Josef Troyer (officer)

Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order

Josef Troyer (born December 8, 1867 in Verona , † July 5, 1916 near Kolomea , Galicia ) was an Austro-Hungarian officer and posthumous bearer of the Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order .

Officer career

Troyer joined the Tyrolean Jägerregiment in 1887 and after two years became a lieutenant in the reserve. He then became a career officer and came to Infantry Regiment No. 50 and served his way up to the rank of captain. In 1907 he was transferred to the Landwehr , where he joined the Carinthian Mountain Rifle Regiment No. 1, an elite unit known as the Kaiserschützen. With this regiment he went to the First World War.

First World War

In June 1915 Troyer was Major and Commander of the 3rd Battalion and was in the Kolomea area of ​​Galicia. During the battle of Porostyn from June 3rd to 8th, Troyer led the whole regiment due to the absence of the commander. Troyer led his three battalions to counter-attack the Russian forces while the other units fell back. On the second day of the battle, he lost contact with the command posts. He was later ordered to withdraw. However, he remained in his positions on Porostyn and resisted the attacking Russian units with a strength of 64 companies and was thus able to bring the Russian attack to a standstill. By the end of the attacks on the sixth day, the regiment had lost 30 officers and 600 men. Troyer was then given the nickname The Iron Major .

In 1916 the Kaiserschützen were again in action in the Kolomea area during the Brusilov offensive . Troyer advanced with his 3rd Battalion in the Carpathian Mountains over the Fedorynczyn and was involved in fierce fighting. On July 5th, during a break in the fight, Colonel Artur Edler von Schuschnigg and Major Troyer walked off the front section of their regiment. Troyer was shot by a Russian sniper and a bullet severed his carotid artery. Despite first aid from the medical midshipman Hermann Knaus , Troyer died. He was buried in Nadworna .

He was posthumously promoted to lieutenant colonel on October 5, 1916. On October 25, 1925, after the end of the World War and already in the First Republic, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order . In 1926 his remains were exhumed and buried in the Hermagor cemetery , his home town. Since 1928 the grave has been adorned with a bronze plaque with the relief of Troyers, which was created by Josef Valentin Kassin . In 1986, the retired class of the Theresian Military Academy was named Major Troyer.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Claudia Fräss-Ehrfeld, Carinthia and Bukowina, in: Archive for patriotic history and topography, Volume 88, p. 167.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Anton Kreuzer: Carinthian Biographical Sketches . Kärntner Druck und Verlagsgesellschaft, Klagenfurt 1995, ISBN 3-85391-128-5 , pp. 61-64.