6th Army (Austria-Hungary)

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The Austro-Hungarian 6th Army was a large unit of the Austro-Hungarian Army during the First World War . At the beginning of the war in 1914, the Army High Command was in the Serbian theater of war , but was disbanded before the end of the year because of the heavy losses. In the course of the advance in the Venetian lowlands after the twelfth battle of the Isonzo , the 6th Army was reactivated in January 1918 and deployed on the central Piave front until the end of the war.

history

Serbia campaign 1914

Feldzeugmeister Oskar Potiorek

Shortly after the outbreak of war with Serbia , the Commander-in-Chief Feldzeugmeister Potiorek ordered the concentration of the 6th Army in the area east of Sarajevo on July 30, 1914 . After the mobilization was completed, this army was to take the offensive in the direction of the Drina to Užice . At the beginning of the war, the army had 56 battalions, 3 squadrons and 106 artillery pieces; Major General Eduard Böltz acted as chief of staff .

The 5th Army led the first major attack south of the Save and west of the Drina . On August 5th, the Kingdom of Montenegro also declared war on the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, which forced Potiorek to withdraw several mountain brigades of the 6th Army to the south for security.

XV. Corps (Sarajevo) under Infantry General Michael von Appel

  • 48th ITD: FML Johann Eisler von Eisenhort with 10th Mountain Brigade (Colonel Heinrich von Droffa) and 12th Mountain Brigade (Major General Franz Kalser )
  • 1st ITD: FML Stephan Bogat with 7th (Major General Otto Seric) and 9th Mountain Brigade (Colonel Joseph Hrozny)

XVI. Corps (Ragusa) under Feldzeugmeister Wenzel Wurm

  • 18. ITD (Mostar): FML. Ignaz Trollmann (4th, 5th, 6th and 8th Mountain Brigade)
  • 1st Mountain Brigade: GM. Guido Novak from Arienti
  • 2nd Mountain Brigade: GM. Theodor Gabriel
  • 13th Mountain Brigade: Colonel Anton Bechtold
  • Drina protection under FML Lukas Snjarič (Landsturm Group Hauser and 17th Mountain Brigade)

Herzegovina and Cattaro group

  • 40th HID (Budapest): FML Joseph Braun (79th and 80th Honved Brigade)
  • 3rd Mountain Brigade: Major General Heinrich Pongrácz
  • 15th Mountain Brigade: Colonel Heinrich von Wieden
  • 16th Mountain Brigade: Major General Erwin Zeidler - the 50th Division (FML Kalser ) was formed from the 3rd, 15th and 16th Mountain Brigade in mid-September
  • 47. HID (Castelnuovo): Major General Friedrich Novak

After the failure of the 5th Army in the Battle of Jadar (August 1914), the 6th Army on the Upper Drina also had to retreat. At the beginning of September 1914, the 5th Army was dispatched to the new main attack across the Drina . The Battle of the Drina began on September 7th, in the area of ​​the 6th Army, mountain troops were to cross the Drina at the Bend of the Javorak and take Rogatica . The XV. and XVI. Zvornik was to build a bridgehead on both sides of the Drina River and achieve the withdrawal of the Serbs to the Jagodnja Mountains. On September 8, the mountain brigades of the XVI. Corps on both sides of the Drinjaca estuary crossed the river. The target of the 1st Infantry Troop Division was Krupanj , the strategic aim of the 6th Army was to encircle the opposing Serbian 3rd Army from the south and to roll up the entire opposing front in the Mačva . After regrouping , a Serb counterattack took place on September 17th at Mount Mačkov, but was repulsed by September 22nd after several days of fighting over the Jagodnja. Meanwhile, the Serbian army group Užice broke out of the Sanjak between September 23 and 28 in the area of ​​the Romanija planina into the kuk front to break through directly to Sarajevo . The Serbian division Sumadja II advanced on Mrkalje from the Rogatica area, the Montenegrin Drina Brigade advanced from the Goražde area on Kalinovik. The Serbian Srebrenica detachment was thrown back by the 8th Mountain Brigade (Major General Andrian ) near Osmače, while Lieutenant Colonel Chwostek's brigade held out at Vlasenica . The Serbian invasion of southeastern Bosnia was halted.

