Kuk Infantry Regiment "Freiherr von Schikofsky" No. 83

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1883–1908: " kuk infantry regiment" Graf von Degenfeld-Schonburg "No. 83 "
1910: " kuk infantry regiment" Freiherr von Winzor "No. 83 "
1910–1914: " kuk infantry regiment" Freiherr von Schikofsky "No. 83 "

kuk IR 83
active 1883 to 1918
Country Austria-Hungary
Branch of service infantry
Type regiment
structure Staff, 1st to 4th battalion
Former locations Komárom , Szombathely , Kőszeg
Origin of the soldiers Western Hungary (34% Germans - 55% Magyars - 11% others)
owner Baron Karl von Schikofsky
Tribe list List of infantry regiments of the Imperial Habsburg Army in the early modern period

The Austro- Hungarian infantry regiment "Freiherr von Schikofsky" No. 83 was a Hungarian infantry regiment of the Joint Army of Austria-Hungary , which was established in 1883 from levies from other regiments and was stationed in the garrisons of the western Hungarian towns of Komárom , Szombathely and Kőszeg .

Since the regiment was mainly recruited from the supplementary district Steinamanger / Szombathely, which also included areas that are now part of Burgenland , it consisted of a good third of German-speaking soldiers. After the Burgenland was conquered , the regiment's maintenance of tradition was transferred to units of the Austrian Armed Forces . The 19 Jäger Battalion in the Montecuccoli barracks in Güssing is currently the traditional successor to the former kuk infantry regiment.

history

Historical background of the creation

With the army reform of 1882/83, the Austrian General Staff , headed by Friedrich von Beck-Rzikowsky, intended to accelerate the deployment of the armed forces in the event of mobilization through the "territorial dislocation" . For this purpose, the entire area of ​​the monarchy was divided into 102 (if Tyrol and Vorarlberg are also included in 103) supplementary districts, each of these districts having to set up a regiment so that, taking into account 32 independent kuk Feldjäger battalions, troops were available for a total of 30 infantry divisions . The existing military territorial authorities were also converted into army corps to which the divisions and their regiments were permanently subordinated, so that the peacetime structure corresponded to the structure of war.

Formation of the regiment

The supplementary district of Szombathely, formed by the army reform in 1882/83, was assigned the number 83. Since its western border extended to the Lafnitz , its area also included the Burgenland districts of Jennersdorf , Güssing and Oberwart as well as parts of the Oberpullendorf district . In the course of a reorganization, the Szombathely supplementary district ceded some areas, including today's Burgenland districts Jennersdorf and Güssing, to the supplementary district 48 - Nagykanizsa .

The regiment to be set up by the Szombathely supplementary district was also assigned the number 83, named after Major General Ferdinand Christoph Eberhard von Degenfeld-Schonburg , who, in addition to his military rank, was also responsible for the education of heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este .

The kuk infantry regiment "Graf von Degenfeld-Schonburg" No. 83 was set up on January 1st, 1883 from charges of the regiments:

According to the equalization system of the imperial and royal uniforms, the regiment was assigned the color dark brown, while the uniform buttons had to be white.

Deployment locations and subordination

The fortified town of Komárom housed the regimental headquarters and two battalions
Anton von Winzor, commanding general of the kuk V Corps, was the regiment owner for a short time

The units of the regiment were stationed in the following garrisons:

Although the IR 83 from the greater Szombathely area complemented each other, the Austro-Hungarian fortress town Komárom housed both the regimental staff and two of the four battalions.

The regiment, together with other battalions, formed the 66th Infantry Brigade, whose command was also stationed in Komárom. The superordinate unit was the 33rd Infantry Troop Division , whose command was also based in the fortress town of Komárom. The division, along with the 14th Infantry and 2nd Cavalry Troop Divisions and other units, was subordinate to the V Corps , whose command was itself was in Bratislava .

History until 1914

After Count Ferdinand Christoph Eberhard von Degenfeld-Schonburg had died in 1892, the regiment carried his name for 16 years before it was abandoned in 1908. In 1909 there was no regimental owner.

In 1910, the IR 83 briefly carried the name of the commanding general of the superior V Corps, Baron Anton von Winzor . After his sudden death in April 1910, the unit was taken over by the deputy commander of the kk and ku Landwehr , General of the Infantry Freiherr von Schikofsky, as the final regiment owner.

