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September 8, 2024Post by my friend Gábor Csiszér. One of the main means of transport during World War I was the railway. Its application aimed not only the rapid movement of the forces, the delivery of troops and their weapons to their destination but also to serve as the fastest return of the wounded to the hinterland. In the Monarchy it was developed based on the experience of the Prussian army. Prussia already used the railway as a means of military transport means in the Prussian-French war of 1870-71. The K.u.K. Army began to use it from 1878, and in 1911, hospital trains and patient transport trains were already put into service. There were doctors, pharmacists and nurses on the trains. Their work was supported by care services when rolled into the stations, to which the Red Cross also joined. This kind of help was provided by the Railway Refreshment Service of the Red Cross Society of the Countries of the Hungarian Holy Crown. The scene depicted on the postcard was almost “copied” on the beautifully detailed badge. [...] Read more...
September 4, 2024The fall of 1918 brought the collapse of the Central Powers. The completely exhausted Monarchy, as well as Turkey and Bulgaria, reached the ultimate limit of their ability to perform. The troops were in a physically degraded state, insufficient and declining material supplies, and the turbulent hinterland predicted disaster. This happened first on the Turkish front. Under the attack of the British troops, the Turkish forces had already been retreating for a year, but they were able to slow down the pace of the British advance with counterattacks. German and Austro-Hungarian soldiers sent to Palestine were also helping the Turkish troops. The commander-in-chief of the front was also a German general (Friedrich Kreß von Kressenstein, then Erich von Falkenhayn, later Otto Liman von Sanders). The Germans helped the Turks with one corps (Asia Corps), the Monarchy with artillery batteries and technical troops. The allies were able to temporarily stop the British attacks near Gaza and then Amman. In September 1918, the British finally achieved a decisive breakthrough on the Palestinian front. On the 19th, relying on their overwhelming air superiority, they successfully attacked the stations of the allied headquarters in Tul-Kerim, Nablus and Afule. After the subsequent frontal breakthrough, the attacking mounted corps quickly advanced along the beach and got behind the defenders. It is typical that due to the lightning-fast attack, the defenders’ headquarters in Nazareth could not be evacuated either. At dawn on September 20, the staff who were still sleeping there were surprised. After that, the mounted British troops occupied all of Palestine in a flash, first Amman on September 24, Daraa on the 27th, and Damascus on October 1. Turkey was forced to conclude an armistice on October 30, assuming heavy territorial losses. The Austro-Hungarian artillery stationed in the area was not captured, but suffered significant losses during the retreat. The 24 cm mortar battery covered the movements of the retreating 8th Army on the coast until September 21. After that, the troop retreated along the coast, reaching Constantinople on the 27th. The retreat of the von Marno division was even more difficult. The confused, disorganized fleeing troops were surprised by British planes attacking low in one of the mountain passes. In the resulting panic, all the guns of the 4/1 battery fell into a ravine. Later, the rest of the battery also reached the Turkish capital. Other batteries joined German units from the East side of the Jordan to march through the desert and reached Damascus after a week of wandering, only to immediately retreat to Aleppo. This part of the Austro-Hungarian contingent in Syria was taken prisoner of war by the British. The badge attached to the post shows a 15 cm howitzer. The Monarchy also sent such a cannon in to reinforce the Marno Mountain Artillery Division in Palestine. The attached newspaper article depicts one of the 15 cm guns with Turkish observers. The beautiful car photo shows the leaders of the Monarchy’s military contingent by the Bosphorus in 1915. The map shows the front breakthrough and the encirclement operation targeting the headquarters in Nazareth. [...] Read more...
September 2, 2024IR 87 was a Styrian regiment. Its command and recruitmen area was in Cilli (now Celje, Slovenia), and most of its crew were Slovenian. The regiment was originally assigned to the defense of Pola. His battalions were also stationed there. Then, in the Great War, they fought with the 28th Division, first on the Russian and then on the Italian front. The regiment’s insignia shows a small section of the Italian battlefield that became important from the end of 1916, Mt San Gabriele. In 1916, the Italians occupied the bridgehead in front of Görz. Then the weight of their attack shifted to the left bank of the Isonzo river. The key to the defense here was the possession of this mountain north of Görz. As the badge shows, particularly fierce battles took place here from the end of 1916 to September 1917, until the 11th Battle of Isonzó. In the summer of 1917, the 87th gave their place to the regiments of the 20th Honvéd Division (I wrote about their battles on San Gabriele here). The badge shows a panoramic view of the Isonzo valley as seen from Mt Santo. The Görz railway line ran under the Mt San Gabriele, whose bridge over the Isonzo was blown up in 1916 by the troops forced to evacuate Görz. I wrote more about the history of the bridge here. [...] Read more...
August 30, 2024I recently visited Innsbruck and attended the Kaiserjägermuseum there. The history of the Tyrolean fighters is nicely explained, from the establishment of their associations and their first use in combat (the Hofer Uprisal of Independence against Napoleonic rule) to the present day. It is particularly interesting that the museum stands on the Bergisel plateau, where the great battle of the uprising against Napoleon took place in 1809. But the museum also keeps many relics from the Great War. One of them is the shield-shaped plaque of the 2nd land rifle regiment of Bozen. I’ve written about the shield-shaped badge twice before (here and here). The ragged surface of the badge was striking. Now the reason for this has become clear in the museum. As in many other cities, outdoor wooden sculptures were set up in Bozen, in which an iron nail could be hammered in exchange for donations paid to local relief funds. The shield was created for such a fundraising. It is currently kept in this museum. [...] Read more...
August 28, 2024One of the advanced weapons of the Monarchy was the 30 and a half mortar. Its formidable firepower was already proven in 1914, when the Austro-Hungarian mortars that supplemented the equipment of the German attackers were also effective in breaking through the Belgian fortress system. By the end of the war, roughly a hundred guns were produced. Today, only three of the formidable weapon remained. One is kept in Rovereto, Belgrade and Bucharest. Unfortunately, in the successor states of the Monarchy none remained (it is true, Rovereto was in the territory of the Monarchy until 1918). The attached wearing photo is a rarity, since for some reason the gunners either wore fewer badges or took fewer photos of themselves (this is less likely). In any case, in this picture we see a gunner with an insignia with the word “Gretl” above his tunic pocket, forming a 30 and a half shell. Several other insignia can be seen on his cap: Italian officer’s star, Isonzo-Armee, Armeegruppe Rohr, Tiroler Landesverteidigung. These are all common, the wreath gunner insignia is rare. [...] Read more...
