1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Kövess, Hermann, Freiherr von Kövesshaza

KÖVESS, HERMANN, (1854-), Austro-Hungarian field-marshal, was born in Temesvar in 1854, and began his military career in the engineers, then served on the general staff and in the infantry. At the beginning of the World War he commanded the XII. (Transylvania) Corps, and fought in the tenacious defence against the superior Russian forces in east and central Galicia, and later in Russian Poland. During the spring offensive of 1915 he captured by storm the fortress of Ivangorod, and in the autumn, under the command of Mackensen, led the III. Army, with which he captured Belgrade and penetrated into Serbia, then, in independent command, overthrew Montenegro, and occupied Albania. In the early summer of 1916 Kövess' army coöperated in the operation against Arsiero-Asiago, but after the break-through of Brussilov was transported in all haste to the Galician theatre of war. Kövess soon after took over the command of the VII. Army, and defended the ridges of the Wooded Carpathians against Russian attack. In the summer of 1917 he sallied from the mountains with his troops, made himself master of Czernowitz and Radautz, and drove the Russians almost entirely from the Bukovina. From the middle of Jan. to the beginning of April 1918 the field-marshal commanded the army front consisting of the I. and VII. Armies, extending from the Dniester to the south-eastern corner of Transylvania. Entrusted after the desertion of Bulgaria with the thankless task of the command of the troops in the Balkans, he could do nothing more than arrange for the evacuation of the occupied territories according to plan, and for the defence of the Danube-Save line. When the Emperor Charles laid down the supreme command he nominated Kövess as his successor. But the dispersal of the forces closed the field-marshal's military career. He was one of the most popular army leaders of the old monarchy. After his downfall he lived in retirement, cultivating his historical and artistic tastes.