1st Honvéd IR Budapest

It was one of the regiments of the famous 20th Honvéd Infantry Division, part of the VII. Corps. This division defended the northern part of the Karst Plateau from May 1915 to October 1916. Most of the time, the regiment was deployed on Mt San Michele, where the Italian attacks were repulsed at the cost of huge losses. This was followed by a “rest” of nearly a year in Volhynia, but in October 1917 the division was again commanded on the Italian front. Even then, the bloodiest scene of the regiment was Mt San Gabriele, which the Italians called only the mountain of death. All these ordeals can be clearly read from the face of the staff on the picture.

The beautiful little enamel badge was made by the Morzsányi company. The three oak leaves show the battlefields of the regiment. On the first, the inscription Carpathians also evokes very hard fighting in the winter of 1914-15 in the Dukla Pass. The interesting thing about the picture is that with two exceptions, everyone wears this badge on the caps at the same position, namely in the middle, between the two cap buttons.