Chapter IV: Preliminaries of a Campaign

The movements of an army during a campaign after the first serious engagements can rarely, if ever, be settled in detail before the war. They must needs depend largely on those of the enemy, which cannot be accurately foreseen. But before war is declared, before the fighting begins, while the troops are still in their own territory, a well-conducted government can make its preparations without hindrance. The army can be placed on a war footing, and assembled at whatever point or points are judged most advantageous. These preparations in Prussia fall in different degrees within the domain of the general staff.

The changes by which the army is placed on a war footing, known collectively as mobilization, include the calling out of the reserves of men and horses; their distribution among the various corps and their equipment; and the creation and completion of the staffs and of the different services of supply. All these proceedings in Prussia the general staff had perfectly arranged and regulated down to the minutest detail, so that the order needed only to be issued, and the whole operation would take place as if by clockwork within a given number of days.[1] The process of mobilization is in essentials the same whatever be the frontier on which the war is to be fought. It places the troops ready at their ordinary headquarters, and in Prussia no regiment leaves its headquarters except in perfect readiness to take the field.

On the other hand, the collection of the army on the frontier is the first stage of the actual operations, resembling the opening of a game of chess, and it is of the greatest importance that the points selected should be those best suited for the beginning of the particular campaign in prospect.

The placing of an army on a war footing and its transport to a frontier are political acts of the gravest moment. They are therefore usually controlled almost as much by political as by military considerations, and it is impossible rightly to appreciate them without taking into account the political circumstances by which they are affected. The influence of politics upon the two processes is however different. In regard to mobilization, which may be compared to a mechanical process, the statesman may urge its postponement or its execution by gradual instalments. In neither case is the essential nature of the operation changed, though the amount of friction involved may be increased. But the assembling of an army is the immediate preliminary to attack or defence, and the statesman's unwillingness to attack may affect the choice of time and place for the collection of the force available.

The King of Prussia was sincerely anxious to avoid a war, and until June 14 was determined not to take the initiative nor to agree to any measure which might savour of attack. He was with difficulty induced to consent to the successive stages of preparation. Not until the beginning of May, when the Austrian mobilization was far advanced and the transport to the frontiers impending, were the orders for the Prussian mobilization issued, and that not at once, but piecemeal between May 3 and May 12. The forces thus called out formed a total of 326,000 combatants, divided into nine army corps,[2] a reserve corps at Berlin,[3] the corps of occupation in Holstein, and the corps collected at Wetzlar from the Prussian garrisons withdrawn from fortresses of the German confederation. The arrangements made for the disposition of these forces between May 12 and June 22 form the basis of the subsequent success, and may perhaps best be described in the form of a series of problems and their solutions.

1. The first step of preparation for a war is the calculation of the force required.[4] In the case of our own small wars it is self-evident that such a calculation is necessary, and the campaign of 1882 in Egypt is an instance in which it was worked out to a nicety. It might seem equally a matter of course that when two Continental states go to war each of them will assume from the beginning that its whole available force will be employed. Yet instances are numerous in which campaigns have been lost mainly through neglect to work out this calculation. In 1859 the Austrians undertook with little more than half their army a war against the combined forces of France and Sardinia; in 1885 King Milan attacked the Bulgarians without calling out the whole of the Servian army. In both cases defeat was largely due to this initial error.

The basis of the calculation is furnished by an estimate of the force which will be at the disposal of the enemy. In 1866 the Prussian staff had to face the preliminary difficulty that it was uncertain even as late as May 8 which of the German states would be on the Prussian and which on the Austrian side. The least favourable assumption was made, and it was estimated that the hostile forces would be in North Germany 36,000, in South Germany 100,000, and in Saxony and Austria 264,000, making a total of 400,000 men.[5] There could be no doubt that Prussia must employ the whole of her available forces.

2. The next question was how to distribute the Prussian forces against these three sets of enemies. A proportionate division based on the estimate just given would have resulted in the employment of 215,000 men against Austria and Saxony, of 30,000 against North Germany, and of 80,000 against South Germany. The staff, however, expected that the South German forces would not be ready until a late stage of the war, and might in the first instance be neglected. Hanover and Hesse lying between the two halves of Prussia and separating Westphalia and Rhenish Prussia from the main body of the kingdom,[6] were more serious foes. It would be necessary to strike hard at them, if possible, before their preparations could be completed. But the fate of Prussia and of Germany really depended upon the issue of the conflict with Austria. If she were beaten here, Prussia would in any case be undone; if she were successful in this struggle, the minor states, even though not themselves beaten, must needs fall under her sway. It was decided to employ almost the whole army (eight and a half corps and the reserve corps, 278,000 men) against Austria and Saxony, and to meet the rest of the German enemies with a scratch army (48,000) made up of half the seventh corps and of the troops assembled in Holstein and at Wetzlar. This force was destined first of all to disarm Hesse and Hanover (capitulation of Langensalza June 29), and then to attack and defeat the South German contingents.

