This small grouping to one man, KuK mountain artillery. Gebirgs-Artillerieabteilung Nr 206, Batterie 1.
The papers are for his bronze bravery medal and his Karl Troop cross.
His leave paper from 1919 and based on the last paper in this group he also came into action during the Hungarian 1941 Erdély campaign as part of the artillery.
Including pictures of a ski trip on the well known Bosnian Bjelasnica mountain.
Up to the observatory. This mountain was an important strategic location and even was used in the last Bosnian war 1992-’95. At the top there is still an observatory today.
The postcard came with the group. It always nice to have a known reference point to a group of pictures!
With the help of several researchers and the Facebook group “The Austro-Hungarian Army in the great War” these photo’s now have a name attached!
Regiments Tambour (sergeant)
And the back of the card where the IR number unfortunately cannot be read.
Regimentstambour (Sergeant bandmaster) of a KuK Infantry Regiment with bronze bravery medal and iron merit cross with crown, photo from 1918. The same as in the group photo above, left side.
The stamp on the back reads Feldpost Nr. 109. This means ID17 which consisted of IR39, IR43, IR46 and IR61 . In february of 1916 this division was on the Italian front, Doberdo plateau, south of Mt. San Michele, somwhere around Devetachi.
Photo taken from facebook
Another contributer researched the name and came up with the person likely to be this sergeant. The card is signed Simon and send to a Doszai in Szabadka. The combination of Simon Dozsai and Szbabadka leads to this information
Shotwound in the back
The announcement of being wounded in combat for a Sergeant of IR 46 (part of ID 17 which is linked to Feldpost 109 on the card. The sergeant is part of the staff of the regiment (which is logical for a bandmaster) but aslo saw action and was wounded twice (he appears on another date also as wounded) and even received a bravery medal!
And shot in the shoulder, also in 1915
Many thanks to Kajon Árpád and Tóth Marcell for their help in researching and identifying the man in these photo’s!
This is the entire paper group to Artillery (Air Defense) captain Karleusa Iván (with the noble nemes prefix and from borynia as second prefix). Up to 1944 the activities of these forces were limited and for the 1944/45 period when they were very active few records survived and it was not the time anymore for new awards. Below his overview from the 1944 rank list as a captain.
Commisioned in 1933 he turned out to be the best student of the Ludovika Academy of his final year 1932. Below a picture of the silver cup with his name.
Picture from internet source.
He was awarded only 2 medals for his participation in two of the three annexations Hungary was active in between 1938 en 1941, the action in 1938 for Transylvania and the 1940 action for Southern Hungary.
Both documents are not the standard award document (igazolvany) version but commendations for his participation on top of the award of the 2 medals. The commendations are a distinct level below the actual award of a Signum Laudis (merit) medal. The first is the more or less standard paper for these and the second is one specifically made for the Air Defense so both relatively rare documents in this form.
Also he received 3 other commendations not linked to specific actions as the ones above. None of these resulted in the award of actual medals.
So a nice but not so important paper group. What makes it interesting?
The signatures are more or less a who is who from the Hungarian military in th 1930s to early 1940s. With thanks to Péter for the help with the signatures. In order of appearance in the pictures above (and the names in Hungarian order, family name first and then given name):
General of the Infantry (3 star equivalent), Sónyi Hugó (gyalogsági tábornok) Commander in Chief of the Hungarian Army 1936-1940.
General (3 stars) Justy Emil (vézerezredes) – commander of the Air Defense.
General (3 stars) Ternegg Kálmán (vezérezredes)
General Ternegg with signature (photo from Facebook, not my collection).
General (2 stars) Jány Gusztáv (altábornagy) – commander of the Hungarian 2nd army on the Don, winner of the German Knights cross. For WW2 one of the most important operational Generals.
General Jány, photo from internet
General (3 stars) Farkas Ferenc (vézerezredes), commander of the 6th army in 1944
The name of this decoration tells exactly what it is, a cross for civilians that showed merit during war time assisting the Austro-Hungarian empire. The cross existed in four classes and could be awarded both to foreigners and citizens.
The third class was in silver, 2nd class gilded and 4th class bronze. The document are related to the 3rd class so a silver one as pictured above (photo from internet).
Letter that accompanied the actual award document
The documents in this blog are made out to a German police commisioner (Polizeirat) from Leipzig named Theodor Dix. And as it often happens with researching civilians that is where it more or less stops…
With the development of online research possibilities more and more sources are available. So maybe in the future I hope to extend this short blog.
