This is a definitive account of the Austro-Hungarian Royal and Imperial Army during the First World War. Graydon A. Tunstall shows how Austria-Hungary entered the war woefully unprepared for the ordeal it would endure. When the war commenced, the Habsburg Army proved grossly under strengthen relative to trained officers and manpower, possessing obsolete weapons and equipment, and with the vast majority of its troops proved inadequately trained for modern warfare. Well over one million Habsburg troops mobilized creating an enormous logistical challenge of forging an army from the diverse cultures, languages, economic and educational backgrounds of the Empire's peoples. Graydon A. Tunstall shows how the army suffered from poor strategic direction and outdated tactics and facing a two-front offensive against both Russia and Serbia. He charts the army's performance on the battlefields of Galicia, Serbia, Romania, the Middle East and Italy through to its ultimate collapse in 1918.

Franz Joseph I and Karl. These emperors ruled a multiethnic empire destined to become one of the central powers in World War I. In addition to the studio portraits shown, the candid photos offer an authentic view of life in the trenches and on the battlefield. Each photo has been carefully chosen and researched to offer the reader detailed information on the k.u.k (royal and imperial) Empires air, motor and medical corps, as well as infantry, artillery, pioneer and railroad troops. There are chapters covering highly decorated elite units, such as the Bosnian and the Kaiserschuetzen. A full color section of heretofore unpublished photos of original head dress, uniforms, equipment and accessories used by the k.u.k armed forces provides valuable information on the materials, markings, stamps, and construction of field caps, cavalry helmets and flight gear. Also included in this section are pilot badges and cap and collar insignia. This book is an indispensable resource for all historians, collectors, re-enactors, war gamers and model builders. 550 colour & b/w photographs

Definitive new history of the Austro-Hungarian Royal and Imperial Army during the First World War.

When a Serbian-backed assassin gunned down Archduke Franz Ferdinand in late June 1914, the world seemed unmoved. Even Ferdinand's own uncle, Franz Josef I, was notably ambivalent about the death of the Hapsburg heir, saying simply, "It is God's will." Certainly, there was nothing to suggest that the episode would lead to conflict -- much less a world war of such massive and horrific proportions that it would fundamentally reshape the course of human events. As acclaimed historian Sean McMeekin reveals in July 1914, World War I might have been avoided entirely had it not been for a small group of statesmen who, in the month after the assassination, plotted to use Ferdinand's murder as the trigger for a long-awaited showdown in Europe. The primary culprits, moreover, have long escaped blame. While most accounts of the war's outbreak place the bulk of responsibility on German and Austro-Hungarian militarism, McMeekin draws on surprising new evidence from archives across Europe to show that the worst offenders were actually to be found in Russia and France, whose belligerence and duplicity ensured that war was inevitable. Whether they plotted for war or rode the whirlwind nearly blind, each of the men involved -- from Austrian Foreign Minister Leopold von Berchtold and German Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov and French president Raymond Poincaré- sought to capitalize on the fallout from Ferdinand's murder, unwittingly leading Europe toward the greatest cataclysm it had ever seen. A revolutionary account of the genesis of World War I, July 1914 tells the gripping story of Europe's countdown to war from the bloody opening act on June 28th to Britain's final plunge on August 4th, showing how a single month -- and a handful of men -- changed the course of the twentieth century.

The conquest of Serbia was only one of the goals of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the First World War; beyond this lay the desire to control much of South-East Europe. Employing previously unseen sources, Marvin Fried provides the first complete analysis of the Monarchy's war aims in the Balkans and tells the story of its imperialist ambitions.