Mobilization and deployment in Galicia in August 1914

FZM Paul Puhallo von Brlog led the V Corps during the Battle of Galicia in 1914
The Battle of Galicia, 1914

A month after the assassination in Sarajevo took place on 28 July 1914, the declaration of war of Austria-Hungary to the Kingdom of Serbia . Two days later, the German Empire and the Russian Empire entered the war, and other countries joined through the alliance systems, so that the local Balkan conflict developed into a world war within a few days.

On August 6th, the regimental staff, the II. And IV. Battalions from Komárom and the III. Battalion from Kőszeg to Szombathely by train to take the oath of loyalty the next day with great sympathy from the population. The 1st Battalion was already in Galicia that day, where it was taking part in a military parade in Jasło . On August 8, the soldiers of the three remaining battalions boarded the transport trains in Szombathely, which took them to Rzeszów via Komárom, Budapest, Prešov and Nowy Sącz by August 10 . In the following days the regiment moved to the San .

The Austro-Hungarian armed forces deployed in Galicia were divided into three armies (from west to east: 1st, 4th and 3rd Army) and two flanking smaller army groups. The kuk 1st Army under its commander-in-chief Viktor Dankl , which was furthest to the west, took up positions along the San River. The army was divided (from west to east) into kuk I., V. and X. Corps, a total of nine infantry and two cavalry divisions.

Subordination of the 83rd Infantry Regiment:

The 33rd Division, in which the IR 83 was deployed most of the time, was divided as follows:

The kuk V Corps consisted of the 14th and 33rd Divisions and the 37th Honved Division. This also corresponded to the position of the units of the corps in a west-east direction, so that the 33rd Division and with it the IR 83 were right in the center of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army.

The war year 1914

August 1914: Battles of Kraśnik and Lublin

Russian map of the battles of Kraśnik and Komarów

On August 22nd, the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army received the order to reach the heights between Annopol and Frampol, 100 km to the north , while the 4th Russian Army was gathering at Lublin 60 km further north and the first units were already marching south sat. The battle of Kraśnik developed from the inevitable encounter between 23 and 25 August .

The battle began on August 23 on the left wing of the army with the kuk I. Corps and the 14th division, the left wing division of the kuk V. Corps. While this was fighting with the Russian 45th Division at Plochina, 10 kilometers south of Kraśnik , the 33rd Division with the IR 83 and the 37th Honved Division were able to advance further north without contact with the enemy.

On August 24, the battle broke out along the entire front of the kuk V Corps. The 14th and 33rd divisions succeeded in driving the Russian units from the heights south of Krasnik, while IR 83 was spared the fighting for the time being and was drawn into the Szastarka area . Your baptism of fire received the III. Battalion and the 2nd Company on August 25, when they had to defend the interface to the 14th Division on the left wing of the division and were attacked by three Russian battalions.

The withdrawal of the Russian army towards Lublin on the evening of August 25 marked the end of the Battle of Kraśnik . While August 26th passed quietly, new battles began the next day for the kuk units advancing northwards, which in Austrian post-war literature are referred to as the Battle of Lublin .

On August 27, the IR 83 had the task of proceeding north in an area around 20 kilometers east of Kraśnik. For this purpose it appeared in the morning on the left wing of the 33rd Division in the structure left 1st, behind it 3rd, right 2nd and 4th battalion following as reserve. Against fierce resistance from the Russian army, the I./IR 83 was able to advance around three kilometers and reach the area east of Rudnik. Since the 14th Division was involved in fierce fighting further west, regimental commander Hofbauer ordered III./IR 83 to support the left neighbor in his attack. The battalion encountered well-developed Russian positions and, as the terrain offered little cover, took on the assault. Horn signals sounded like in a maneuver and the infantrymen, officers with sabers drawn first, stormed the Russian lines and were able to bring in over 600 prisoners and thus help the neighboring 14th Division to advance further north. On the right side of the attack, the II./IR 83 at Gatezow also advanced faster than the neighboring units of the IR 26. When they were hit by a powerful counter-attack around noon, the II./IR 83 was also able to flank and support the neighboring troops.

These military successes cost the regiment 40 dead and 420 wounded, which was around 10 percent of the nominal strength. These battles around Krasnik, with 15,000 fallen, wounded and prisoners of war, also cost the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army around a tenth of their total strength.

September 1914: withdrawal after Russian successes

From August 28, the situation began to change fundamentally, as the ongoing reinforcement of the Russian 4th Army gradually shifted the balance of power in their favor.

