Vitéz stories I – Sergeant Horváth, KuK IR 44 – Pieces of history

Sergeant in the 44th Infantry Regiment (Erzherzog Albrecht Nr. 44). Awarded with the Austro Hungarian Golden Medal for Bravery. The highest possible award in the Austro-Hungarian Army for ranks below officer.

For his actions he was awarded the Hungarian title vitéz and the order in the interwar period you can read more about the Vitézi Rend in the earlier blog.

Grand diploma of the order, handsigned by Regent Horthy.

Below the excerpt from the 1939 Vitéz Albuma:

Awards as stated in the list in the yearbook:

Golden Bravery medal
Silver Bravery medal 1st Class, 2 times
Bronze Bravery medal
Karl Troop cross

The short version of his citation as recorded in the Golden Medal award records in the Austrian Military Records

Im Gefechte vom 12/3 auf den 13/3 (1915) am Brdo Bewies er beispeillose Unerschrockenheit u. heldenhafte Tapferkeit.
Kam bis auf 40x vor der fdl Stellung. Trat den Ruckzug trozt des Befehls erst nach 2 Stunden als letzte abt der Angr. Gruppe an.

Which translates as follows:

In the fights of 12/3 and 13/3 in Brdo he showed unprecedented fearlessness and heroic Bravery.
Came up to 40x before the enemies position. Retreated, despite the order, only after 2 hours as the last of the attacking group.

His feats where also published in a Hungarian book (A MAGYAR NEMZETARANYKONYVE 1914-1918.” Budapest, 1921. – Golden book of the Hungarian nation 1914-1918 ) which describes the action as follows:

“He ran forward in the killing adverse drum-fire of the enemy as the head of his platoon and during the assault he exhorted his comrades. The regiment met irreplaceable and heavy losses, so sergeant Janos Horvath got the order to withdraw his fellows from the first line. Horvath was forty paces off the enemy and he sent back a message that they will not leave the line as long as the wounded comrades of the neighboring unit (3rd Bosnians) have not been recovered. Finally he withdrew his men two hours later and he was the last soldier who left the front line.”

His Vitézi Rend Award which is numbered and has the initials of Horvath.

And the certificate that belongs to the award

Replacement Golden Bravery Medal (gilded bronze in the Karl version, interwar period). This came directly from the family but is a replacement. The original will have been a real gold FJ type that probably was sold for mentary reasons as happened very often. Next to this his large Silver Bravery Medal with bar for the 2nd award. The Bronze Bravery Medal and the Karl Troop cross were no longer part of the group so I have not included them either.