August 23, 2024The Lohner Pfeilflieger got its name from the backward-pointing wings. The first plane was completed in 1912. Soon it was also produced for military use. The series of the machine were classified according to the engines with increasing power. About 270 of the various versions were built. Most of the machines were manufactured in Fischamend, and a smaller part in Budapest. In Budapest, Első Magyar Léghajó és Repülőgép Rt produced the Lohner B II and B VII types from 1913 on Hungária körút. The B III version was a two-seated reconnaissance aircraft. At first, it was equipped with weak Mercedes engines with 100 HP. It was vulnerable due to its low speed and altitude. In the article of aviation historian György Punka, we can read that the first Lohner crashed already on August 14, 1914. On the Russian battlefield, he could not get above an altitude of 500 meters and was shot down with infantry weapons. Another piece suffered an accident in flight two days later and also crashed. The type, unsuitable for military use, was replaced by the B VII series. It already had a more powerful 160 HP engine. But this plane was not able to fly above 3000 meters either. Its speed was also low, 137 km/h. This machine has already been equipped with a protective machine gun. The variety of aircraft types inspired badge makers. The Lohner Pfeil was produced in much smaller numbers than the Monarchy’s other reconnaissance base type, the Hansa Brandenburg. Still, this machine also appears on one of the Kappenabzeichen. I am attaching the most common plate badge with the years 1914-1918 to the post. The same badge was also made without the year, emphasizing the fine details of the machine: parts of the background were cut out from behind the complicated outline of the machine. The full version was made of grey metal, the other version was silver-plated or silver. The manufacturers of badges and other propaganda materials were not interested in the performance and features of the machines. More liked the sight of the airplane. The small, nimble, fast fighters were not spectacular enough. That is why reconnaissance and even some pre-war machines with extravagant dragons appear on the insignia. I am also attaching a letter seal, on which we also see a picture of the Lohner Pfeil aircraft [...] Read more...
August 22, 2024A model designed by Charles Voisin in 1907. The first flying structure that was produced in large numbers. Between 1907 and 1911, 75 pieces were made. As the presented postcard shows, at least one piece went to Wiener Neustadt. The horizontal stabilizer is located on the nose of the unusual structure of the airplane. This is the strangest characteristic of the machine. On the steel frame based structure box-like separating elements built into the wings are also a bit strange. The world’s first cross country flight between Chalons and Reims (27 km) in 20 minutes was made by Henri Farman in 1908 with such a plane. The importance of the event is stressed by the fact that it became the cover story of the leading American natural science magazine. Perhaps it was this event in aviation history that made the Voisin model so popular that it was even included among the Monarchy’s cap badges. [...] Read more...
August 20, 2024The Nagyvárad Honvéd IR no.4.  was part of the tried and tested 20th Infantry Division. They fought in the Carpathians, then on the Italian front, first at the upper reaches of the Isonzo and then at the Karst. The cap badge of the regiment depicts the fight against the many-headed dragon, the honvéd bucks fighting against many enemy countries. This round badge was the only badge of the regiment, produced in Vienna by the Gurschner company, in large numbers. In the wearing photo, the regimental commander, Colonel Károly Kratochvill, decorates the handle of his bayonet with the badge. [...] Read more...
August 16, 2024Here again, a better-known badge follows, to which I can attach a stamped correspondence letter and a letter seal. The 18th Infantry Regiment was a Silesian regiment, three-quarters Czech and one-quarter German-speaking crew. At the turn of the century, the command and staff of the regiment was in Olmütz, and before the war in Königgrätz. The regiment was owned by Archduke Leopold Salvator. He was the chief inspector of artillery in the Monarchy’s armed forces in the rank of general colonel. The letter seal is decorated with his portrait. The 18th infantry regiment belonged to the 10th division, which was in the IX corps in northern Bohemia. It was used throughout the Great War on the Russian front, first in the 4th Army and then as part of the 2nd Army. During the Brusilov Offensive, they were transferred from the scattered 4th Army to the German Southern Army. [...] Read more...
August 14, 2024Recently, I managed to solve an old puzzle. Not one in fact, but three. The following: What were the so-called “positional batteries” organizationally? What guns belonged to these batteries? Which front does the single “Positionsbatterie” badge represent, where was this 3/5 battery? I found the reason for the lack of clarity in Christian Ortner’s book The KuK Artillery, published by Militaria Verlag. He doesn’t write about positional batteries either, because there was complete chaos around them. To strengthen the front lines, the Monarchy used defensie guns built into the front line on all fronts. They were not removed from the front line even when the crew of the given front section changed. Thus, positional batteries were practically separated from their own regiments and became brigade- or rather division-directed. Therefore, there is no collected, organized information about them. One of the photos in Ortner’s book shows an 8 cm field gun of the M 99 pattern. In the text part, the “positional batteries” are discussed related mainly to the mountain artillery. From this, I drew the conclusion that these anti-assault cannons were field or mountain cannons of smaller caliber, often outdated, of older production. Of course, it also follows that the “mother regiments” should be sought primarily among the field artillery and mountain artillery regiments. That is, the 3/5 battery could have been either a field gun battery or a mountain gun battery. According to information sources describing the use of the troops, the 5th Field Artillery Regiment was not used on the Italian front. The 5th Mountain Artillery Regiment did, however, divided into batteries. I thought primarily of the Italian front because of the mountain landscape on the badge, although parts of the Carpathians could also have been considered. My suspicions were proven by the fact that the depicted landscape was eerily similar to the Tolmein bridgehead, whose pictures I have been looking at a lot lately. Especially the smaller mountain in the foreground reminded me a lot of the Schlossberg “rising” above the town of Tolmein. The Schlossberg is mentioned in many descriptions because the front stretched from the west coast to the east in front of it, and from this part the Italians attacked the somewhat further mountain range, the Vodil and Mrzli Vrh heights. All that was left was to somehow prove that the batteries protecting the area really came from the No. 5 mountain artillery. On the basis of the image of the badge, it was assumed that the battery was installed on the Sveta Maria – Mengore mountain high up in the bridgehead, since Tolmein and the surrounding mountains can be seen from there at the right angle. Some of the posts can still be seen on Mount Mengore, and there are also commemorative plaques at the entrance to the shelters. There is a “Positionsbatterie 15 (or 1/5)” sign, but it faces the opposite south, so you can’t see the city. You can see a “Geb. Kan. Batterie 4/5” sign too, which is supposed to be located on the north side of Mengore mountain. So that’s the key. Two batteries of the 5th Mountain Artillery Regiment (Bt 4 and 5) were assigned to the 15th Mountain Brigade and then to the 2nd Mountain Brigade active in the area in late 1915. They protected the Tolmein bridgehead. Their memorial plaque is on the mountain. Not the 3rd but the 1st and 4th batteries. But maybe the 3rd is there somewhere there, you just have to look around. And the inscription on the badge refers to the 3/5 mountain gun battery, which was used as a positional battery. [...] Read more...

