Zweibund — the Dual Alliance — Germany and Austria-Hungary united, were the core of the Central Powers, and here join hands. The bars of Germany's flag border the top left, and those of the Habsburg Austrian Empire and ruling house the bottom right.
Schulter an SchulterUntrennbar vereintin Freud und in Leid!'Shoulder to shoulderInseparably united in joy and in sorrow!
"The Germans tempered the cruelty of war by shielding their troops with expensive technology; the Austro-Hungarians economized—before and during the war—and threw their infantry away like trash. 'The Germans expend metal, we expend life,' a Russian general confessed in 1915, and the same could be said of the Austrians. . . . Gorlice-Tarnów was more of a breakthrough for the Germans than the Austrians. Despite the fact that whole Russian artillery regiments were limited to just ten shells a day by this date, Austro-Hungarian battle reports spoke of yet more fruitless and costly attacks and limited gains."
July 28, 1915: Austria-Hungary's war is one year old, as is Serbia's. The Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, a joint German, Austro-Hungarian offensive begun on May 2, 1915, continued to drive Russia back, out of Austro-Hungarian territory, but also out of Polish-Russia with Warsaw itself threatened. But Austria-Hungary was no match for Russia, and its victories were Germany's. After a year of war, Austria-Hungary's casualty toll was approaching two million men, dead, missing, prisoner, wounded.
A Mad Catastrophe by Geoffrey Wawro, pp. 371, 372, copyright © 2014 by Geoffrey Wawro, publisher: Basic Books
1915-07-28, 1915, July, anniversary