3. The next problem is the choice of the point or points at which the army is to be assembled for the purpose of beginning the operations. This is the first act of generalship in the campaign, and a mistake here is usually the prelude of misfortune. Every general wishes, if possible, to meet with his whole force the divided forces of the enemy, and therefore his first thought is to assemble his army at one place, or at least to collect it so that all its parts may unite for battle.

The Prussian army, if assembled in Upper Silesia, would be at the point of Prussia nearest to the Austrian capital; if assembled at Görlitz,[7] it would interpose between Berlin or Breslau and an Austrian army approaching from Bohemia. These were, therefore, the most favourable points of assembly, the one for attack and the other for defence. But the position in Silesia would lose much of its value unless it were intended, as soon as the army should be ready, to march on Vienna; and this course in the middle of May was, to the king's mind, inadmissible. There was, however, a second quite unanswerable argument against assembling the whole army at either place. The movement could not be carried out in a reasonable time. To march to either district from the distant provinces would have been an affair of many weeks, and the concentration would run the risk of being too late. The difficulty could not be overcome by the use of the railways. To move a whole army corps by a single railway required, according to the nature of the line, irrespective of the distance, from nine to twelve days. But for the transport to Upper Silesia only one, and for that to Görlitz only two, through railways were available, so that a very long time would be required to move the whole army by rail to either point. Moreover, neither of the districts in question is so fertile as to be able to feed a large army for more than a few days. As the king was determined not to fight, if fighting could be avoided, it might become necessary to keep the army waiting for some weeks after its concentration. This would be to starve it before a shot had been fired. Thus it was impracticable in the political circumstances to collect all the nine corps into one army, either for offence or defence. Separate armies had to be formed, and considerations of defence to prevail. The principal centres of concentration were fixed in the neighbourhood of Görlitz and of Schweidnitz, points on the lines of an Austrian advance towards Berlin and Breslau respectively from Northern Bohemia, where at this time (the middle of May) the Austrian army was believed to be assembling.

4. Upon the basis of this decision the movement of the troops to the frontier was arranged. The railway system, as has been seen, did not admit of moving the corps directly and speedily to Görlitz and Schweidnitz. Five railways in all were available, leading to points on the Prussian frontier facing the kingdom of Saxony and the Austrian Empire. They ended at Zeitz, Halle, Hertzberg, Görlitz, and Schweidnitz (or Neisse), places scattered along a curve some 250 miles long. The quickest practicable way of assembling the army was to use all these railways at once, and when the troops had thus been deposited on the frontier to continue the concentration by marches. The shortest lines of march to assemble the whole army would be the radii leading to the centre of the curve; but this was in the enemy's territory, so that these lines, if they had been for other reasons desirable, could not be adopted before war had been declared. The alternative was to concentrate by marches along the circumference, and this was the plan adopted. Each corps, as soon as its debarkation from the train was complete, was marched along the arc towards the point of concentration selected for it.

The corps from Posen and Silesia, collected at Schweidnitz and Neisse (grouped together as the second army under the Crown Prince), were moved to their right to Landshut and Waldenburg.[8] Those of Westphalia (half a corps) and Rhenish Prussia were detrained at Zeitz and Halle, and marched round the frontier of Saxony to the point where the Elbe emerges from that kingdom. These troops, with the reserve corps from Berlin, formed the Elbe army, destined to continue its eastward movement by the invasion of Saxony. The corps from Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Prussian Saxony, were combined into the first army, under Prince Frederick Charles. They were first assembled between Torgau and Cottbus, and then marched along the frontier towards Görlitz, reaching the western corner of Silesia (neighbourhood of Hoyerswerda) about the end of the first week in June, when the other movements described were also completed.

5. The staff was now anxious to begin the campaign. The three armies could not be united on Prussian soil without leaving some important district unprotected, nor await where they were the Austrian attack without the risk that one of them in isolation might be exposed to the blows of a superior force. This same risk only would be incurred in the attempt to meet by a concentric advance towards some point of Austrian territory; it would increase with every additional day allowed for the Austrian preparations. But the king still thought a settlement possible, and would not permit hostilities to commence.