On August 29, the Russian grenadier corps attacked the kuk 37th Honved Division deployed to the right of the 33rd Division at Bychawa . While the II and III / IR 83 secured the left wing of the division together with the IR 19 against Bychawa, the I and IV battalions helped repel the attack of the Russian Grenadier Corps five kilometers further east. Both battalions remained in an exposed position the whole day and only retreated three kilometers to the south on August 30, in order to reconnect with the front of the IR 19.

The high command of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army was not yet aware of the change in the situation, because on September 2 the kuk X. Corps deployed to the right of the Austro-Hungarian Corps was supposed to attack further north, although its eastern flank was uncovered. The east wing of the kuk V Corps, the 37th Honved Division reinforced by two battalions of IR 83, had to join this attack. At the same time, however, the Russian 4th Army began an advance southward, which hit the kuk X. Corps heavily.

On the same day, the Landsturm Brigade 100 on the west wing of the army achieved a defensive success against Russian units. Major Anton Lehár , a former officer of the IR 83, who was to lead the IR 106, which was newly established from duties of the regiment in 1918, distinguished himself as commander of the 2nd Battalion of the Honvéd Regiment No. 13 , so that he received the Knight's Cross of the military -Maria Theresa Order was awarded. His resulting popularity and the solidarity due to his role in IR 106 often led to this act being ascribed to IR 83 in the post-war period.

On the night of September 2nd, the kuk V Corps gathered 32 battalions in the area of ​​the 37th Honved Division, including two of the IR 83. In order to be able to establish this focus, a brigade was formed from the 14th Division in the west and from the 33rd Division that followed, all battalions except two of IR 83 and one of IR 19, which remained behind as security, were brought up in night marches. The attack failed but with great losses in front of the well-developed Russian positions, also because pouring rain hindered the attackers. Due to Russian pressure, the front of the right wing corps (kuk X. Corps) had to be withdrawn by 30 kilometers by the evening of September 5th, while the left wing (kuk I. Corps) held on to the positions it had reached. For the Austro-Hungarian V Corps in the middle, this led to the front bending back far to the south in order to maintain cohesion within the army front.

Due to this situation, the IR 83 could still not be deployed as a unit in the division front. While the 1st and 4th Battalions in the west maintained the connection to the 14th Division, the other two were deployed on the east wing of the division. By September 5, the two western battalions retreated three kilometers to the south, while the east wing had to be bent back 10 kilometers to the south. In order to maintain cohesion within the 33rd Division during the retreat, a counterattack had to be carried out on the morning of September 5th to eliminate the consequences of a Russian night attack. The front within the kuk V Corps remained stable for the next few days, before a powerful blow from the Russian 4th Army hit the 33rd Division on September 9, which could not be intercepted. After three weeks of fighting, the division had only around 4,000 to 5,000 men and had thus lost 2/3 of its team status. Many units were therefore forced to reorganize their battalions and companies, so IR 83 put the 1st battalion (187 men) with the II and the IV (169 men) with the III. together to get two battalions each numbering around 800 people. When a battalion of IR 48 and IR 19 was added to the regiment on September 10, three and a half battalions could be set up again, with the newly set up IV./IR 83 being disbanded and distributed to the other units in the course of October.

The situation with the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army also deteriorated because the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army deployed further east had suffered a heavy defeat in the Battle of the Gnila Lipa , whereupon the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army to the west had to rush to help. Both armies were then defeated between September 6th and 11th in the battle of Rawa Ruska , so that only a large-scale retreat saved all Austro-Hungarian units from total annihilation. For the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army, the San was designated as the first target of retreat, after which it was supposed to move further towards the Carpathian Mountains .

The kuk V Corps was ordered to hold its position as long as possible and to return to Janów Lubelski on the 12th. In dry weather and on moonlit nights, they managed to retreat behind the San in order to make front there for a few days, before finally on September 27 the IR 83 crossed the Dunajec near Otfinów about 65 kilometers northeast of Krakow. Thus, a retreat of over 200 kilometers for the IR 83 came to a temporary end without any major losses.

