This is John Bachelor. In coming weeks a conversation with Nick Lloyd, Professor Nick

Lloyd, his new book The Eastern Front, this is part of his series A History of the Great War in 1914 to

1918. You will recall we spoke with him a few years back. His first volume,

The Western Front. This is about the Eastern Front chiefly the end of the

Austria-Hungarian Empire, the Hopsburgs, versus Russia, and the man here who is profiling, General Franz Conrad

Franz von Hutzendorf called affectionately Conrad the leader of the

Auster Hungarian armies and as the professor very carefully gives us a metaphor, this

is a middle weight going up against a heavyweight that SAR and the Russian armies. It lasts four years comes to naught.

Conrad always believed it.

would break through, always, even when he lost his control of the army, he believed it.

Conrad Van Hutsendorf, the leader of the tragedy. We're still living with the results

with torn up eastern and central Europe.

Nick Lloyd is the author, more of this in coming weeks.

Conrad is a man who obviously runs the Austro-Hungarian army and has pressed the war

multiple numerous times before the war.

He wants to fight Serbia, he wants to reassert Austrian predominance in the Balkans.

Only an aggressive stance can drag the empire back to its predominant position.

But Conrad is, you know, he is a dreamer in some respects and he doesn't understand or he doesn't recognize the limitations of the army.

And so a comrade is always dreaming of these grand offenses.

And in some cases, many of these offenses are quite good on a map.

They're very promising.

He can spot where the enemy is weak,

...