. Corps and several cavalry divisions maneuvered. The Army Group Kövess (Corps Command XII.) Could not withstand the Battle of the Gnila Lipa of the Russian 8th Army between Meryszczow – Podkamien – Rohatyn on August 30 and flooded back onto the Swirz. On the south wing, the front could only be held by the intervention of the first incoming units of the 2nd Army (initially only 34th Division) between Rohatyn and Babuchow. By the end of August, the IV and VII Corps from Serbia arrived. After the union with XII. Corps, the 2nd Army counted 235 battalions, 108 squadrons and 115 batteries on September 2nd and arrived at the battle of Lemberg with the following structure .

XII. Corps (Hermannstadt) GDI Hermann Kövess von Kövessháza

  • 11. ITD (Lemberg): FML Alois Pokorny
  • 16. ITD (Hermannstadt) FML Franz Paukert, from September 1914 FML Schariczer
  • 35th ITD (Klausenburg) FML Viktor Njegovan, from September 1914 FML Fox

VII. Corps (Temesvár) GDI Otto Meixner von Zweienstamm , from September Andreas Fail-Greissler, from November 1914 Archduke Joseph

IV Corps (Budapest) GDK Tersztyánszky von Nádas

Cover group on the Dniester

  • 38. HID. (Klausenburg) FML Johann Freiherr Karg von Bebenburg
  • 1st Cav. Div. (Temesvár): GM Artur Freiherr Peteani von Steinberg
  • 5th Honved Cav. Div. (Budapest): FML Ernst von Froreich
  • 8th Cav. Div. (Stanislau): FML Georg Edler von Lehmann

The counterattack of the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army at Grodek and on the Werescyca led since September 8th by two corps of the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army with the XII. and VII. Corps extended. By September 10th, the attacks against the Russian 8th Army broke down bloody, in a counter-attack instead Russian Cossack regiments overran the Austro-Hungarian positions and were already operating in the rear of the shattered Austro-Hungarian units. The entire Austrian front in Galicia was in retreat on the San, where the front could catch up again. The withdrawal order of September 11th led the southernmost army, the 2nd Army fighting on both sides of the upper Dniester, back to the Carpathians .

On September 27, 1914, Carl von Bardolff became the new Chief of the General Staff of the 2nd Army. Between October 13 and 20, the 2nd Army fought in vain between Chyrów and Stary Sambor for the positions that were still held and then had to go back to the ridge.

In Russian Poland 1914/15

By the end of October, after the battle of the Vistula, the entire front in Poland was forced to retreat, and the 1st Army also returned to the fortress area of ​​Krakow via the Nida . As a result of the threat to the area near Cracow and Prussian Silesia, all armies of the Central Powers from the central Vistula and the San were in tactical retreat. However, this enabled greater shifts in forces. The Landwehr Corps fought its way back to the Pilica between October 21 and 28 and was setting up defense north of Czestochowa . At the request of the German Army Command, the Army High Command, the XII. and the IV. Corps in the Carpathian Mountains and from November 8th transported by rail to Silesia. On November 13 the unloading at Lublinitz (XII. Corps) and Rosenberg- Kreuzburg (IV. Corps) was completed. The army found strong support in the area north of Czestochowa from its right neighbor, the Silesian Landwehr Corps under General von Woyrsch . Opponent was the Russian 4th Army, making the Novo-Radomsk front in the area on both sides .

At the end of November 1914, the 2nd Army covered the southern wing of the German 9th Army during the Battle of Łódź . In the following battles in the Belchatow and Petrikau area (beginning of December 1914), AOK 2 was subordinate to three corps groups:

XII. Corps General of the Infantry Hermann Kövess von Kövessháza

IV. Corps General of the Cavalry Karl Tersztyánszky von Nádas

Hauer Cavalry Corps

On December 12th the XII. Corps on the right wing of the 2nd Army on both sides of the Warta near Prusiecko, the 4th Corps was in the middle of the army up to the Widawka near Rogowiec. In the north, the Hauer cavalry corps closed 8 kilometers east to Belchatow, while the 27th Division covered the road to Piotrków. At Boehm-Ermolli's suggestion, General der Artillerie von Gallwitz took over the command of the 17th and 1st Guard Reserve Corps with the Corps Command of the Guard Reserve Corps .

Again in the Carpathian Mountains

While in the spring of 1915 only the XII. Corps remained in Russian Poland , the 2nd Army was ordered back to Galicia as a result of the Carpathian Battle. On February 12, 1915, Army Command 2 returned to the Carpathian Mountains and was pushed into the mountain front on the eastern wing of the 3rd Army. During the unsuccessful relief attacks on the encircled Przemysl fortress on the San , the 2nd Army was subordinate to the following major units:

  • IV Corps (FML Schmidt von Georgenegg ) with 31st and 43rd divisions
  • V Corps (FML Puhallo von Brlog ) with 27th and 33rd divisions
  • XIX. Corps (FML Trollmann ) with 25th and 34th divisions
  • XVIII. Corps (FML Ziegler ) with 37th Honved and 44th Landwehr Divisions
  • Szurmay group with 38th and 40th Honved Divisions
Visit to Lemberg in August 1916: Hindenburg , Böhm-Ermolli and Ludendorff

On February 27, the corps group of the General of the Cavalry Tersztyánszky began with the IV., XVIII. and XIX. Corps launched a new relief attack twelve kilometers wide. As early as February 28, it ran completely stuck, the Russians for their part immediately launched strong counter-attacks and brought the relief operation to a complete standstill by mid-March.