For a new kuk counteroffensive Potiorek reinforced the XV. Corps (Appel) in its captured defensive with the 7th and 9th Mountain Brigade (1st Division) and let the XVI. Attack corps (worm). The newly formed combined division (1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th and 14th Mountain Brigade) under Major General Goiginger had to hold the Drina bridgehead at Zvornik. To the south of it, the 18th Division (FML Trollmann) was supposed to push back the Serbian Division Sumadja II from October 18th. from the west, the 50th Division (FML Kalser) advanced from the Foča area against the Montenegrin Plevlje Division on the Romanja planina. By October 21, the second Sumadija division had been pushed back to the Kitak-Babljak-Vratar contour line. The Serbian army command, dissatisfied with General Božanović , the commander of the Užice army group , was replaced by General Aračić .

In mid-November, the Austrians pushed through Valjevo on the Kolubara in heavy fighting . The Serbian 1st Army under Mišić began on December 3rd with a surprising counter-offensive against the 6th Army, which lasted until December 9th and completely surprised the Austrians, who were already confident of victory. In a dramatic turn, the Austro-Hungarian offensive was stopped. Potiorek had to hurry back behind the Kolubara, the withdrawal of the 6th Army took place through the Macva to the north, on December 15th the evacuation of the recently conquered Belgrade was ordered. The Austro-Hungarian 5th and 6th Armies lost more than half of their still powerful units in these retreat battles. An outbreak of epidemic also decimated the kuk troops, which was also the commander of the XV. Corps, Freiherr von Appel fell victim. During the transition to trench warfare , the Army High Command was dissolved. Archduke Eugen was given command of the Balkan front, together with his chief of staff, Krauss , the strict defensive was initiated in Syrmia .

Reorganization in 1918 on the Piavefront

Alois Eduard Prince von Schönburg-Hartenstein as Colonel General; Drawing by Oskar Brüch

On January 15, 1918, a new Army High Command 6 was reactivated to replace the 2nd Isonzo Army, which had recently been disbanded. Field Marshal Boroevic von Bojna , the commander of the superior Boroevic Army Group , was instructed to conduct a new offensive across the Piave in the spring of 1918 . The 6th Army under Archduke Joseph had to take part in the Second Battle of the Piave (June 1916). During the attack, for tactical reasons, the right wing of the army was assigned to the Austro-Hungarian 11th Army on the Grappa massif .

  • XV. Corps under Gen. Inf. Karl Scotti (20th, 48th and 50th Division)
  • II. Corps under Gen. the Inf. Rudolf Krauss (8th and 11th Cavalry Division)
  • XXIV Corps under Gen. Inf. Ludwig Goiginger (13th, 17th, 31st Infantry Division)

The 13th and 17th divisions had crossed the Piave under cover of darkness on June 15, 1918 and had completely taken the Italian bank positions by 6.15 in the morning. By the end of the day, the eastern and northern slopes of the plateau had also been stormed despite strong Italian resistance. On June 16, the threatened section of the Italians was reinforced with the 48th Division, a transition attempt by the right-wing kuk 31st Division at Falzè di Piave initially failed. The counterattack of the Italian 8th Army, which was scheduled for June 19, could not force the Austro-Hungarian troops back down from the slope. The XXIV Corps had brought in a total of 84 artillery pieces and 12,000 prisoners since the start of the attack, but the Piave battle could no longer be victorious from June 20th.

In the Italian counteroffensive at the end of October 1918, the front of the Austro-Hungarian 6th Army between Vidor and Falze di Piave was torn up by the Italian 8th Army under General Enrico Caviglia , a bridgehead was formed and the decisive breakthrough in the direction of Vittorio Veneto was forced.

Commander in chief

literature

  • Austrian Federal Ministry of the Army from the war archive. "Austria-Hungary's last war 1914-1918", seven volumes of text and supplements, Verlag der Militärwissenschaftlichen Mitteilungen, Vienna 1930
  • Anton Wagner: The First World War . Troop service series, Carl Ueberreuter Verlag, 1981

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Austria-Hungary's Last War, Volume I, Vienna 1930, p. 65
  2. ↑ Austria-Hungary's Last War, Volume I, Vienna 1930, pp. 608–612
  3. ↑ Austria-Hungary's Last War, Volume I, Vienna 1930, pp. 650–656
  4. ↑ Austria-Hungary's Last War, Volume VII, Verlag der Militärwissenschaftliche Mitteilungen, Vienna 1938, pp. 235–300

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