The two rebel armies planned a surprise night attack on the Germans, but they completely overlooked the local militias hiding around them.
The moment the rebels began to move, the militias immediately spotted them and sent word to German headquarters. By the time Colonel Mainz received the telegram, the rebels had left their camp less than five minutes earlier.
"Trying to hold your breath?" Mainz muttered, both amused and angry. Fighting at night is meant to gain the advantage of surprise—but these rebels had already been spotted, rendering the night attack pointless.
"Send my orders," Mainz commanded. "Combine small units of our troops with the militias, spread them out, harass the enemy, and delay them as much as possible!"
Within moments, the 35,000 German soldiers, reinforced by thousands of local Austrian militias trained over the past few days, began their assault. Gunfire erupted along the rebels' route like fireworks on Chinese New Year.
The militias inflicted constant disruptions. Explosions sent enemy soldiers flying, while gunfire from hidden positions kept them pinned. The rebels tried to respond with their machine guns, but the militias had already moved and regrouped.
Night after night, this pattern repeated. The rebels, unfamiliar with the Austrian terrain, advanced less than 15 kilometers while suffering nearly 30,000 casualties. In contrast, militia losses were minimal, fewer than 2,000, producing a staggering 15:1 casualty ratio.
The Germans and their Austrian allies leveraged both the terrain and superior firepower. German commanders applied their battlefield experience, knowing when to strike and when to retreat, executing a classic harassing tactic that the rebels had never encountered.
By sunrise on October 12, 1919, after four days of relentless operations, the last rebel army had been annihilated. Austria was now free of internal rebellion.
Their remaining adversaries were only the Italians and Romanians. At this moment, a 50,000-strong Romanian army appeared on Austria's border—the war was far from over.