Background
Svetozar Borojevic von Bojna was born at Umetic, Croatia, on December 13, 1856, the son of an army officer who had risen from the ranks.
Svetozar Borojevic von Bojna was born at Umetic, Croatia, on December 13, 1856, the son of an army officer who had risen from the ranks.
After graduating from cadet school in Liebenau, Boroevic was commissioned in 1875. Three years later he stormed Sarajevo during the campaign in Bosnia. In 1881-1883 he attended the War Academy and spent the following decade either with the General Staff or as instructor at the Theresa Military Academy. Boroevic served as chief of staff with the VIII Corps in Prague from 1898 to 1904, and the following year was raised into the Hungarian nobility. He had risen in grade from captain in 1886 to major in 1895, and from colonel in 1908 to general of infantry in 1913. Since April 1912, he commanded the VI Army Corps stationed in Kaschau.
Boroevic led the VI Corps under Count Viktor Dankl in Galicia at the outbreak of the Great War, and soon thereafter commanded the Third Army in the victories at Komarow, Limanowa-Lapanow, and the relief of Przemysl on October 10, 1914. He also participated in the defense of the Carpathian passes as well as of Gorlice.
When Italy declared war against her former ally in May 1915, Boroevic, a tough and energetic commander, took charge of the hastily forming Fifth Army in the Isonzo region. He was not easy to work with and liked to ape Frederick the Great in his harshness to his troops, but Boroevic got the job done. Although heavily out-manned and outgunned, his Fifth Army fought eleven battles along the Isonzo and thereby prevented the expected Italian advance into Tyrol. Not a strategist of the first order, Boroevic heavily bled his Austro-Hungarian units by his insistence upon repeated frontal strikes. Finally, during the Twelfth Isonzo Battle in October and November 1917, the Fifth Army, aided by German units under General Krafft von Dellmensingen, advanced as far as the Piave River, but a shortage of trucks and horses stalled the offensive at this line.
Boroevic was promoted field marshal on January 31, 1918, but he declined the offer of a baronage, hoping after the war for a direct promotion to an earldom. Although often regarded as a possible successor to General Conrad von Hotzendorf as chief of the General Staff, the colorful Croat was never elevated to this post, perhaps owing to his gruff nature. Nor was he to realize his life's dream of becoming banus of a kingdom of Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia. Instead, Boroevic spent the last year of the war supervising the gradual dissolution of his multinational army behind the Tagliamento.
In January 1918, he spoke out bitterly at army headquarters in Baden against Hungarian proposals to divide the army into separate Austrian and Hungarian units. In the spring of that year he opposed in vain Conrad's plans for yet another alpine battle with the Italians. The Austro-Hungarian offensive near Assiago was a disaster; Boroevic managed to advance as far as Montello, but the rising waters of the Piave as well as stiff British and French resistance drove him back to his original position. Early in November 1918, after a well-executed retreat from Italy, Boroevic toyed with the notion of leading a monarchist countercoup. The idea was put to rest when Emperor Charles expressed little interest in it.
Thereafter Boroevic offered his services to the Croats, but Belgrade officials, fearful of his popularity, declined the offer.