So far only this showed up:
It states that Dix held a presentation for a society regarding “Use and succes of our Medical dogs on the battlefields. So my working hypothesis is that he was in his role of police commisioner involved in these sanitary dogs that were used by many armies at that time including the German and Austro-Hungarian forces. Photo’s below from the internet, not my collection.
The Hungarian para’s were a small elite group about whom only little has been written in English but most information can be found in this nice blog.
Photo from my own collection, see this blog for more details
They existed as a unit from 1938 up to 1944 at which moment theyre remaining men became integrated in the Saint László Division in which they fought untill the end of the war.
Recently I was able to acquire a porcelain statue that depicts a WW2 period para. Possibly it was made as a promotion item for the Hungarian Parachute manufacturer in Debrecen. It supposedly was made by the Hollohaza porcelain company but has not visible markings and also the exact period of production is unknown.
It turns out a variation of this statue also exists which was fully coloured! It is not exactly the same statue but very close, maybe a different porcelain producer? Several details show it was not based on the same mold.
And now I am waiting to see how long it takes for my wife to find out her porcelain cabinet has been invaded by a para…
A full bio can be found here – it is in German though! He was an important member of the Hungarian branch of the Austro-Hungarian royal family of Habsburg -Lotharingen.
Born in 1872 in Hungary he had a military career spanning form lieutenant in 1890 up to full Field Marshall and the royal representative for Hungary in 1918.
The collecting of autographs is not a new trend but already existed in the late 19th and early 20th century and even before. This autograph was send to a Austrian collector, Fritz Wölfler, of autographs of public people of the Austro-Hungarian empire in the early 20th century. The collection was sold by a dealer in 2007 on Ebay in Austria.
In 1916 he was General of the Cavalary, in 1918 shortly before the end of WW1 he was promoted to Feldmarshall. The last of the Austro-Hungarian empire!
FH Joseph GdK (föherceg Joseph General der Kavelerie)
Recently I added also a photo and letter with his signature to my collection! Both signed as Fieldmarshall (fm) the letter is from 1953 and the photo from 1938, his last picture in the uniform of a Field Marshall by the Hungarian photo studio Rozgonyi
This bronze is titled “Huszár Roham” (in Hungarian) which translates in “Attack of the Hussars”. The Hussars are the traditional Hungarian horse cavalry and has become a generic name for light cavalry units in all armies in Europe in the 19th and early 20th century. During WW1 horses bacame outdated in the course of the war and many cavalry units became “dismounted”, so on foot, without their horses. In 1915, the date of this work, the Hussars were still very much in action with their horses. Especially on the Eastern front, fighting against the Russians over large areas with relatively few people.
This original bronze (probably the only existing example) was made by the Hungarian artist Szamosi. It took me years to find this out. I always thought the first letter was a R in place of the actual SZ. Szamosi lived between 1885 and 1971 and specialized in medals and plaquettes. This one is of a formidable size, 30 cm in diameter.
When I found it I had a difficult time to establish how to display this work of art. Finally I decided to have it framed as a “painting” with the 2 screws it has on the back.
Not sure where and how is was placed originally, maybe on a wall? Before the war Szamosi was already active both as an artist and as an educator at the Arts Academy.
His most famous works are from the 1910s and 1920s. During the first world war he made several works of art related to the war like this one.
Both the medal and the regulations are a copy of the Austro-Hungarian bravery medal in WW1 as I described in my earlier blog. The medal consists of 4 grades, Bronze, Small Silver (or second class silver), Large Silver (first class silver) and Gold.
Bronze, Small Silver and Large Silver (second and first class Silver)
The medal was aimed at ranks below officer but the Gold grade could also be awarded to officers who would receive a special device to the ribbon. Officers in training could be awarded all grades of the medal untill they would get commissioned.
Officer in training with Small Silver and Bronze grade
Border Guard nco with Large Silver grade
The Bronze and Small Silver grade had the same size of 35mm and the Large Silver and Gold grade both measure 40mm. For the silver grades I have so far found three materials – real hallmarked silver, silvered bronze which also has the word BRONZ impressed on the rim and the war metal version without any markings.
It seems the silvered bronze version had a regular problem with the eyelet as I have seen several examples where it came off and I have seen several more on the market. These all seem to be the version with BRONZ stamped in the rim.
So far I have not handled a gold one personally but as far as I understand both hallmarked gold and a gilded bronze versions exist, only 60 were awarded in total so be aware the chances of finding a real one are minimal.
Two variations of the bronze bravery medal where the first one has been gilded!
