Tyrolean border guard

At the outbreak of the Great War, there were six border patrol companies in the Austro-Hungarian army. Unlike the field rifle units, these were only company-sized, not battalion-sized, and were on duty in the Balkans (from 1915 in Macedonia and Albania). In the second half of 1916, they were expanded to battalion-sized. The 3rd, 5th and partly 6th companies had Hungarian crews. At the outbreak of the war, they were all fighting on the southern front as part of the 6th Army. In 1918, they were in Albania with the 47th Division.

I have not yet been able to gather more information about this special unit. Little trace of their activities remained, since they were only a few, small units. The recently discovered photo of a lieutenant is particularly rare. At the same time, it is also very interesting, since the badge of the Tyrolean Imperial Hunters can be seen on the cap of the border patrol lieutenant, as well as the cap ornament of the partridge feather worn by the Tyrolean riflemen. In my interpretation, this indicates that some of the border patrol battalions were deployed on the Italian front in the second half of the war. I have only found scattered information about the wartime history of the units, which did not include their use on the Italian front. I do not believe that there was an organizational connection between the border guards and the Tyrolean regiments.

Unfortunately, I cannot provide a photo of the rare collar badge, because I do not have such a badge. But the badge also appears on the badge of the 1st Border Guard Battalion. This has the same interesting feature as the photo: the soldier depicted on it is wearing the field cap of the Tyrolean riflemen with partridge feather decoration. In his hand, he is holding a long stick, which is also characteristic of Tyrolean units. According to these features, although the sources do not mention it, there should have been border guards transferred to Tyrol, the 1st battalion in any case.