28/1 heavy howitzer battery

Very few artillery cap badges have surviving wear photos. Especially with the Kappenabzeichen of the various divisions or batteries. There could be several reasons for this. On the one hand, the personnel of the artillery was less stationary than that of the infantry regiments. In the Great War, many artillery divisions and regiments were broken up and often used as separate batteries. Transfers were also common. The core of the new regiments raised during the war was always provided by a battery of one of the previously raised units. Therefore, cohesion within the troop often could not develop. Thus, the cap badges that support cohesion were not made either. Of course, there were refreshing exceptions, fortunately.

One such exception is the 1st Heavy Howitzer Battery of the 28th Heavy Artillery Regiment. This unit fought in the Artillery Brigade of the 28th Division in Tyrol. It was originally a battery of the 26th howitzer division in 1914-15. During the development of heavy artillery, they were transferred to the heavy artillery regiment of the 28th division in 1915. The basic gun type of the heavy artillery was the same 15 cm field howitzer as that of the howitzer divisions and later regiments. These were supplemented by larger caliber guns, e.g. the 30.5 cm mortar.

From the summer of 1915, the division and its artillery brigade were deployed on the Italian front. According to the sources, the battery in question was originally formed in Tyrol and was also used there. This may be one of the reasons why this nice badge was made. The old M 99 type gun, which I wrote about here, was also depicted on the badge.