Mountain Troop (Austria)
The mountain troops of Austria are the units of the Austrian Armed Forces trained and equipped for mountain warfare .
precursor
The Austro-Hungarian Land Forces already had an imperial and kk mountain troop . After the Tyrolean riflemen initially performed the duties of a mountain troop as a militia , in 1906 three regiments of land rifle rifles and then two Landwehr infantry regiments (No. 4 and No. 27) were converted into mountain troops based on the example of the Italian Alpini . Since 1907, Austrian mountain troops initially wore the edelweiss as a symbol of the branch of service on their jacket collar.
The armed forces of the 1st republic and the corporate state also maintained mountain troops (as of 1938):
- Carinthian Alpine Hunter Battalion No. 1
- East Tyrolean Alpine Hunter Battalion Andreas Hofer No. 3
- Vorarlberg Alpine Hunter Battalion No. 4
- Carinthian Alpine Hunter Battalion No. 5
- Upper Austrian Alpine Hunter Regiment Empress Maria Theresia No. 8
- Styrian Alpine Hunter Regiment Field Marshal Conrad von Hötzendorf No. 10
- Styrian Alpine Hunter Regiment Field Marshal Daun No. 9
- Tyrolean Jägerregiment
- Tyrolean Rifle Regiment Dr. Dollfuss
After the annexation of Austria , Alpine Hunter Battalion No. 4 and Tyrolean State Rifle Regiment Dr. Dollfuss dissolved. The other mountain troops of the armed forces were transferred to the Wehrmacht and went down with them in the Second World War.
The mountain troops in the 2nd Republic of Austria
When the Federal Army was founded, Austria initially refrained from setting up special mountain troops, and the mountain troops are not considered a separate weapon in the Federal Army , but are part of the hunter weapon category . It was not until 1956 when the Army was organized that four mountain brigades and one high mountain company were set up, but they were disbanded in 1962.
In Army Division 92/98, the 6th Jägerbrigade received the addition of high mountain mobility and was subsequently adapted both materially and structurally to mountain combat. In addition, with the edelweiss she received the traditional badge of the mountain hunters, which in the armed forces is attached with the handle to the rear on the left side of the field cap. From 1999 onwards, various regulations for mountain fighting were issued.
The 6th Jäger Brigade (HGeb) include:
- Brigade command based in Absam , Tyrol
-
Staff Battalion 6 in Tyrol
- Pack animal center in Hochfilzen (unit of Staff Battalion 6), whose Haflingers render valuable service
- Jägerbataillon 23 in Bludesch in Vorarlberg and Landeck, Tyrol
- Jägerbataillon 24 in Lienz in East Tyrol and St. Johann, Tyrol
- Jägerbataillon 26 in Spittal / Drau , Carinthia and Tamsweg, Salzburg
- Engineer Battalion 2 in Salzburg , Wals
literature
- Johann Zagajsek: Mountain troops as a weapon type? In: BMLV (ed.): Troop service . Episode 297, 3/2007. Vienna March 2007 ( article - with a detailed description of the modern Austrian hunter units of the mountain troops).
