31st Field Artillery Regiment

The artillery units underwent a large-scale development during the Great War. As a result of quantitative development, the number of batteries, artillery divisions, and regiments swelled. In addition, the previously separated field cannon and howitzer regiments were organized from 1917 into mixed artillery regiments. All this organizational change was followed by the renaming and renumbering of the units. Thus, it is possible that the classification of a particular artillery battery, say the 2nd battery of the former 1st Honvéd Field Cannon Regiment, and its classification name  changed twice during the war. At the time of the first change, the regiments recorded the number of the infantry divisions to which they were assigned. And second, their number and name changed when the mixed artillery regiments were formed. At that time, artillery regiments were formed instead of the previous field cannon and howitzer regiments. Two regiments per division. The first bore the original number of the division, the second the value of the number increased by 100. That is, the two mixed camp artillery regiments of the 31st Infantry Division were the 31st and 131st Field Artillery Regiments.

This will also bring us to the badge and camp postcard shown in this post. On the badges, FAR 31 marks the first of the 31st Division’s mixed artillery regiments after 1917. The FKR 31 on the field postcard, on the other hand, was made at the time of the previous period, when the cannon and howitzer regiments were still separate: this is the card of the 31st field cannon regiment. Two batteries of this regiment were transferred to the 31st Field Artillery Regiment. The other two batteries went to the 131st Regiment.

Both the badges and the post card presented are among the rarest. Special thanks to my friend Gábor Csiszér, who allowed the publication of the image of the post card.