II/2 Budapest howitzer battery
There is a howitzer badge that has been puzzling me for a long time. The old M 98 15 cm howitzer can be seen on it and a precise unit designation: 2/II Budapest mortar battery. I looked for it in all sources available to me and on the Internet, but I couldn’t find it.
Now the name of the unit has finally appeared on a postcard. It shows a gun placed in the mouth of a rock cave. On the back, the inscription II. Budapest Division 15 cm howitzer battery. The card was sent in March 1917 and bears the stamp of the 17th Corps and the office of a Trieste censor. The sender was a first lieutenant assigned to the command of the corps.
That’s quite a lot of new information to start with. The first step is to examine when the 17th corps was assigned to the Italian front? How did this card get to Trieste? We can get a precise answer to this: it was ordered there in August 1916 and was on the Italian front until the end of June 1917. During this time, first the 57th and 62nd Divisions, then the 24th Division instead of the 62nd, were assigned to it, and the whole belonged to the 5th Army. So the date stamp is correct. At this time, the 57th and 62nd divisions were in staff.
Let’s see the divisional artillery then! Not surprisingly, we find two artillery brigades: the 57th and 62nd Field Artillery Brigades. That’s when the long-awaited moment comes: will I finally find the artillery division I’m looking for in these brigades? Numbered 62, we see the usual three field artillery regiments (one cannon, howitzer and heavy artillery regiment). The 57th Division, on the other hand, has always been special, as it had mountain brigades. In addition, as a result of reorganizations from 1916, the former 57th division became the 90th division with a new composition. The 57th and 18th Infantry Brigades were then assigned to the 57th division, which operated partly with regular line regiments.
The divisional artillery also appears to have been largely replaced. As it was until 1916, also later it was “raked together” by battery, it was not organized in the usual systematic system. From August 1916, the number of batteries increased, regular field artillery and mountain artillery were mixed. According to the sources, there were five independent 15 cm howitzer batteries among them. The hastily assembled units often did not even receive registry numbers, but many of them had names (e.g. China battery, Belgian battery from the names of the original destination countries of the guns left over from export). Unfortunately, the Budapest division or battery is not listed by name in the records I have access to. Nevertheless, I assume that among the mentioned five howitzer batteries was the 2nd howitzer battery of the Budapest Division.
Finally, from the picture on the postcard, it can be concluded that the cave carved into the rock was typical of the Italian front. The artillery protecting the Tolmein bridgehead was placed in completely similar battery positions on Mengore Hill as shown on the photo. The 57. division was defending the frontline a bit more South at the Isonzo.
