Why Did Austria-Hungary Lose The Siege Of Przemysl? -

[Samson Pumpkin Jr.]

Austro-Hungarian military genius Conrad von Hotzendorf had the brilliant plan to keep 100k men encircled at Przemysl fortress. The fortress had been built in the 1860s to defend against the Russian empire but by WW1 it was obsolete. The fortress still used black powder guns. Conrad's plans usually worked out quite well, but I wonder why this plan in particular did not work out as planned.

 

[MrJokerRager]

Because Russians are crazy and wanted some Austrian pussy.

 

[Samson Pumpkin Jr.]

Because Russians are crazy and wanted some Austrian pussy.

ok, but why

 

[DogZero]

Meant to answer this the other day but I was sleepy.

"Military genius Hotzendorf" lol

For those who might miss the sarcasm, General Hotzendorf was anything but a genius. He was the Chief of the Austrian General Staff before the war. He regularly made delusional war plans for operations against all neighbors, and yet failed to make one that involved a simultaneous war with both Russia and Serbia, despite being a primary proponent of war with Serbia (and we all know how that went).

He bafflingly thought Austria would go on the offensive against Russia, and thus had no defensive plan for Galicia. Furthermore he thought he had hundreds of thousands of troops he didn't. When war broke out he lost an entire army in Serbia while Galicia was overrun. It is at that point we are faced with the siege of Przemysl, a fort out of the previous century built to house 50,000 troops but packed with 100,000.

Due to Hotzendorf's incompetence there was no defensive plan for Galicia, directly leading to the entrapment of all those men. You know you have really fucked up when the Russian army, a force almost as disorganized as your own, is able to conduct major offensive operations against you. This weakness was proven when the Russians were pushed out of Galicia just a year later, not of course before the fall of Przemysl and the loss of the men trapped there.

What makes this whole series of events even stupider, is that the Hapsburg state knew better. In the book "The Grand Strategy of the Hapsburg Empire" by A. Wess Mitchell the author dedicates a great deal of time to explaining how the Hapsburgs knew that geography was one of the primary things keeping their otherwise schizophrenic empire together. Particularly the Carpathians served as an almost perpetually defensible shield against the east. Meanwhile Hotzendorf not only let the Carpathian forts decay, he allowed the Russians to take many key passes, threatening the Hungarian Plain in the initial offensive. Compare this to his initial prewar plan of an offensive into Russia. Had the foolish general just followed the lessons the Hapsburgs had used for 600 years of utilizing that geographic shield and weaponizing the carpathian passes, 100,000 retreating men likely would not have been trapped in Przemysl, and we would all be talking about the thousands of russians who died at the hands of Austrian defenses now.

So to answer the question, the disaster was a result of delusional and incompetent planning at the highest levels of government. This combined with an army with 15 official languages and 5 different rail gauges meant any sort of strategic mobility to prevent the encirclement was impossible.

After the war Hotzendorf would receive the baffling reception of some kind of unlucky genius. Lucky this did not last and he is now rightfully seen as perhaps the single worst General of the war.

 

[Samson Pumpkin Jr.]

"Military genius Hotzendorf" lol

For those who might miss the sarcasm, General Hotzendorf was anything but a genius. He was the Chief of the Austrian General Staff before the war. He regularly made delusional war plans for operations against all neighbors, and yet failed to make one that involved a simultaneous war with both Russia and Serbia, despite being a primary proponent of war with Serbia (and we all know how that went).

I was putting off saying this, but I do think he was a good general. Just me. you don't have to argue with it

 

[Mushroom Tip]

Same reason Weimar failed. The widespread acceptance of buggery and pederasty within not only the civilian population, but also the military. Hotzendorf was rumoured to have favoured being a "human toilet" (piss bukkake/drinking) for his young leiutenants. WHo could follow such a man?