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September 8, 2024Post by my friend Gábor Csiszér. One of the main means of transport during World War I was the railway. Its application aimed not only the rapid movement of the forces, the delivery of troops and their weapons to their destination but also to serve as the fastest return of the wounded to the hinterland. In the Monarchy it was developed based on the experience of the Prussian army. Prussia already used the railway as a means of military transport means in the Prussian-French war of 1870-71. The K.u.K. Army began to use it from 1878, and in 1911, hospital trains and patient transport trains were already put into service. There were doctors, pharmacists and nurses on the trains. Their work was supported by care services when rolled into the stations, to which the Red Cross also joined. This kind of help was provided by the Railway Refreshment Service of the Red Cross Society of the Countries of the Hungarian Holy Crown. The scene depicted on the postcard was almost “copied” on the beautifully detailed badge. [...] Read more...
September 4, 2024The fall of 1918 brought the collapse of the Central Powers. The completely exhausted Monarchy, as well as Turkey and Bulgaria, reached the ultimate limit of their ability to perform. The troops were in a physically degraded state, insufficient and declining material supplies, and the turbulent hinterland predicted disaster. This happened first on the Turkish front. Under the attack of the British troops, the Turkish forces had already been retreating for a year, but they were able to slow down the pace of the British advance with counterattacks. German and Austro-Hungarian soldiers sent to Palestine were also helping the Turkish troops. The commander-in-chief of the front was also a German general (Friedrich Kreß von Kressenstein, then Erich von Falkenhayn, later Otto Liman von Sanders). The Germans helped the Turks with one corps (Asia Corps), the Monarchy with artillery batteries and technical troops. The allies were able to temporarily stop the British attacks near Gaza and then Amman. In September 1918, the British finally achieved a decisive breakthrough on the Palestinian front. On the 19th, relying on their overwhelming air superiority, they successfully attacked the stations of the allied headquarters in Tul-Kerim, Nablus and Afule. After the subsequent frontal breakthrough, the attacking mounted corps quickly advanced along the beach and got behind the defenders. It is typical that due to the lightning-fast attack, the defenders’ headquarters in Nazareth could not be evacuated either. At dawn on September 20, the staff who were still sleeping there were surprised. After that, the mounted British troops occupied all of Palestine in a flash, first Amman on September 24, Daraa on the 27th, and Damascus on October 1. Turkey was forced to conclude an armistice on October 30, assuming heavy territorial losses. The Austro-Hungarian artillery stationed in the area was not captured, but suffered significant losses during the retreat. The 24 cm mortar battery covered the movements of the retreating 8th Army on the coast until September 21. After that, the troop retreated along the coast, reaching Constantinople on the 27th. The retreat of the von Marno division was even more difficult. The confused, disorganized fleeing troops were surprised by British planes attacking low in one of the mountain passes. In the resulting panic, all the guns of the 4/1 battery fell into a ravine. Later, the rest of the battery also reached the Turkish capital. Other batteries joined German units from the East side of the Jordan to march through the desert and reached Damascus after a week of wandering, only to immediately retreat to Aleppo. This part of the Austro-Hungarian contingent in Syria was taken prisoner of war by the British. The badge attached to the post shows a 15 cm howitzer. The Monarchy also sent such a cannon in to reinforce the Marno Mountain Artillery Division in Palestine. The attached newspaper article depicts one of the 15 cm guns with Turkish observers. The beautiful car photo shows the leaders of the Monarchy’s military contingent by the Bosphorus in 1915. The map shows the front breakthrough and the encirclement operation targeting the headquarters in Nazareth. [...] Read more...
September 2, 2024IR 87 was a Styrian regiment. Its command and recruitmen area was in Cilli (now Celje, Slovenia), and most of its crew were Slovenian. The regiment was originally assigned to the defense of Pola. His battalions were also stationed there. Then, in the Great War, they fought with the 28th Division, first on the Russian and then on the Italian front. The regiment’s insignia shows a small section of the Italian battlefield that became important from the end of 1916, Mt San Gabriele. In 1916, the Italians occupied the bridgehead in front of Görz. Then the weight of their attack shifted to the left bank of the Isonzo river. The key to the defense here was the possession of this mountain north of Görz. As the badge shows, particularly fierce battles took place here from the end of 1916 to September 1917, until the 11th Battle of Isonzó. In the summer of 1917, the 87th gave their place to the regiments of the 20th Honvéd Division (I wrote about their battles on San Gabriele here). The badge shows a panoramic view of the Isonzo valley as seen from Mt Santo. The Görz railway line ran under the Mt San Gabriele, whose bridge over the Isonzo was blown up in 1916 by the troops forced to evacuate Görz. I wrote more about the history of the bridge here. [...] Read more...
August 30, 2024I recently visited Innsbruck and attended the Kaiserjägermuseum there. The history of the Tyrolean fighters is nicely explained, from the establishment of their associations and their first use in combat (the Hofer Uprisal of Independence against Napoleonic rule) to the present day. It is particularly interesting that the museum stands on the Bergisel plateau, where the great battle of the uprising against Napoleon took place in 1809. But the museum also keeps many relics from the Great War. One of them is the shield-shaped plaque of the 2nd land rifle regiment of Bozen. I’ve written about the shield-shaped badge twice before (here and here). The ragged surface of the badge was striking. Now the reason for this has become clear in the museum. As in many other cities, outdoor wooden sculptures were set up in Bozen, in which an iron nail could be hammered in exchange for donations paid to local relief funds. The shield was created for such a fundraising. It is currently kept in this museum. [...] Read more...
August 28, 2024One of the advanced weapons of the Monarchy was the 30 and a half mortar. Its formidable firepower was already proven in 1914, when the Austro-Hungarian mortars that supplemented the equipment of the German attackers were also effective in breaking through the Belgian fortress system. By the end of the war, roughly a hundred guns were produced. Today, only three of the formidable weapon remained. One is kept in Rovereto, Belgrade and Bucharest. Unfortunately, in the successor states of the Monarchy none remained (it is true, Rovereto was in the territory of the Monarchy until 1918). The attached wearing photo is a rarity, since for some reason the gunners either wore fewer badges or took fewer photos of themselves (this is less likely). In any case, in this picture we see a gunner with an insignia with the word “Gretl” above his tunic pocket, forming a 30 and a half shell. Several other insignia can be seen on his cap: Italian officer’s star, Isonzo-Armee, Armeegruppe Rohr, Tiroler Landesverteidigung. These are all common, the wreath gunner insignia is rare. [...] Read more...
