Dennis Wheatley - Duke de Richleau 07 (69 page)

The Colonel gave him a
worried look. “That is only a temporary measure and was brought about by our
inability to foresee the present situation. When we ordered partial
mobilization on the 25th of July there was every indication that the Great
Powers would succeed in preventing the war from spreading. Naturally we wished
to make the conflict with Serbia as brief as possible, so our 2nd army was
included in the partial mobilization and despatched south. As it happened that
was particularly unfortunate, as two of its four corps were stationed in
Bohemia. Not unnaturally, perhaps, learning of our war-like preparations in
Prague and on their own borders, the Russians thought we were mobilizing against
them, so ordered mobilization along our own frontiers themselves. After that it
was found impossible to control events any longer.”

‘So,’ thought the Duke
grimly, ‘von Hötzendorf’s unappeasable hatred of the Serbs had not only been
the major cause of the original outbreak of hostilities, but with a criminal
disregard of consequences, he had ordered military measures, resulting in the
chain of events that had set all Europe ablaze.’ But Colonel Pacher was going
on:

“By the 31st of July,
when Russia ordered general mobilization, it was too late to cancel the
movement of the 2nd Army. With your experience of warfare you will know how
such things work. We couldn’t possibly stop the hundreds of trains full of
troops and equipment halfway to their destinations. To have done so would have
thrown our whole railway system out of gear and created chaos of the movements
of the other Armies. The only thing to do was to let the 2nd Army go on to the
Danube and deploy there; then work out an entirely new time-table for
re-entraining it and bringing it north to the Russian front. But naturally,
that sort of thing takes time, and it will not be ready to start on its
northward journey until the 18th.”

Recalling Sir Henry
Wilson’s statement, that the Russian armies would take several days longer to
mobilize than those of the Dual Monarchy, De Richleau was delighted to think
that von Hötzendorf had already lost his big opportunity and got himself into a
glorious muddle. But he said with suitable gravity:

“That seems most unfortunate.
I imagine sound strategy would have dictated an immediate offensive against the
Russians with everything we could muster while we still had the advantage of
numbers; but now it appears unlikely that we shall be able to bring up our 2nd
Army in time to participate in the first great battle.”

“I fear that is so,” the
Colonel agreed glumly. “But, of course, we are deriving some compensation from
the deployment of the 2nd Army in the south. With his 5th and 6th Armies in
Bosnia, General Potiorek could have menaced Serbia only from the west; whereas
with the deployment of the 2nd Army to the north, he has been able to do so on
two fronts; so the Serbians will be greatly weakened by having to retain forces
along the Danube which might otherwise have been used to resist our offensive
across the Drina.”

“How is it going?”

“It has started well.
Potiorek’s 5th Army began its advance on the 12th and entered Shabatz almost
unopposed. It is now approaching the Jadar. But I am not altogether happy about
our future prospects down there. In my view General Potiorek has deployed his
6th Army too far to the south. Of course, he has to deal with the Montenegrins
on his right flank and take care of a Serbian division that has moved up from
Uzhite; but the trouble is that it is now right out of touch with the 5th. When
the 2nd is withdrawn and the Voyvode Putnik realizes that he has nothing to
fear from that direction, he will be able to oppose our 5th Army with
practically the whole of his forces. As he has ten divisions in northern Serbia
he will outnumber our people, and I fear we may suffer a temporary reverse.”

Having regard to the
relative quality of the troops engaged, De Richleau had no doubt at all that
his new colleague’s pessimism was fully justified. By now his professional
interest was so fully engaged that he had forgotten not only the danger of his
own situation, but its implications; and momentarily found himself thinking as
though he were really an Austrian Staff officer. Instinctively, he said:

“In that case General
Potiorek should be ordered to wheel the bulk of his 6th Army eastward while
there is still time for it to come up alongside the 5th.”

Colonel Pacher took off
his pince-nez and blinked up at him with a shake of the head. “I see you are as
yet unacquainted with one of our major difficulties. After the
C. in C.
, General Potiorek is the foremost
soldier in our army. In addition, through his friend Baron Bolfas, the Emperor’s
A.D.C., he has great influence at Court.”

“I should have thought
his incredibly inefficient arrangements at Sarajevo, having been largely
responsible for the Archduke’s murder, would have cost him that,” put in the
Duke.

“No. He is still in high
favour, and remains a law unto himself. He will not accept advice from us, let alone
orders, and frequently goes over the
C. in C.
’s
head. He is doing so at the moment in a matter that is causing us the gravest
concern. The 2nd Army has the most positive instructions that in no
circumstances is it to cross the Save-Danube line; but he insists that it is
essential to the success of his campaign that it should at least make a
demonstration in force before leaving, and is doing his utmost to secure the
Emperor’s consent to involve it.”

“I see his point of view;
although it is most reprehensible conduct on the part of a junior commander. Of
course, if he succeeds, it may give us a victory in the south. But what of the
north?”

“It has been decided not
to wait for the 2nd Army, and in the course of the next few days we are
launching our first offensive.”

“Do you consider that
really wise?” hazarded the Duke.

“The
C. in C.
is a great believer in the
offensive,” replied Colonel Pacher non-committally. “Our ten cavalry divisions
have already penetrated deep into Russian territory and are meeting with little
opposition.”