6. On June 11, the Prussian staff learned that of seven Austrian army corps destined to operate against Prussia six were in Moravia, not in Bohemia, as had been supposed. The inference was, that the Austrians contemplated advancing upon Breslau by way of Neisse, for which movement the data obtained showed that they would be able to cross the Silesian border with five or six army corps by about June 19. To meet this invasion, if it should take place, the second army was moved to the river Neisse, facing south, and was reinforced by the guard corps from Berlin, and by the first corps, moved originally from East Prussia by rail to Görlitz, and now by marching transferred from the first army to the second. At the same time the first army continued its eastward march as far as Görlitz, where it would be near enough to reach Breslau as soon as the Austrians, if they should really invade Silesia, or, if not required in that direction, could be moved readily into either Saxony or Bohemia. These movements were effected by June 19.

The Elbe army was also to be moved to the east, to join the first army, but its most convenient route from Torgau to Görlitz lay through Dresden. While the changes just described were in the course of execution, the political situation also had changed. The hostile resolution of the diet on June 14 enabled the king to make up his mind. On June 15 war was declared against Saxony. On the 16th the Elbe army crossed the border; on the 18th occupied Dresden; and on the 19th, connection having been established with the first army, now about Görlitz, was placed under the command of Prince Frederick Charles. This prince concentrated the first army to the south of Görlitz, on the confines of Saxony and Silesia, close to the Bohemian border, while the Elbe army from Dresden rapidly closed up to his right flank. The intention was that both should advance as one army into Bohemia, and move, with the left wing skirting the foot of the Giant Mountains, to meet the second army. There had been no sign of an Austrian attack on Silesia, so the Crown Prince was ordered to prepare for a march westward into Bohemia to meet his cousin. On the 19th he was to send one corps in advance to Landshut, still keeping the rest of his force on the Neisse ready to face either south or west. A day or two later two more of his corps were withdrawn to the mountains, a single corps only remaining on the Neisse, and much trouble being taken to deceive the Austrians into the belief that the whole army was still there and was about to march towards Moravia. This was the position of both Prussian armies on June 22, when the telegram already quoted ordered them to cross the Bohemian frontier and to try to effect their union about Gitschin.

It will be observed that from the first stage of the preparations one object, the concentration of as large a force as possible for the purpose of defeating the Austro-Saxon forces, had been followed by the chief of the staff. His arrangements were at first controlled by political considerations, the effect of which in the circumstances was to render impracticable the formation at the outset of a single army. Afterwards, before war had been finally decided upon, the armies were moved to meet the changed situation created by the Austrian arrangements at length known. The invasion of Saxony was a further stage in the general concentration. By June 22 it had become clear that the Austrians were not invading Silesia. The question was, whether to continue through Prussian territory the march of the first army towards the second--a safe course now that the Austrian position was known--or to take for both the shortest line of meeting, that into Bohemia, with the attendant risk to the second army. The bolder course was adopted, and was abundantly justified by success.

[1] The details of the operation of mobilization are kept secret, but the elementary principles have everywhere been copied from the Prussian system and may be explained in an imaginary example. Suppose a company to have a peace strength of 120 men and to pass each year forty men into the reserve, receiving instead the same number of recruits, the war strength being 240. The public announcement of the decree for mobilization makes it the duty of each of the 120 reservists to proceed directly to the headquarters of the company, where they will arrive, according to the distance from their homes, say on the first, second, or third day of mobilization. The captain has a nominal list of the whole company, and keeps in store under his own responsibility the complete new war kit for each of the 240 men. As they arrive the men pass the doctor, receive their kits, and are told off to their posts in the completed company. According to the care with which the rules have been framed (this is the staff's principal share in the work) so as to divide the labour, occupying every man from the general to the bugler and giving to each that work which he can best do, and to none more than he can do in the time allowed, will be the rapidity, ease, and certainty with which the whole mobilization will be effected.

[2] The guard with its peace quarters at Berlin, and corps I. to VIII. quartered in peace in districts corresponding in the main to the eight provinces: Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, Prussian Saxony, Posen, Silesia, Westphalia, Rhenish Prussia. See sketch map 2.

[3] Called out on May 19th.

[4] "What king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage and desireth conditions of peace."

[5] The numbers actually called out against Prussia proved to be:--

North Germans . . . . . . 25,000
South Germans . . . . . . 94,000
Austrians and Saxons . . 271,000
-------
Total . . . . . . . . 390,000

[6] See sketch map 2.

[7] See sketch map 3.

[8] See sketch map 3.