The partial recovery of the Austro-Hungarian Army in allied offensives is chronicled, as is the portrayal of the Germans as the monarchy’s savior both in the opening battles, as well as throughout the remainder of the war. Also discussed in detail are the bloody travails of failed Habsburg attempts to relieve the besieged Fortress Przemyśl. The significance of the fortress in Habsburg decision-making through 1914 is also explained, including the resultant suffering in the futile wintertime sorties launched to break out to the field armies. The Battle of Limaova-Lapanov, the first Habsburg victory on the Eastern front, is chronicled.

In the summer of 1914 the armies that went to war in the East were formed according to similar rules and used similar tactics; all were based on conscription and all boasted vast numbers of men. It was believed that the biggest reservoir of human beings offered the best chance of victory. In this respect the statistics were unequivocal: no state could rival Russia. Moreover, even on a peace footing, the Russian army was three times the size of the German army and ten times that of the Austro-Hungarian army. One could attempt to redress this imbalance through training and equipment, and indeed that is what the Central Powers started to do on a large scale, once war had begun. In July 1914 all sides in the conflict – Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Serbia – had comparable ordnance which did not differ much from the arsenals tested recently on the battlefields of Thrace and Macedonia.