Portraits of rulers were often used for wartime propaganda. Among the pictures of Emperor Franz Joseph, his picture of praying remained the best in the memory. Posterity saw this image [ … ]

At the beginning of the Great War, the use of hand grenades was not common among the warring parties. The German and Turkish armies were rather well-equipped, and the other [ … ]

This picture is very puzzling. What is a storm badge pinned to a sailor cap?? To answer this question, every small detail of the picture would have to be examined. [ … ]

The development of the Monarchy’s artillery became an urgent task after the outbreak of the Great War. Heavy artillery was increasingly needed in the emerging trench warfare. Previously, it was [ … ]

As the war effort grew, more soldiers and the formation of new units and regiments were needed. The number of honvéd regiments was also increased. First, instead of the four [ … ]

The 92nd Infantry Regiment was the home regiment of the military town of Theresienstadt (now Terezin). A young regiment was stationed in the young city: it was founded in 1882 [ … ]

Undeservedly little has been said about the Bosnian troops so far. Mainly because I get relatively little information from the South Slavic states, I don’t have much contact there. However, [ … ]

I chose the beautiful flag insignia of the 101st Békéscsaba infantry regiment again to show the significance of the lapel color of the regiments. The sulfur yellow color also appears [ … ]

Encouraged by the partial success of the 6th Battle of the Isonzo, the Italian command initiated another offensive operation in the lower reaches of the Isonzo in September. The attack [ … ]

Among the various insignia of the stormtroopers, copies numbered according to separate units are the rarest. The standard assault badge of the Gurschner company was also made in an extra [ … ]

Károly Tersztyánszky was born in 1854 in the village of Szakolca, in an old Hungarian noble family. He attended military schools in the 1870s. He studied first in Sankt Pölten [ … ]

This post is formally about the insignia of the 131st Infantry Brigade. But before I get to that, I want to share a few things about the attached photo. The [ … ]

Another puzzling picture. Better to say, it is more of an enigmatic badge. The captions and the date on the picture provide all the essential information. We see a postcard [ … ]

The word chapka means cap in both Polish and Russian. During the Great War, and even earlier, Polish cavalry headgear was called “czapka”. It was a cavalry headgear that ended [ … ]

The great Russian offensive of June 1916 crushed the Austro-Hungarian 4th and 7th armies. In many places, even the strongest regiments were simply swept away by the multiple superiority. The [ … ]

From the inexhaustible propaganda material of the Great War, I have now again selected a badge that shows the national colors of the countries of the Central Powers. The colors [ … ]

The Monarchy had to fight against Italy on high mountain terrain. This was a serious challenge for the soldiers in all seasons, but especially in winter conditions. As a lowland [ … ]

Both the badge and the photo are my favorite. I already wrote about the destroyed Salcano valley bridge here. For me, this panorama is the symbol and emblem of the [ … ]

In the Sudetenland, the city of Eger and its surroundings were the home of the 6th Landwehr (later rifle) regiment. The usual story applies here as well: the Austrian Landwehr [ … ]

Post by Gábor Széplaki. For a long time, I have had pieces in my collection that are clearly related to a specific topic and period, but I have not yet [ … ]

I have already written briefly about the fatal attack of the British in Turkey. I brought up the topic again, mainly because there is a very nice badge that I [ … ]

The Bosnians were among the elite units of the Monarchy. This was probably due to their warrior past and their experience and skills with the armed lifestyle of Bosnian men. [ … ]

Kappenabzeichen.hu is a Hungarian website that is also available in English for foreign readers. However, there are more articles about Hungarian regiments and cap badges than from other nations of [ … ]

The badges of the 38th infantry regiment of Kecskemét have already been mentioned before. Now I got my hands on one of them again, the helmet-shaped insignia. Not only because [ … ]

The 39th “Forward” infantry division was one of the better-known Hungarian divisions. His regiments recruited from the eastern part of Upper Hungary. The division first fought in Galicia and later [ … ]

Cap badges were still used by veterans of many regiments after the war. Veteran associations have had a long tradition, especially in Austria. All the better-known infantry regiments, the house [ … ]

I have already written briefly about the history of the Polish Legion here. One of the commanders of this force was Colonel Zielinski. He was born in 1858 and attained [ … ]

The focus of this post is a beautifully decorated field postcard. The entire left half of the addressing page is decorated with a picture of King Charles. According to the [ … ]

This is a new post from Gábor Széplaki. During the First World War, not much limelight was given to those formations that served the fighting units and were not directly [ … ]

The Austro-Hungarian navy underwent rapid development before the Great War. This happened because, after the establishment of Italian unity, Italy began to act as a maritime power in the Adriatic, [ … ]

Relatively little is known about the insurgent battalions and regiments of the Monarchy. There are several reasons for this. These regiments received reservists of older age groups. They were not [ … ]

By “weapon” in this section, I sometimes rather mean technical equipment. I believe that this is also justified, since these tools also contributed significantly to the success of the war [ … ]

I believe that one of the most formidable weapons of the Great War was the machine gun. Artillery destroyed more enemies with countless use of grenades. But the work of [ … ]

I have already written twice on the site (here and here) about the construction, operation and battlefield application of trench mortars. My friend Gábor Széplaki wrote about the weaponry insignia [ … ]

After the 40th Infantry Division was transferred from Eastern Galicia to Bukovina on June 24, 1916, this front section became the troop’s “home”. The “Fokos Division” was primarily responsible for [ … ]

A wide variety of assault badges were produced by badge makers during the Great War. I included in an earlier post one of the general attack badges, a work of [ … ]

The 27th Infantry Regiment was the home regiment of the city of Graz. It was founded in 1682 during the Turkish war. Like the other German-speaking regiments, it received special [ … ]

It is now not the first time that the 69th Infantry Regiment of Székesfehérvár appears on this site. There are several reasons for this. On the one hand, we know [ … ]

In January 1916, the 40th “Fokos” division, including the 30th infantry regiment, suffered huge losses in the battles around Toporoutz in Bukovina. The regiment then had to be reorganized and [ … ]

Belgrade, a city built at the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers, has been inhabited since prehistoric times. The Celts and the Romans built a permanent settlement here for [ … ]