August 23, 2024The Lohner Pfeilflieger got its name from the backward-pointing wings. The first plane was completed in 1912. Soon it was also produced for military use. The series of the machine were classified according to the engines with increasing power. About 270 of the various versions were built. Most of the machines were manufactured in Fischamend, and a smaller part in Budapest. In Budapest, Első Magyar Léghajó és Repülőgép Rt produced the Lohner B II and B VII types from 1913 on Hungária körút. The B III version was a two-seated reconnaissance aircraft. At first, it was equipped with weak Mercedes engines with 100 HP. It was vulnerable due to its low speed and altitude. In the article of aviation historian György Punka, we can read that the first Lohner crashed already on August 14, 1914. On the Russian battlefield, he could not get above an altitude of 500 meters and was shot down with infantry weapons. Another piece suffered an accident in flight two days later and also crashed. The type, unsuitable for military use, was replaced by the B VII series. It already had a more powerful 160 HP engine. But this plane was not able to fly above 3000 meters either. Its speed was also low, 137 km/h. This machine has already been equipped with a protective machine gun. The variety of aircraft types inspired badge makers. The Lohner Pfeil was produced in much smaller numbers than the Monarchy’s other reconnaissance base type, the Hansa Brandenburg. Still, this machine also appears on one of the Kappenabzeichen. I am attaching the most common plate badge with the years 1914-1918 to the post. The same badge was also made without the year, emphasizing the fine details of the machine: parts of the background were cut out from behind the complicated outline of the machine. The full version was made of grey metal, the other version was silver-plated or silver. The manufacturers of badges and other propaganda materials were not interested in the performance and features of the machines. More liked the sight of the airplane. The small, nimble, fast fighters were not spectacular enough. That is why reconnaissance and even some pre-war machines with extravagant dragons appear on the insignia. I am also attaching a letter seal, on which we also see a picture of the Lohner Pfeil aircraft [...] Read more...
August 22, 2024A model designed by Charles Voisin in 1907. The first flying structure that was produced in large numbers. Between 1907 and 1911, 75 pieces were made. As the presented postcard shows, at least one piece went to Wiener Neustadt. The horizontal stabilizer is located on the nose of the unusual structure of the airplane. This is the strangest characteristic of the machine. On the steel frame based structure box-like separating elements built into the wings are also a bit strange. The world’s first cross country flight between Chalons and Reims (27 km) in 20 minutes was made by Henri Farman in 1908 with such a plane. The importance of the event is stressed by the fact that it became the cover story of the leading American natural science magazine. Perhaps it was this event in aviation history that made the Voisin model so popular that it was even included among the Monarchy’s cap badges. [...] Read more...
August 20, 2024The Nagyvárad Honvéd IR no.4.  was part of the tried and tested 20th Infantry Division. They fought in the Carpathians, then on the Italian front, first at the upper reaches of the Isonzo and then at the Karst. The cap badge of the regiment depicts the fight against the many-headed dragon, the honvéd bucks fighting against many enemy countries. This round badge was the only badge of the regiment, produced in Vienna by the Gurschner company, in large numbers. In the wearing photo, the regimental commander, Colonel Károly Kratochvill, decorates the handle of his bayonet with the badge. [...] Read more...
August 16, 2024Here again, a better-known badge follows, to which I can attach a stamped correspondence letter and a letter seal. The 18th Infantry Regiment was a Silesian regiment, three-quarters Czech and one-quarter German-speaking crew. At the turn of the century, the command and staff of the regiment was in Olmütz, and before the war in Königgrätz. The regiment was owned by Archduke Leopold Salvator. He was the chief inspector of artillery in the Monarchy’s armed forces in the rank of general colonel. The letter seal is decorated with his portrait. The 18th infantry regiment belonged to the 10th division, which was in the IX corps in northern Bohemia. It was used throughout the Great War on the Russian front, first in the 4th Army and then as part of the 2nd Army. During the Brusilov Offensive, they were transferred from the scattered 4th Army to the German Southern Army. [...] Read more...
August 14, 2024Recently, I managed to solve an old puzzle. Not one in fact, but three. The following: What were the so-called “positional batteries” organizationally? What guns belonged to these batteries? Which front does the single “Positionsbatterie” badge represent, where was this 3/5 battery? I found the reason for the lack of clarity in Christian Ortner’s book The KuK Artillery, published by Militaria Verlag. He doesn’t write about positional batteries either, because there was complete chaos around them. To strengthen the front lines, the Monarchy used defensie guns built into the front line on all fronts. They were not removed from the front line even when the crew of the given front section changed. Thus, positional batteries were practically separated from their own regiments and became brigade- or rather division-directed. Therefore, there is no collected, organized information about them. One of the photos in Ortner’s book shows an 8 cm field gun of the M 99 pattern. In the text part, the “positional batteries” are discussed related mainly to the mountain artillery. From this, I drew the conclusion that these anti-assault cannons were field or mountain cannons of smaller caliber, often outdated, of older production. Of course, it also follows that the “mother regiments” should be sought primarily among the field artillery and mountain artillery regiments. That is, the 3/5 battery could have been either a field gun battery or a mountain gun battery. According to information sources describing the use of the troops, the 5th Field Artillery Regiment was not used on the Italian front. The 5th Mountain Artillery Regiment did, however, divided into batteries. I thought primarily of the Italian front because of the mountain landscape on the badge, although parts of the Carpathians could also have been considered. My suspicions were proven by the fact that the depicted landscape was eerily similar to the Tolmein bridgehead, whose pictures I have been looking at a lot lately. Especially the smaller mountain in the foreground reminded me a lot of the Schlossberg “rising” above the town of Tolmein. The Schlossberg is mentioned in many descriptions because the front stretched from the west coast to the east in front of it, and from this part the Italians attacked the somewhat further mountain range, the Vodil and Mrzli Vrh heights. All that was left was to somehow prove that the batteries protecting the area really came from the No. 5 mountain artillery. On the basis of the image of the badge, it was assumed that the battery was installed on the Sveta Maria – Mengore mountain high up in the bridgehead, since Tolmein and the surrounding mountains can be seen from there at the right angle. Some of the posts can still be seen on Mount Mengore, and there are also commemorative plaques at the entrance to the shelters. There is a “Positionsbatterie 15 (or 1/5)” sign, but it faces the opposite south, so you can’t see the city. You can see a “Geb. Kan. Batterie 4/5” sign too, which is supposed to be located on the north side of Mengore mountain. So that’s the key. Two batteries of the 5th Mountain Artillery Regiment (Bt 4 and 5) were assigned to the 15th Mountain Brigade and then to the 2nd Mountain Brigade active in the area in late 1915. They protected the Tolmein bridgehead. Their memorial plaque is on the mountain. Not the 3rd but the 1st and 4th batteries. But maybe the 3rd is there somewhere there, you just have to look around. And the inscription on the badge refers to the 3/5 mountain gun battery, which was used as a positional battery. [...] Read more...
