If, by contrast, the use of the Bavarian railroad line is granted to the Austrians, then [the following numbers] can be available on the designated 31st day.
from Hungary and Austria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164,000
[+] from Galicia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18,000
[=] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182,000 men
[+] as reinforcements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50,000 men
[+] and including Saxons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24,000 men
[=] putting the entire army at . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256,000 men
[–] and then after deducting the garrison forces, at about . . . . .16,000 men
[=] so that the number previously estimated as maximum. . . . . 240,000 men
Whether financial considerations, domestic complications, and the political situation will even allow Austria such a development of forces is a question that has to remain undecided here. Military calculation can only reckon with given magnitudes, with the normal figures of the war budget, and the efficiency of transportation. But the result depends not only on the size of the bodies of troops, but also on the time within which these can be used to advantage by both sides, and it is in this very respect, as just shown, that Bavaria's attitude comes into consideration quite fundamentally, [and] not so much owing to the armaments of the southern Germans.
[ . . . ]
Source: Helmuth von Moltke, Moltkes militärische Werke [Moltke’s Military Writings], ed. Großer Generalstabe [ed. the General Staff]. Berlin: Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn, 1896-1912, vol. 1, pp. 74-76.
Translation: Jeremiah Riemer
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