IR 51

The 51st infantry regiment was the infantry regiment of the central part of Transylvania and the “capital” of Transylvania, Kolozsvár. He belonged to the Transylvanian division, the 35th, all the way, from the battles in Galicia in 1914 to the deployment in France in the fall of 1918. This last action is not included in the list on the badge, which means that the badge could have been made sometime in the first half of 1918.

The badge image depicts soldiers in assault helmets under a stormy sky, in the trenches. Perhaps the designer was thinking of the lower section of the Isonzó front, where the regiment arrived as reinforcements in the summer of 1917. Here he also participated in fending off the Italian attack launched against Hermada Hill. The badge image seems to depict this. In the corresponding photograph, there are soldiers not preparing for an attack, but resting in the depths of the trenches, in the assault helmets typical of the period and place. Maybe they had to attack the next day as well.