- Location
- Balham
- Pronouns
- he/him
Discuss @David Flin's new article here.
My reading of the Brusilov Offensive was that it (although not the offensives alongside it) was a success, but at heavy cost (some 500,000 casualties). It was reaching the end of what could be conveniently supplied; always, always, always in WWI, there is the problem to supplying any success, because the supply lines into the gained territory don't exist, and the front troops run out of the necessary stuff.
Unless the supporting offensives to either side keep up, what develops is a salient, and the deeper it goes, the more vulnerable it gets.
That said (as we shall later see), the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not in a strong position, and could have been pushed into an untenable position. That could evolve in any number of ways. However, to judge by A-H decision making in the build up to the war, one can be reasonably confident that whatever diplomatic decision the A-H leadership came up with, it would be about as bad as it could possibly be, and would create division among its friends and antagonise its enemies.
Naturally, the Tsar ignored these warnings. The competition for the most out-of-touch and dangerously incompetent Emperor was fierce during WWI, but Tsar Nicholas II was a strong contender.