manded by a correspondingly able body of officers, is the best soldier in the world. And in view of the circumstances he brought about miracles; but he would have been even better if one had placed him in purely national surroundings during times of peace.
One of the greatest advantages we enjoyed was our internal line of communications, which permitted us to move our forces, according to plan, from one theatre of war to another. Unfortunately, however, this advantage was exploited only rarely because, in order to do so, we would have had to have complete harmony in leadership, which we lacked. Without knowing any of the details, I nevertheless had the worrying impression that all was not well with us in this direction. Whenever I had an opportunity of discussing the subject with a leading personality of Germany or Austria, I generally heard the bitterest complaints against the ally. The political lack of harmony was also reflected in the military leadership.
The book written by Novak, which is a glorification of Conrad, throws an interesting light upon these quarrels and upon the mutual feeling. The book is a crystallization of the anti-German spirit which was dominant in our army. It is quite certain that also our enemies did not remain untouched by the weaknesses of the coalition. This is proved by many of the mistakes they made, which they were able to bear, whereas we, who had far smaller forces at our disposal than our enemies, could not afford to commit any errors. Nothing but complete harmony, faultless