Below several variations in war metal and silvered bronze of the 2nd class silver.
The front bears the bust of Regent Horthy Miklós. The reverse shows the national symbol of Hungary with crossed swords behind and the word VITÉZSÉGÉRT – bravery.
The ribbon is the standard triangular form and could have two types of devices. A bar for repeat awards (up to three bars!) and a golden device for the officers Golden medal (extremely rare, only 21 examples!).
The award paper is basically the same for all grades with the different grade being mentioned. Below a Bronz and Small Silver example.
Bronze Bravery Medal inside
Above the inside of the booklet for the small silver bravery medal. It was awarded posthumously as was the case with a relative large number. More than 3000 awardees (of the 8193) did not survive the war. A book about all decorated fallen Hungarians during WW2 states he was killed by a headshot in 1944 in the location Dubowy.
Another version of the bronze award paperAnd a regular (not posthumously) certificate for the 2nd class silver medal
The large silver grade has become quite rare and is sought after. Several versions exist as already discussed above can be seen below.
Four versions of the first class silver medal
Compiled from the same website a quick overview of the amounts awarded per year. It seems many men who died in combat also received the bronze or silver 2nd class medal posthumously.
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
Total
Bronze
244
0
1721
2299
15541
6037
25842
Small Silver
193
1
722
1725
4060
1492
8193
Large Silver
129
2
263
453
546
278
1671
Gold
39
Officers Gold
21
Small grouping to one person including the bronze bravery medal
Mounted group of medals with the 1st class silver medal. Front.
The reverse shows the typical “loose” mounting of Hungarian medals on a metal bar.
Collectors be aware fakes also exist and these can be very deceiving. As far as I know they only exist in bronze and a silvered version of this (so both the same 35mm size using one mold). Here you can see some details regarding the fake version.
This group of photo’s in my collection originates from a Hungarian refugee in Canada. After he or she passed away the photo’s were sold but the seller was not willing to release the name of the original owner/photographer. So here I present a group of never published photo’s of the Hungarian revolution.
Please be aware some of the photo’s are shocking and not proper for children. Some of the photo’s have captions stating the location. As far as available I will add them too. Other than that I will let the photo’s speak for themselves.
The Revolution of 1956 should never be forgotten and the participants deserve to be remembered by the current and future generations, both Hungarian and internationally. Freedom is worth fighting for!
Kalvin square with broken down street cars
Soldiers, tanks and casualties on Tisza Kalman square
A communist statue taken down!
Broken down tank with Freedom fighter in front
Canon in the damaged streets of Budapest
A badly damaged streetcar
The canon of the first photo from the other side?
Barricades in the street with the text “Russians go home” in Hungarian and Russian…
In remembrance of all participants and victims of the 1956 revolution!
This portrait was made by Robert Fuchs (signed R Fuchs Im Felde 1917) I found it in Hungary some years back. So far I have not been able to establish who this officer is.
Robert Fuchs, “Kriegsmaler”
During the first worldwar the Austro-Hungarian empire used artist to make professional paintings of the war. Not only local but also foreign artists, even a quite famous Dutch artist acted as such, but that is a different story alltogether. These painters did not become part of the army but were paid by it for their services, they were called war painters or in German Kriegsmaler. Sometimes they were attached to a specific unit or a theatre of war.
See for pictures of a war painter at work my other blog!
Robert Fuchs, born in 1896 was such a painter. After the war he went on to become a fulltime professional artist after completing his studies on the Viennese Academy for the Arts. Despite specializing in portraits one of his most famous paintings became the official painting for the 1955 Austrian State treaty pictured below (photo from an internet source):
Austro-Hungarian officer – R. Fuchs 1917 Im Felde
This portait is of a still unkown officer. Based on the awards he was quite successful in the war with at least an Austro-Hungarian Iron Crown order 3rd class. (first and highest award of the row of ribbons) which is quite rare for a mere captain. The other ribbons are of generic issue for war related medals. Probably one Military Merit cross 3rd class and two Military Merit medals, both the bronze and the silver version. Next to this he has two ribbons in the button hole. One is clearly for the German Iron Cross second class. The second probably is for the Turkish War medal. Those Iron Crescents are most often seen being worn on the breast and very seldom as here with a ribbon in the buttonhole.
The single loop on his shoulder in combination with the combination of medals hint at the possibility that he was one of the few Austro-Hungarian artillery men sent to fight on the Ottoman front with the Turks and the Germans.
More input for the naming of this officer is more than welcome!