All attempts to break through via Baligrod and Sanok to the Przemyśl fortress failed due to the resistance of the Russian 11th Army . The Szurmay group was assigned the defense of the Uschok Pass and in mid-February 1915 handed over to the German southern army inserted on the right wing of the army .

After the successful breakthrough of the Central Powers in the Battle of Gorlice-Tarnów (May 1915), the 2nd Army succeeded in leaving the Carpathian positions and after the Battle of Grodek on June 22, 1915, the recapture of Lviv . During the operations around Gródek and Lemberg, the 2nd Army comprised the following troops:

IV Army Corps (General Schmidt von Georgenegg)

  • 27th Division (FML Kosak)
  • 43rd Honved Division (Major General Jordan-Rozwadowski )
  • 32nd Division (Major General Willerding)
  • 31st Division (Major General Lütgendorf )

XIX. Army Corps (FML Trollmann)

  • 13th Rifle Division (Major General Kreysa)
  • 34th Division (Major General Birkenhain)
  • 29th Division (Major General Kroupa)

XVIII. Army Corps (General Ziegler )

  • 9th Division (FML Alfred von Schenk)
  • 1st Landsturm Brigade
  • 33rd Division (FML Theodor von Hordt)

V Army Corps (General Goglia )

  • 14th Division (FML Csicserics from Bacsány )
  • 4th Cavalry Division (Major General Berndt)
  • 51st Honved Division (Major General Kornhaber)

Trench warfare in Eastern Galicia 1915–1917

As a result of the failed campaign to Rovno in September 1915, the Army had in the in Eastern Galicia after heavy Russian counter-attacks again trench warfare pass. In the autumn fighting of 1915, the 2nd Army had two corps groups with around 95,000 men, 53 squadrons (5,350 riders) and 392 artillery pieces:

  • XVIII. Corps (FML Czibulka ) with 31st and 32nd divisions and 1st cavalry division
  • IV Corps (FML Schmidt von Georgenegg ) with 27th and 51st divisions

At the beginning of the Brusilov offensive (June / July 1916) the positions of the Austro- Hungarian 2nd Army east of Brody and on the upper Ikwa in close connection with the German southern army could be held, although the left neighbor was XVIII. 1st Army Corps collapsed on July 21 before the Russian attacks.

Cossack group

  • 27th Division (Major General Ferdinand Kosak)
  • 4th Cavalry Division (Major General Otto Berndt)
  • 7th Cavalry Division (FML Ignaz Edler von Korda )

V Corps under FML Goglia

  • 31st Division (Major General Joseph Lieb)
  • 29th Division (FML Joseph Schön)

IV. Corps under FML Albert Schmidt von Georgenegg

  • 33rd Division (FML Theodor von Hordt, from August 1916 Major General Artur Iwański)
  • 14th Division (Major General Ladislaus Horváth, from September 1916 FML Franz Szende)

1918 advance and renaming to the Eastern Army

To enforce peace, the XII began at the end of February 1918, and soon the XXV. Corps (11th, 30th and 59th Divisions) from the area east of Tarnopol and the 54th Rifle Division and the 2nd Cavalry Division on both sides of the Dniester advanced through Bessarabia towards Odessa . Field Marshal von Böhm-Ermolli judged after the departure of the XII. and XXV. Corps to Ukraine, at the old imperial border from the remaining units of the V and XVIII. Corps secured a security, the 27th and 38th Divisions were transported to South Tyrol. After Armeekommando 4 (Karl Freiherr von Kirchbach) was dissolved, the 2nd remained in existence. Böhm-Ermolli was ordered to succeed Colonel General von Kirchbach with his staff to Odessa, where he took command on April 5, 1918. After the peace between Brest-Litovsk and Soviet Russia (March 3), Army Command 2 remained on the Eastern Front and was finally renamed the Austro-Hungarian Eastern Army. At the end of May 1918, General of the Infantry Alfred Krauss took over command in Odessa, with Major General Belitska serving as Chief of Staff.

XXV. Corps (General of the Infantry Peter von Hofmann )

  • 155th Honved Division (GM Felix Ritter Innocence von Melasfeld)
  • 54th Rifle Division (FML Viktor Severus Edler von Laubenfeld)

XVII. Corps (General of the Infantry Ludwig von Fabini )

  • 7th Cavalry Division (Major General Ignaz Edler von Korda)
  • 11th Division (FML Rudolf Metz von Spondalunga)

XII. Corps (General of the Infantry Rudolf von Braun )

XI. Corps (FML Hugo von Habermann )

  • 30th Division (FML Moritz Jesser)
  • 59th Division (FML Kletus von Pichler)
  • 4th Cavalry Division (GM Otto von Berndt)

Commander in chief

literature

  • Anton Wagner: The First World War. Carl Ueberreuter Verlag, Vienna 1981, p. 47 f.
  • Hermann Stegemann: History of the World War. Volume I, Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1917.
  • Austria-Hungary's last war. Volume I, publisher: Edmund Glaise-Horstenau, Verlag der Militärwissenschaftlichen Mitteilungen, Vienna 1930.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Austria-Hungary's last war. Volume I, Vienna 1930, p. 66.
  2. ↑ Austria-Hungary's last war. Volume I, Vienna 1930, p. 66.
  3. ↑ Austria-Hungary's last war. Volume I, p. 772.
  4. ↑ Austria-Hungary's last war. Volume III, Vienna 1932, p. 19.