De Richleau had already
decided that if he were going to be hanged at all he might as well be hanged
for a sheep as a lamb, and indulge his passion for this fascinating game of war
by learning all he could; so he asked without hesitation:

“In which direction are
we going to strike?”

Colonel Pacher stood up
and together they studied the map, which now had a line of pins, varying in
thickness, running in a great ‘S’ bend across its upper half. From Cernowitz,
on the Rumanian border, the line was thin, representing a scratch Command which
had been got together under General K
ö
vess
to cover the upper reaches of the Dniester. It ended a little south of Lemberg,
and from in front of that city up to the right bank of the Vistula, across which
lay Polish soil, the pins were massed solidly, showing the 3rd, 4th and 1st
Armies disposed over a front of a hundred and sixty miles. Then, along the
Vistula and in the neighbourhood of Cracow, the line of pins thinned out again
where General Kummer, with another scratch Command, was covering the frontier
up to the German border. Kummer’s Group lay at right angles to the 1st Army
along the southern frontier of Poland, and from there the huge Polish salient
bellied out westwards. Its arc had pins only at distant intervals to show
German Landwehr units under General von Woyrsch which provided a dubious screen
for Breslau and Posen. Then, north of the Polish salient, from Thorn across
East Prussia to the Baltic, there was a group of flags about the same in number
as those representing one of the three main Austrian Armies. It was labelled ‘8th
German Army: General von Prittwitz’.

Placing a square-tipped
forefinger in the middle of the gap that separated Warsaw, in the centre of the
Polish salient, from the key railway junction of Brest-Litovsk, that lay a
hundred miles behind it, Pacher said:

“We intend to strike due
north, cut off Warsaw, and join up with the Germans advancing south to meet us
from East Prussia.”

“And where are the
Russians?” inquired the Duke, as not a single flag indicating the enemy had yet
been stuck in the map.

“We don’t know for
certain,” the Colonel admitted rather lamely. “We have reason to suppose that
there are four Armies in the Southern Group under General Ivanov, which is
opposed to us, but we have no definite information regarding their whereabouts.”

THE
DEPLOYMENT OF THE ARMIES ON THE EASTERN FRONT

De Richleau endeavoured
to hide his astonishment, and remarked tactfully: “Of course, in the early
stages of a war it is always difficult to locate the enemy’s main
concentrations. But I should have thought it would be incurring a very grave
risk to expose our right flank in such a manner.”

“Our cavalry screen has
met with very little opposition in front of Lemberg, so the
C. in C.
considers it unlikely that the
enemy will be in a position to launch a serious offensive in that direction for
some time. On the other hand, we do know that they have pulled everything out
of the Polish salient to behind the line of the Vistula, so it seems obvious
that they are massing east of Warsaw; and the
C.
in C.
’s
objective is to catch and smash them there before they have a chance to deploy
in line of battle. As they have evacuated the Polish salient, Rummer’s Group
and von Woyrsch’s Landwehr should be able to advance almost unopposed to in
front of Warsaw, and with the Germans coming in from the north we should
succeed in over-running the whole of Poland.”

“But will they?
Apparently they have only one Army in East Prussia. To carry out their share in
this plan effectively they would need to launch practically the whole of it due
south towards Syedlets. That would leave their northern frontier naked. If you
are right in your belief that no great part of the Russian forces are opposite
our southern front, it follows that they must have very large ones up in the
north. I cannot believe that the Germans would be willing to expose East
Prussia, and by denuding it of troops, give the Russians the chance to launch a
major offensive straight on to Berlin.”

The Colonel sighed. “I
very much fear you are right about that. The Germans promised us their
co-operation during peace-time talks, and for the past week the
C. in C.
has been pressing General von
Prittwitz to deploy his 8th Army in the manner agreed; but we have so far got
no satisfaction from him. In fact, last night a telegram came in from Captain
Fleischmann, our liaison officer with the 8th Army, which was most depressing.
It reported that the Russians are entering East Prussia from Kovno and Olita,
and that von Prittwitz is about to strike at them; and that until he has
checked the enemy advance he cannot consider committing any of his troops to a
southward drive into Poland.”

“Yet the
C. in C.
still intends to launch his
offensive almost immediately?”

“Yes. We are hoping that
by the 20th or 21st the Germans may have dealt with the Russian incursion into
East Prussia, and be ready to help us. If not, the direction of our attack will
probably be more to the eastward. But we shall attack all the same. The
C. in C.
is a great believer in the
offensive.”

With that Colonel Pacher
returned to his work and left the Duke to speculate on the information he had
just acquired. Since the Russians had withdrawn all their forces from western
Poland, and the Austrian cavalry was meeting with little opposition further
south, it seemed clear that the Grand Duke Nicholas was acting with commendable
caution. It was estimated that Russia’s initial mobilization in Europe would
put 2,700,000 men in the field, in addition to 900,000 special reserves and
fortress troops. Of this colossal force, mainly consisting of highly trained
regulars, not one thousandth part could yet have been expended. Obviously the
Grand Duke, whom De Richleau knew to be a very capable commander, was holding
them well back, so that the bulk of them could be hurled with equal ease at any
enemy offensive that developed, whether it came from the north, south or
centre. Yet von Hötzendorf, minus his powerful 2nd Army, and now doubtful of
the German co-operation on which he had counted, was still determined to butt
his head into this Russian hornets’ nest.