2013 King Hall Conference Proceedings

1. Dr. John R. Schindler
U.S. Naval War College

2. `A Hundred Years On (Nearly)
Rethinking The Great War,
finally … maybe?
Austria-Hungary? Really?
What does a second-tier
naval power matter now?
What does intelligence
from 100 years ago have to
tell us today?

3. Die k.u.k. Kriegsmarine
Austria-Hungary and the
Mediterranean naval arms
race before 1914
KM OOB 1914:
4 BB (DN)
9 BB
7 CA
6 CL
30 DD
6 SS

4. Austro-Hungarian Intelligence
Vienna’s military espionage
apparatus before 1914
- readiness for war?
The Evidenzbureau
- roles & missions
- the Redl debacle
The Marine-Evidenzbureau
- roles & missions

5. Vienna’s “Great Secret”
A-H code-breaking before
1914 and its place in the
intelligence system
The (Viennese) birth of
SIGINT
War planning, strategy, and
A-H strategic concepts on
the eve of the Great War

6. Crisis and War
Sarajevo assassination and
the July Crisis
The Navy and the coming
of the war
Vienna plays va banque …
and loses
The Navy and the Italian
threat

7. Intelligence in the Adriatic
Understanding the
intelligence battlefield in
the Adriatic
KM SIGINT and the
Navy’s strategic thinking,
1915-1918
How code-breaking
becomes a critical enabler
for Austria-Hungary

8. Fleet (In)Action and Intelligence
ADM Haus and his “fleet
in being”
KM HUMINT, covert
action, and sabotage against
Italy
A-H Naval aviation and
intelligence over the
Adriatic

9. Austria-Hungary and the U-Boat War
Vienna and unrestricted
submarine warfare
The KM’s U-Boat arm and
its role in the
Mediterranean naval
struggle
SIGINT and AustriaHungary’s submarine arm

10. 1917: The Pivotal Year
Unrestricted submarine
warfare and the Allied
blockade’s impact on
Austria-Hungary
Otranto and limited surface
fleet action
The “Caporetto Miracle”
and illusions of victory

11. 1918: Decline and Fall
January: Naval mutiny and
the general crisis of the war
effort
Piave: one last (doomed)
gamble by Vienna
The Navy and the last
months of war: imminent
defeat
The final collapse

12. Assessing the Impact
What is the real role of
intelligence in AustriaHungary’s naval war?
What lessons today can be
derived from the experience
of the k.u.k. MarineEvidenzbureau?
History, legacies and
remembrances