August 12, 2024St Lucia was a small town of perhaps thousand people during the Great War located at the confluence of the Isonzo and Idria rivers. The place is surrounded by smaller mountains, so its location is very favorable from a military point of view. There was a bridge in this place already in the Middle Ages. The town’s current name also reflects this: Most na Soci: “Isonzo Bridge”. This point was the center of the Tolmein bridgehead during the Great War. Until 1917, it was the terminus of the railway line supplying the northern Isonzo front. The defense of the bridgehead was important to the Monarchy for this reason alone. But the Italians didn’t really attack it. Rather, they tried to conquer the surrounding high mountains, especially the Krn group. The 4/58th Battalion was a unit of the 8th Mountain Brigade. This brigade was stationed at the bridgehead in 1915-16. On his badge, in the background of the battle scene, the outline of the town can be seen to the left, you can recognize the tower of the parish church. In the foreground of today’s city view, instead of the rocky riverbed, a dammed lake is visible. The town in the background is unchanged. [...] Read more...
August 8, 2024I have shown the nice plate badge of the regiment in a wearing photo here. The badge, like in case of so many regiments, appears in various patriotic publications, cards of the invalid fund. In addition to the correspondence card that you can see in the opening image, it is also on the letter seal. The badge was made in three material versions. Most of the time, you can find the silver-plated version presented here. [...] Read more...
August 6, 2024After the unsuccessful Piave offensive, the Monarchy gathered its last strength and tried to strengthen its forces and the fronts. At that time, it only had occupying tasks to the east in Ukraine and Romania. In the Balkans, a low-intensity war was going on in Albania and on the Greek border. The Italian front was the most active. Here, the combined Entente forces tried to take advantage of the confusion after the lost offensive and further weaken and grind down the Monarchy’s troops. Along the Piave, he had the opportunity to do this mostly with artillery operations and the use of aircraft. The use of the air force already had significant results during the Piave offensive. Entente aircraft successfully destroyed the military bridges securing the crossing of the Piave. With ground attacks, they were able to disturb and demoralize the marching troops. A similar air superiority developed in Palestine. The Turkish, German and Austro-Hungarian troops retreating towards Syria were hit by continuous low-level attacks: bombing and machine gun fire. Gaining and maintaining air superiority became increasingly important. So it’s no wonder that air battles have become more and more frequent. Earlier, I reported on the death of two Austro-Hungarian flying aces, József Kiss and Frank Linke-Crawford. In August 1918, the fight continued with the same intensity and there were more victims. In this post, however, the focus is more on a miraculous escape, which was also a milestone in aviation history. Sergeant Frigyes Hefty was involved in aviation even before the Great War, participated in air shows and was a passionate pilot. From 1915 he was a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian Air Force, first as an observer and then as a pilot. He achieved nine aerial victories, five of which were confirmed. That’s how he became a flying ace. His activities were honored with a total of ten bravery medals, three of which were first class (gold). Hefty’s name stands out among his fellow soldiers because he was the first pilot who was able to escape from his damaged plane in air combat by jumping out with a parachute. There had been parachute jumps in the past, also in the Monarchy’s air force, but Hefty was the first to be proven to have escaped certain death by parachute from his burning plane during air combat. This happened on August 22, 1918. I’ve attached an airman’s badge to Hefty’s photo, it’s relatively rare. According to most experts, this is the badge of the Wiener Neustadt flying school [...] Read more...
August 3, 2024Aviation was a novelty of the Great War era. The general public was also moved and excited by this area of ​​technical development (besides submarines). They were also willing to make serious financial sacrifices for the development. The Monarchy organized donation campaigns for aviation developments. The airplane surrounded by the wreath (a civilian model) decorated the badge given to the donors. The same template was made with a different type of machine and even with the serial number of one of the air force squadrons. The Kappenabzeichen of the 48th Air Squadron is not the only insignia that has been adapted and transformed for combat formations in addition to the original use. For example, several of the cap badges made with monarchs’ portraits were engraved with the number of an infantry regiment or a hussar regiment. As the background of this post, I chose a poster of a pre-war aviation exhibition and presentation. [...] Read more...
August 1, 2024I have already dealt with the use of searchlights in general here. The most important development process was that the device used to illuminate the foreground of fixed, fortified points began to be used much more widely. The location of the fortress was known and had not changed, so revealing the surprise attacks as a goal did not conflict with the goal of concealment. With the development of trench warfare, this aspect began to prevail again: the covers and trenches were in the same place for a longer period of time, so the lighting of their forecourt did not reveal much to the enemy. So, the headlights that were previously only used in fortresses were deployed to all fronts and positions. Before the war, in addition to devices operating with old acetylene burners, electric headlights also appeared. Supplying them with electricity was, of course, a separate task, which was carried out by the electrical battalions dealing with the electricity generators and the construction and maintenance of the electrical lines carrying the electricity further afield. At first, these battalions also operated the searchlights, later the headlight units were formed. Due to their increased performance, electric headlights became more and more common. One of these devices was the electric searchlight with a mirror diameter of 110 cm, introduced in 1915. The M15 110 cm searchlight was one of the largest devices, operated by a searchlight swarm. It had two versions. The image presented in this post shows the fortress version mounted on the fixed base. 22 of these devices were applied in mid-1917. A similar lighting device was also made in a mobile version, as a portable device. 77 of them were made. I am attaching the insignia of the electrical battalions to the post. In the first half of the Great War, these units were also involved in the operation of searchlights. [...] Read more...
July 29, 2024The Hofmann corps was set up in the spring of 1915 by merging several newly formed army units. Its core was the 55th division, which included three honvéd infantry regiments. They were supplemented by the Bolzano Brigade and later by the 54th Rifle Division. The Hofmann corps received a military number in 1917, from that time the XXV. corps became its official name. The division played an important role in the battles on the Russian front. The badge in the post also refers to the battles that took place in the Carpathians, mainly around the Uzsoki Pass. But later they also played an important role on the border of Eastern Galicia and Bukovina. I already wrote about the commander of the corps in more detail here. The image of the badge appears in many places, and many copies are still in collections today. It had three material versions and was made in two sizes. The photo attached to the post shows the larger version on the field cap. [...] Read more...
