Feldgrau.net

Goiginger then assumed command of the XVIII. Corps from GdI Viktor v. Weber in July 1918, and was dispatched to the Western Front, where he was the highest ranking Austrian commander on the whole front. American troops assembled opposite his sector, and made advances against Goiginger's lines in the last weeks of October. The XVIII. Corps did not receive very heavy assaults from their American enemies, nor did they retreat ignominously. The mood among the Austrians was to avoid serious engagements with the enemy at this late and futile stage of the war, without succumbing to the rumours concerning the fighting quality of the Austrian soldiery that was rife amidst both the German and American armies.

A further request for troops for the Western Front was recieved during the last year of the war, and altogether four infantry divisions under k.u.k. XVIII Korpskommando were sent to France. The Germans had no intention of deploying them as a corps, but put them into the front lines in the Verdun area as seperate divisions; the Korps-kommando had just one of them and some further German units under command. With the proven exception of the artillery, the Germans do not seem to have had high expectations of the fighting abilities of the Austro-Hungarian forces, and insisted on putting many of the soldiers through basic battle school before sending them to the trenches. The Austro-Hungarians were not posted to the most dangerous sectors; but they suffered significant losses during the final Allied advance of autumn 1918, when they were assaulted by American and French troops with tank support for which they had no answer.