| WESTERN FRONT FRANCE 1918. Austrian prisoners of war. USA Signal Corps Archives. |
| "A further request for troops for the western Front was received during the last year of war, and altogether four infantry divisions under k.u.k. XVIII Korpskommando were sent to France. The Germans had no intention of deploying them as corps, but put them into the front lines in the Verdun area as separate divisions; the Korps-kommando had just one of them and some further German units under command. With the proven exception of the artillery, the Germans do not seem to have had high expectations of the fighting abilities of the Austro-Hungarian forces, and insisted on putting many of the soldiers through basic battle school before sending them to the trenches. The Austro-Hungarians were not posted to the most dangerous sectors; but they suffered significant losses during the final Allied advance of autumn 1918, when they were assaulted by American and French troops with tanks support for which they had no answer. THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN FORCES in WORLD WAR 1 (Peter Jung) |
| "The 4 Divisions sent to France in mid 1918 were all pretty well useless (two,37,HID and 106,LstID, never really saw action; which was better, since they would have gone to pieces). All the divisions sent to France were in a bad way-like pretty much the rest of the A-H Army by mid-1918. Logistics were terrible, morale generally not much better. The 35.ID, which did very well on the Isonzo in 1917, had shot it's bolt by the next year and didn't hold up very well when in battle in the Fall 1918. Neither did 1.ID, which was actually a "new" division (the original 1.ID having been reorg'd away in the early 1918 revamping that recast the whole Army at the div. level) and was a mish-mash of units from mostly the Hungarian half of the Empire; it's battle record was not altogether glorious in 1918 either. The units sent West, incl. officers, understood well that they were being sent to certain doom; the Germans had already buckled at Amiens after they got there, it was hopeless; even many Imperial German units were running away at that point- not altogether inspiring. (another unnamed source) |
| US forces engaged the Austrian 35th Division during the St. Mihiel offensive on the 12th of September 1918. Most likely, the Austrians only offered limited resistance and were mainly involved in being killed, surrendering or retreating from the advancing American forces. "Losses were given as 99 officers and 3,268 other ranks, as well as 79 MG's and 18 artillery pieces."(Osterreich_Ungarns letzter Krieg"vol 7) |
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| STARS AND STRIPES MARCH 7th 1919 |
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