IR 71

An incredible wearing photo of a barely existing badge has been found on Fortepan! The plate badge of the 71st Infantry Regiment depicting the Trencsén castle and the numbered flag badge are well-known pieces. However, the badge depicting a charging infantryman is very rare. A wearing photo of it is even rarer. Specifically, I know only this Fortepan find.

The 71st Regiment belonged to the 14th Division, which included the regiments of the western part of the Highlands. Its headquarters was in Trenčín. Its personnel consisted predominantly of Slovak-speaking soldiers. In the initial stages of the Great War, they fought in Galicia and then in Bukovina, mainly in the IV. Corps. In the autumn of 1916, the division was transferred to the Italian front, first to the XVI. Corps (1917) on the Isonzo, then to the VII. and later to the XXIII. Corps (1918), on the lower reaches of the Piave. The battlefields and the year on the badge also refer to the fighting that took place on the Eastern Front.