July 27, 2024The history of Debrecen, the “civic city”, is full of conflicting events, when “civic rationality” (wealth considerations) were overwritten by the lofty aspects of national loyalty and loyalty to the city. These events accompanied the city from the Turkish wars until the 20th century. The motif stretches unbroken from Gáspár Borzán (1604, it is true, he is the imaginary character of the writer Magda Szabó) to the persons of Zoltán Ács and András Gorzsás, who were murdered in a police salve on October 23, 1956 at 6 o’clock in the evening. They were the first martyrs of the Hungarian 1956 revolution. The heroic fight of the 3rd honvéd infantry regiment in the Great War fits into this line. The Calvinist Great Church in Debrecen is the emblematic building of the city, which I have written about several times. Now I am uploading photos of the barracks building of the 3rd honvéd infantry regiment. They were a regiment of the 20th Honvéd Infantry Division. Together with the 39th joint regiment, they belonged to corps VII commanded by Archduke József that protected the Karst in 1915-17. The many sufferings and sacrifices were not in vain: the outnumbered Italian attackers only managed to penetrate the front line little by little here and there, but these results were also taken back by the defenders of Doberdó in countless cases. Due to the heavy losses, the regiment was reorganized twice when the regiment’s numbers dwindled. The army barracks still stands today and exceptionally still functions as a military facility. In 1978, I also had to go to this building for enlistment, the territorial auxiliary command is located here. The commemorative relief of the 3rd regiment can be seen on the wall of the building. The building still looks roughly the same today as it did 120 years ago, although the beautiful row of trees planted on the edge of Péterfia Street has been cut down (perhaps replanted?). [...] Read more...
July 25, 2024“Hold on guys!” says the Ruthenian inscription of the 36th Landwehr Infantry Regiment. This may have been the motto of the regiment, which they called to themselves in difficult situations. The regiment was established in 1899 in Eastern Galicia, in the area of ​​Kolomea, Stanislau and Czortków. The command was in Kolomea. The regiment was assigned to the 43rd division. This division fought on the Russian front assigned to various corps until the middle of 1916. From the end of 1916, he moved to the Italian front. Deciphering the symbolism and inscription of the badge is not an easy task. What you can quickly learn is the meaning of the word “hlopets”, which means guy, boy, and several Slavic languages ​​have similar sounding words. It probably got into the routine through Polish mediation. As a next step, it was necessary to find the ethnic group using the word. As a result of the current terrible war, every possible forum emphasizes Ukrainian unity, which may be politically important, but cannot hide the fact that today’s Ukraine is a multi-ethnic country. Citizens who define themselves as Ukrainians also historically belonged to several ethnic groups. These were related nations, but not identical, and the differences were reflected in language, culture and even religion. The ethnic groups living in the foreland of the Carpathians for example are Greek Catholic and not Orthodox. According to the sources, Ruthenian is also the collective name of several ethnic groups. The four ethnic groups were located from the Beskids to Bukovina, and in the entire area of ​​the old Máramaros county. I think that the badge is most reminiscent of the Hutsuls, a southern ethnic group. On the one hand, the word hlopets refers mainly to this ethnic group, and on the other hand, the woodcutter ax seen on the badge refers to the main occupation of the Hutsuls, logging and rafting. One more small addition to the Hutsuls: there are two Hutsul museums in Kolomea, the center of the 36th regiment. There are two enemies depicted on the badge. The bear branching out to the right clearly refers to Russia. The cat perched on the tree on the left traditionally represented the Italians during the Great War. Since the regiment fought on both fronts, these two interpretations seem well founded [...] Read more...
July 23, 2024He was born 1876 in Vienna, in a military family. He graduated from the cadet school in Vienna in 1897, and was assigned to the 25th Infantry Regiment as a lieutenant. He graduated from the military school in 1903 and was then moved to the general staff with the rank of major. In 1914, he was the Chief of Staff of the 34th Division in Temesvár. On July 3, 1916, he became the commander of the 65th Infantry Regiment until the end of the war. Among his awards, he received the Order of the Iron Crown III. class and the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Leopold with war decorations and swords. The commemorative album fondly remembers the commander, as in general all those who have served continuously for a long time in the same regiment in command positions. At the beginning of the Brusilov offensive, he was assigned to the 65th Infantry Regiment and was immediately in charge of major combat operations. The regiment also later served on the Eastern Front, already in Ukraine in 1918 as an occupying unit. At the end of 1918, he led his regiment home to Munkács, where he organized the defense of the highlands against the invading Czech legionnaires. A small addition is that my great-grandfather, who returned home from Russian captivity in March 1919, was also able to escape because there was still Hungarian administration in the Munkács area, so he was allowed to return home. After the Great War, he settled in Banat, Romania, and assumed a political role for the German nationality of Banat. He became a senator in the upper house of the Bucharest parliament. He was also the founder of the cultural association of the Banat Germans. He continued his political career as an enforcer of German National Socialism in Banat from the beginning of the 1930s. He applied to the German Wehrmacht, but was not accepted due to his age. He died of a stroke in 1943. The soldiers of the 65th regiment were called “Ludwig Bucks” after the first name of the regiment’s owner, Archduke Viktor Ludwig of Habsburg. This can be read on the attached badge, which is also decorated with the coats of arms of the three counties of Bereg, Szabolcs and Ugocsa located in the regiment’s supplementary area [...] Read more...
July 19, 2024Airplanes were the cutting edge technology of the time. After all, even in the early 1910s, it was a sensation if aviators held a show in the city park. People flocked to the performances. Admittedly, it took courage to defy death for someone, especially a layman, to get into a machine of that time. Seen through today’s eyes, this “high-end technology” looked extremely rudimentary, suspiciously unreliable. Of course, today’s cutting-edge technology, let’s say, if we stay in the sky, space vehicles do not seem safe at all either. Even today, it takes a lot of courage to undertake space travel. Did the astronauts stranded on the International Space Station not think what would happen if they couldn’t get them down from there? Because the spaceship launched for them simply broke down. A pilot might have felt something similar when, say, the propeller of his plane stopped at 500 meters altitude. It is interesting that the depictions of aircraft on the cap badges were mostly stylized, and often depicted vehicles seen at shows before the Great War. A photo showed that small airplane badges were also popular among soldiers. We can only guess why the models used in combat were not depicted. Maybe the badge makers didn’t have access to photos of “modern” machines (maybe they were trying to hide information about military machines?). This is how the photographs taken at the shows before the events of the Great War remained for use. These served as a model for making the Kappenabzeichen. We can see three such badges in the post. [...] Read more...
