"DURING THE DEVASTATING OPENING MONTHS of World War I through the fall of 1914, the Habsburgs suffered numerous defeats against numerically superior Russian forces pushing into Galicia and the Carpathian foothills in the northeast corner of Austria-Hungary. In early November 1914, for the second time in as many months, the Russians had besieged the venerable Fortress Przemyśl, an enormous but obsolete 1854 stronghold on the San River that blocked the northern entrance to the Carpathians. The Russians bottled up the Austro-Hungarian garrison and utilized the region around it as a staging ground to control the vital routes into the heart of Habsburg territory. Their ultimate goal: to drive the Austro-Hungarians out of the war.
With some 130,000 troops under siege at Przemyśl and fearing a threatened invasion of Hungary, the Dual Monarchy simply had to take immediate steps to force the Russians from the Carpathian Mountains. In the winter of 1915, they launched three separate and equally ill-conceived offensives: an initial effort on January 23; a second uncoordinated assault on the Russians on February 27; and a third and final effort to liberate Fortress Przemyśl in late March.
The geographical reality of the Carpathians would play a key role in the military catastrophe to come. The mountains along the contested front formed an arcing barrier roughly 60 to 75 miles wide with a median elevation of some 3,600 feet. In 1914–1915, only a handful of poorly constructed roads and a few railroad lines traversed the main passes in that area. Cold and damp, the mountains are often rainy in September and usually witness snowfall by November. They can remain covered in deep snow until spring, though sudden rises in temperature may also result in widespread flooding in the valleys.
Mountain warfare presents multiple difficulties for any major military action: Troops need to be specially trained, equipped, and accustomed to higher altitudes and challenging terrain and weather. The ability to maneuver and maintain a regular supply system in mountain conditions is problematic. Artillery logistics are especially challenging. Because it is difficult to transport and emplace artillery on uneven, elevated ground, many batteries are confined to lower terrain, an obvious disadvantage for attacking infantry. The Habsburg command had made no contingency plans for a mountain campaign lasting into the winter months—one of its many failures—because they accepted the "short war illusion." It would prove to be a disastrous mistake…."
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Armand