IR 19

IR 19 was the house regiment of the city of Győr and received crew from the counties of Győr and Veszprém. The regiment was subordinated to the 65th Infantry Brigade and the 33rd Division. For most of the war, the division was on the Russian front in the 2nd Army. First the V., then from the middle of 1915 the IV. corps. They were deployed on the border of Galicia and Bukovina. In late 1917 the regiment were transferred to the Italian front, the Isonzo Army. Here they were assigned to the XVI.  corps.

The regiment’s silvered zinc badge is relatively simple, but has a refined Art Nouveau decoration to suit the tastes of the age. I put it on a post card of the XVIII. March Battalion dated January 1916. There are a few things to note about march battalions and companies. These reinforcements were sent to the front by the replacement battalion, the “cadre,” to make up for the losses suffered in the fighting. The march battalions were formed practically on a monthly basis. Based on this, it is easy to imagine how many people were “consumed” by each infantry regiment in that short period of time. Of course, the downsizing has, fortunately, not always been so rapid and, above all, uneven. Thus, march battalions were often not directed to the mother regiment, but to other regiments where there was a greater need for replacement. At other times, the regiments set up new battalions out of the incoming “surplus”. Some regiments had 6 or possibly 7 battalions instead of the required 4 battalions at a time.

I enclose a letter seal with the portrait of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the regiment’s owner.