July 15, 2024This huge and gorgeously enamelled badge has always caught my fancy. Which regiment did the special and expensive badge belong to (the 22nd), what can we find out about them? It was a Dalmatian regiment, its command was in Sinj. The settlement is not located on the coast, it should not be confused with the resort town of Senj. It is 50 km from Split in the mountains. Information about the history of the 22nd Infantry Regiment is described in the correspondence card used for this post. The regiment was founded in 1709, its hereditary regimental owner was field marshal Count Lacy, who was also the president of the court council of war in the 1770s. The attached beautiful, colorful card could have been made before the war, just like the letter seals that immortalized regimental owners or the events of the regimental days. Paper antiquities of this type can still be found today in such large numbers and for so many units, which suggests that they were produced in a systematic and coordinated manner. There are postcard versions on which essentially only the regimental number and the inscription differ, the motifs are the same. It is questionable whether they were still used in the Great War. The copies I saw were not in circulation, they were unwritten postcards [...] Read more...
July 13, 2024There are times when the author’s job is easier. The badge speaks. This is also the case with the Kappenabzeichen of the 103rd Infantry Regiment. All the information necessary for its interpretation is on the badge. It should be known that at the outbreak of the war there were 102 “joint” infantry regiments. As the war dragged on, the Monarchy established new infantry regiments with the development of the army. Such was the case of the 103rd Infantry Regiment, which was the first newly formed regiment according to the numbering. This is also indicated by the year 1915: that’s when the regiment was founded. In peacetime, each regiment had recruitment territories, which covered the entire territory of the Monarchy. The crew were from roughly the same region, they were all relatives and friends. Family and kinship relationships mattered a lot in terms of the unity and cohesion of the regiments. With the new regiments, it was no longer possible to designate new areas that had not been “occupied” until then, so the new regiments received crews from the staff of several other units that already existed. Later, the marching battalions sent to replace the losses showed a completely random territorial arrangement. The badge of the 103rd regiment also nicely presents the mother regiments. The number of these can be read in the fields around the central round disc. As you can see, the “founders” were mostly Transylvanian regiments (2, 51, 62, 63, 64). But the district of the 85th regiment the county of Máramaros also borders Transylvania. In the wearing photo, the badge is clearly visible on the field cap, in the middle. [...] Read more...
July 11, 2024As a Hungarian author, I mainly come into contact with Hungarian materials. Therefore, it is difficult to get information and collect material about a unit that was not organized in the territory of the Hungarian Kingdom. With one exception, all Ulan regiments are like this. Cap badges are even easier to get, but photos, postcards, and written background materials hardly. That’s why it’s not easy to find an accompanying photo or other old paper next to the beautiful Ulan badges. So, for lack of a better option, I attached a 11th Ulan regiment field correspondence card to the Kappenabzeichen of the 5th Ulans. The situation is improved by the four letter seals, which in turn are the issue of the invalid fund of the 5th regiment. The 5th Ulan Regiment was recruited from Croatia and was headquartered in Steinamanger, Austria. They were assigned to the 2nd Cavalry Division. The larger part of the cavalry was divided into smaller troop units, often in the strength of a company, and assigned to the infantry divisions. A division of the 5th Ulans was thus divided into 5 sections and stationed at 5 mountain brigades. The bulk of the regiment, however, remained together as part of the 2nd Cavalry Division, although from 1915 onwards they fought more as dismounted cavalry riflemen in various sections of the Eastern Front. [...] Read more...
July 9, 2024It is not likely that the propaganda machine of the Monarchy was still roaring in the summer of 1918 as shown by the postcard and badge in the post. The 42 cm mortar, of which, in addition to Germany, the Monarchy also produced a few pieces, was of course a very impressive sight. The huge gun, the almost human-sized projectile, testified to enormous destructive power. According to eyewitness reports, the few shots that were fired on the various front sections had a demoralizing effect on the enemy. Of course, this is only an assumption, since the few large-caliber artillery devices obviously could not turn the tide of the war. The inspiring effect of the 42 and 30 and a half guns may have been much more important in the hinterland, but even among those fighting on the fronts. It is no coincidence that they were depicted on so many badges: they were in high demand. I have already presented some 42 badges in a previous post (here). This simpler plate badge was not included then. There was also a great variety of anti-Italian propaganda postcards. Here, the message was combined with the 42 projectile. “The dirty Italian boot should be polished with the 42 paste!” [...] Read more...
July 8, 2024After the failed Piave Offensive, the Monarchy was once again on the defensive on the Italian front. The victories on the eastern fronts made it possible to redeploy many units, but the exhausted Austro-Hungarian forces were increasingly at a disadvantage against the Italian and British forces reinforced by the Americans. This was manifested in all areas, including in the air. The Monarchy’s military industry was unable to expand its fleet of aircraft at such a pace as to counterbalance the enemy’s aircraft fleet, which was already numerically superior. Air superiority took its toll: the most experienced pilots were shot down one after the other. Thus, the pilot pool was also getting smaller and weaker. The Hungarian pilot Josef Kiss who achieved the most aerial victories (19) was shot down by Canadian fighters in May 1918. The current post commemorates Frank Linke-Crawford’s death in combat on July 30, 1918. Linke-Crawford was the fourth most successful Austro-Hungarian pilot with 27 aerial victories. Linke-Crawford came from a Galician family and first served as a dragoon officer. In February 1916, he completed his retraining as an aviation officer and was assigned to the 22nd Flight Squadron. Here, as an observer, he achieved 6 aerial victories with two-seater Brandenburg planes. From 1917, he continued to serve as a leading fighter pilot in the 12th and 41st squadrons on the Isonzo front. In December 1917, he became the commander of the 60th flying squadron. On July 30, 1918, he led a formation of four planes with his Aviatik-Berg D-1 fighter, 115+32. Several machines of the 115 series had technical faults due to the weakness of the steel wires securing the wings. Linke-Crawford’s plane broke away from the formation of four before they could turn to the emerging Italian planes. He still managed to get the plane that was holding to the ground out of the fall, but in the meantime one of the Italian fighters got behind it and shot down the slowed down plane. The death of Linke-Crawford shows well the military situation of the Monarchy in the summer of 1918. Due to the declining quality of supplies, armaments, and the death of experienced soldiers, the force became increasingly weak, until in the fall it could no longer withstand the attacks of the intensifying Entente. I’m attaching one of the nice generic “aircraft” badges to the post, “Gut land!” (Happy landing!). The final landing was unsuccessful for Linke-Crawford. [...] Read more...
