IR 61

I have already written about the history of the 61st Infantry Regiment here. The regiment recruited its personnel from the eastern part of the Banat, so it was completely mixed in nationality. Its headquarters was located in Temesvár. It belonged to the 17th Division, which had been continuously deployed on the Karst plateau as part of the VII Corps since the summer of 1915. The front section, referred to in Hungarian terminology only as Doberdó, was one of the most difficult and most deadly defensive sections imaginable on the lower reaches of the Isonzo.

The postcard published in the edition of the regiment’s fund for the disabled refers to this front: the Guard of the Isonzo, that is its title. The buck in the picture resonates well with one of the frequently seen regimental insignia, the plate badge showing the charging 61st buck. Both the postcard and the badge were made before the front broke through at the end of October 1917. The place name Italien on the badge refers to the Italian front. This simple little badge was the most common regimental badge. We can still see many examples of it today.