17th Hungarian insurgent regiment

I have written about the insurgent units several times. In a nutshell, it is worth noting that they were not originally intended for direct frontline service, but already in August 1914 they were deployed in the front lines. The staff had been made up of older reserve soldiers, was then changed in those regiments that still survived until the spring of 1915. Most of them however, were disbanded and merged into other regiments.

The 17th of Székesfehérvár was one remaining insurgent regiment. This regiment was assigned to the 16th (then renumbered to 216) infantry brigade. Already in June 1915, they were ordered to the most dangerous part of the Italian front, where they defended Mt dei sei Busi. You can read about it here. The regiment survived also later on.

The three color enameled discs on the triple oak leaf evoke three counties (Fejér, Somogy and Tolna counties). The coat-of-arms of the city of Székesfehérvár hung with a counter eye at the bottom of the badge. It takes an extraordinary amount of luck for someone to acquire a fully intact specimen of this Kappenabzeichen for the collection. It usually misses the hanging part below.