July 1, 2024It was a Dalmatian regiment, its supplementary area was around Sebenico (now Sibenik), and its command was in Zadar. Contrary to custom, the entire regiment, not just one battalion, was assigned to the 5th Mountain Brigade as part of the 58th Division. After the opening of the Italian front, they fought in positions along the Isonzo. The lower part of the badge shows the coat of arms of Dalmatia, above it the inscription Görz, the city where they fought for a long time in 1915-16. The inscription “zajcica”, which in Slovenian (and in other Slavic languages ​​as well) means rabbit, bunny, is a little puzzling to me. There is a mountain with this name in southwestern Slovenia, but there is also one in Serbia. In short, I have not seen any report referring to a significant settlement or landscape unit with this name. I don’t think that the sarcastic nickname used for infantry in the late Hungarian army “bush jumping bunny” is behind the name, the Great War is too gloomy a background for such jokes [...] Read more...
June 27, 2024The 25th infantry regiment was organized in the central areas of the Upper Lands of Hungary, its command was in Losonc. The regiment was assigned to the 53rd Infantry Brigade and the 27th Division. They fought on the fronts of Galicia and Bukovina, and from February 1918 on the Italian front in Tyrol. In the June offensive, the division broke through the Brenta valley and reached the Italian lowlands past Belluno, but as the surrounding mountains remained in Italian hands, they had to retreat. Thus, they made their way through the narrow valley twice between the Italian troops firing from the surrounding heights. The division was practically destroyed completely. The detached battalion fought in the 7th Mountain Brigade under no less difficult conditions. The subject of this post is the titular owners’ persons. On the attached letter seal, we see the portrait of the first owner of the regiment. He was Field Marshal Károly János Serényi, who contributed his wealth to the establishment of the regiment founded in 1672. Although the family had a Hungarian name and origin, this mattered little, as was typical in the Habsburg Empire. In the service of the ruler, the Serényis received estates in German and Moravian territory. Károly János became the president of the Vienna War Council for a while. He distinguished himself at the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683, and then at the recapture of Buda in 1686. The title of titular owner was transferred to various persons as a kind of royal favor. After Serényi’s death, a member of another family received the honorary title. After a while, the owners did not even had to contribute to the financial burden of maintaining the regiments. According to the Kappenabzeichen of the post, the last owner of the 25th regiment was Colonel-General Hermann von Pokorny. In Hungary, his son with the same name is better known, as he held important positions in the Hungarian army between the two world wars. [...] Read more...
June 24, 2024The Great War developed new forms and tools of warfare. Driving a car was still in its infancy at that time, but the importance of motorization was recognized even earlier. And the armies were supplied with an increasing number of motorized transport vehicles. The most important of these was the truck, followed by the car. We see the latter applied to a cap badge and a postcard in this post. Looking through the memories of the time, I got the impression that the use of cars in the army of the Monarchy was very limited. Cars were perhaps used by regimental commanders, but they were most likely transported by vehicles sent from the brigade or division, the infantry regiments did not have their own fleet of vehicles. This could be due to the limited number of units available, the special needs of operation and maintenance, which were difficult to provide under field conditions. The same applied to trucks. They were mainly used to transport materials and the njured, not to move troops. At that time, the category of “mobilized infanterist” living in the memories of my youth had not yet been born. In my readings about the Monarchy’s involvement in the Holy Land, the transport troop sent there is often mentioned. Trucks were used to transport the most important supplies, ammunition, weapons, and fuel for the own troops from the supply centers. On the way back, the wounded and sick were taken to the hospitals of the centers. It was exciting to read how much invention and professional skill was needed in order the mechanics could keep the vehicles operational in the rudimentary conditions despite the intermittent supply of spare parts. I don’t think that the task would have been significantly easier at the European fronts, but of course due to the relative proximity of the vehicle manufacturing factories, the replacement of vehicles was more regular. I previously presented the other insignia of the motorized troops in a wearing photo here. [...] Read more...
June 21, 2024The 61st Infantry Regiment of Temesvár was one of the regiments of the 17th Division, which suffered a lot. After the opening of the Italian front, this division was continuously deployed in the most dangerous sections of this front until the end of the war. Two of the division’s four regiments had mostly Romanian-speaking crews. Most of the 43rd in Karánsebes were Romanian, in the 61st, a third were Romanian, a third Hungarian, and a third German, as expected according to the patchwork-like nationalities map of Bánát. Due to the huge casualties suffered on the Karst, the regiments had to support many orphans and widows. For this purpose, disabled and orphan funds were created, which collected donations for relief. The badge in the post was already mentioned (here) when I wrote about the Segeti camp, which was used for recuperation and resting. The badge is an issue of the 61st disabled fund, as shown by the wearing photo in the other post, it was also purchased by soldiers. Many copies of this beautiful enamel badge have survived until today. The ribbon of the laurel wreath encircling the coats of arms is dark green, the same color as the lapel of the regiment. As a background, there is a postcard with one of the stamps of the regiment [...] Read more...
June 18, 2024German general Viktor Kühne fought mainly in France as a corps commander. In October 1916, he became the commander of the newly formed 54th Corps, and was then transferred to Hungary, Transylvania. He took part in the counter-attack following the Romanian invasion in South Transylvania. At that time, his corps was reinforced and the Kühne group was created, which repulsed the invading Romanians in the vicinity of Petrozsény and the Vulkán Gorge, and then pursued them until the capture of Bucharest. He was awarded the German Order of Merit for the operation on December 11, 1916. He returned to the French front in March 1917. After defeating the Romanian troops, German General Falkenhayn’s 9th Army made it out of the Carpathians to Havasalföld. The breakthrough took place partly through the previously occupied Vöröstornyi Strait and partly through the Szurduk Strait between the Vulkán and A Páring mountains. The latter connects the Petrozsény basin with Oltenia, in the Zsil river valley. The operations of this area were linked to Battle Group Kühne. The Romanian troops stationed here were able to slow down the German attacks until mid-November. At that time, fresh troops (three new divisions) arriving to reinforce the 54th Corps decided the fate of the battle. The commander of the Romanian troops, Ioan Dragalina, was himself wounded here, who later died of his injuries. The badge captures this attack. In addition to the German soldier, the badge also shows an Austro-Hungarian fighter, which indicates actual participation. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find which troops of the Monarchy were under Kühne’s command. Colonel Szívó’s group advanced along the Danube from the west, perhaps coming into contact with the German troops after the final collapse of the Romanian resistance here during November. [...] Read more...