kk mountain guide companies

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The Imperial and Royal Mountain Guide Companies were an association of the Austro-Hungarian Land Forces .

The mountain guide companies were set up in 1916, when it was recognized that mountain-trained personnel was urgently needed. The companies consisted mainly of members of the mountain rifle regiments ( Landesschützen / Kaiserschützen regiments and Landwehr infantry regiments No. 4 and No. 27) and, albeit less often, of volunteers from other troop units, who for reasons of country crew (residents of the high mountain regions) seemed suitable.

The training of the military mountain guides took place in their own mountain guide replacement and instruction companies. There were soldiers from different units, usually before the war mountaineering had acquired knowledge or otherwise found to be suitable, trained as guides. Authorized and experienced Alpine Club mountain guides were often used as instructors. The instruction of the military alpine courses did not differ from the mountain guide courses of the alpine club and included the practical subjects: rock and ice technique, map reading and orientation in the field, first aid , use of ropes and learning or perfecting of skiing . Military innovations were the insurance of alpine trails, as well as explosives and storm training.

The aim of these courses was to enable the military mountain guides, on the one hand, to be able to carry out difficult military and alpine activities themselves, but on the other hand, to teach the troops as instructors the most elementary alpine principles. As the high command of the mountain guide troops, the mountain guide troop command of the 10th Army was set up in Bolzano, to which 3 sub-commands with in turn 13 mountain guide companies were subordinated in the individual front sections. The instruction departments were moved to St. Christina in Val Gardena , where they gradually developed into a military-alpine university.

The so-called alpine consultants (often well-known, state-recognized and professional mountain guides who were not assigned to the active units for age or other reasons) regularly conducted courses in order to constantly train the company's personnel. (One of these instructors was the mountain guide and lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian fortress artillery battalion No. 6 Luis Trenker , who later also became a member of a mountain guide company.)

The main task of the mountain guide companies was to explore the area for attacking associations, to make the approach paths passable through rock or ice walls and to secure them. There were still alpine explorations to be carried out, fixed ropes and ladders to be attached and the transport of guns to the most impossible places to be organized. Ultimately, however, the mountain guides belonged to the fighting force and were mainly used in raid troops in this context. The companies operated independently only in the section assigned to them (only in this section they were allowed to be used) and were directly subordinate to the brigade, the troop division or the corps . The numbering was carried out according to the sections or rayons assigned to them from west to east.

Example:
The mountain guide company I / 1 was in Rayon I of the Stelvio defense section to Zufall-Spitze ( Monte Cevedale ) and in October 1918 was subordinate to the 164th Infantry Brigade . However, the district commander was authorized to issue instructions.

The composition of the mountain guide companies was individually different and was adapted to the respective requirements.
As a result of the independence of the units, the puzzling events on the occasion of the end of the war on the Italian front (November 3 or November 4, 1918) and the confusion associated with this, only a very small number of combat reports have survived. It is therefore no longer possible to comprehensively document the activities of the mountain guide companies.

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