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Graydon Tunstall's Blood on the Snow investigates the three failed--and generally forgotten--Austro-Hungarian offensives in the Carpathian Mountains during January-April 1915. Tunstall catalogs the operations, primarily from the Austro-Hungarian perspective, and clearly shows that these ill-fated attacks accomplished little other than further decimating the mauled Habsburg army. Tunstall argues that Austrian commander General Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf obstinately launched these offensives to relieve the 120,000+ Austrian troops encircled and besieged in Przemyl but failed adequately to prepare, plan, or execute them. Harsh winter weather, rugged terrain, and underdeveloped transportation systems further complicated operational challenges and increased casualties. Ultimately, Tunstall lays the blame for the nearly 800,000 Austro-Hungarian casualties at the feet of Conrad and his devotion to the "cult of the offensiveâ[euro] and concludes that this was "one of the most ill-conceived campaigns of the war . . . provid[ing] a stark lesson about the negative effects of inadequate leadershipâ[euro] (p. 212).
Blood on the Snow describes operations in great detail, including the nearly insurmountable challenges posed by weather and terrain, both for combat formations and logistics and transportation services. Tunstall also discusses the extreme privations suffered by Austro-Hungarian troops fighting in this hostile environment with inadequate preparation and supply. He also chronicles the difficulties Austria-Hungary faced in waging war with a multiethnic conscript army that was inadequately led at all levels, a problem exacerbated by the heavy officer casualties suffered in the initial...