October 1914: Battle of the Vistula

The Battle of the Vistula
Karl Ungár in 1918 as first lieutenant

In order to relieve the heavily defeated Austro-Hungarian armies, the German 9th Army was deployed in Silesia in the second half of September . Together with the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army, they were supposed to advance around 250 km northeast of the Vistula in order to force the Russian army command to withdraw troops from Galicia. While the 9th Army began its offensive on September 28, which marked the start of the Battle of the Vistula , the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army first compensated for its losses by integrating marching battalions, so that the combat strength of the regiments was back to around 1,000 Men per battalion rose. The previous battles had left their mark on the soldiers, because the initial enthusiasm for war had turned into a mood crisis in view of the losses.

On October 1, the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army also started moving, while a group of forces advanced west of the Vistula on the right flank of the German 9th Army, the Austro-Hungarian Corps with the 66th Brigade, as the central unit, went north east of the river in front. The Russian units also endeavored to march north in order to reach the area southeast of Warsaw. In this situation, the 66th Brigade pursued retreating Cossack units , with IR 83 forming the central unit.

On October 3, a 68-strong advance detachment of IR 83 under the command of Lieutenant Karl Ungár in Olszyny, a few kilometers from the Wisłoka River , received the information that there was still an intact crossing over the river at Gawłuszowice . Ungár then made the decision to take this bridge with his unit. At 3:00 p.m., the soldiers managed to conquer the river crossing in a flash and erect a bridgehead on the north bank. In the course of the night Cossack associations tried to recapture the crossing with two counter-attacks, but always failed because of the resistance of Ungár's men. As the first reinforcement, an MG troop of the IR 12 arrived after midnight, the bridgehead was finally secured when the II / IR 83 reached the river crossing at 4 a.m. Ungár's independent decision meant that the Austro-Hungarian Corps could now advance faster and the Russian retreat accelerated. For this act, the officer was the first soldier of the IR 83 to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order.

By October 8th, the 66th Brigade had reached the San, but the crossing did not take place because the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army had to pull all units east of the Vistula via Sandomierz into the Vistula bend. The new goal for the army was the removal of the Russian Vistula bridgehead at Dęblin , which should be rolled up by a flank thrust from the east. In order to destroy the largest possible enemy formations, the army command pursued the risky strategy of allowing the Russian army command to expand the bridgehead. This led to the five-day battle for Ivangorod (October 22-26), as Dęblin was then called in Russian.

October 22-26, 1914: Battle of Ivangorod

The attack by the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army began on October 22nd, and IR 83 in marching order III, II and I Battalion had been on the move since 2 a.m. to reach the town of Zwoleń by 8 a.m. , around 25 kilometers to the south-west located on the Vistula. While the regiment was taking a rest, the III./IR 83 cleared further in the direction of Bruckenkopf and reached a forest area near Czarnolas 15 km before the crossing. When the battalion left the forest, it was shelled by Russian troops from the village. Regiment commander Spiess then ordered the II. To III. Battalion to unlock and storm the village with it, while I./IR 83 was tracked as a reserve. The attack succeeded without major losses and around 500 soldiers of the Russian 75th Division were captured in the village.

In the course of the day, the IR 83 advanced another two kilometers to the north-west into the Sarnów area, where it was stopped at Grzywacz because its own associations had gotten mixed up. After extensive troop shifts in the night of October 23, the next day IR 83 advanced further northwest to reach the Sarnów - Zdunków line. The 3,000 men of the regiment then dug between the two villages with II., I. and III. Battalion (from west to east) along a 5-kilometer line, but without being able to create a continuous trench system. To the left of this one found connection to the division's own IR 12, to the right to the division's own IR 19. The 33rd division, in turn, was connected to the 36th division in the west and to the 37th Honvéd division in the east. While it remained quiet in front of the regiment for the time being, in addition to the noise of the battle in the west (attack by the kuk I. Corps) in the afternoon, artillery fire could also be heard in the east. This was another Russian bridge over the Vistula near Puławy . The Russian units that crossed the river on the deep flank of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army soon threatened the 37th Honvéd Division on the right. Around 3 p.m. Russian troops marched in front of the IR 83 and a lively firefight developed, in which Russian artillery also intervened and caused noticeable losses.

While Russian artillery fire caused many failures on October 24, the 37th Honvéd Division suffered heavy losses in the east from the Russian divisions breaking out of the Puławy bridgehead, so that in the evening IR 83 had to retreat four kilometers to the south, causing the Front instead of north now showed a sharp bend to the south.

On October 25, since a gap about a kilometer wide had opened up between the left wing of the regiment and its western neighbor, the IR 12, part of the IR 26 in reserve was pushed into the front. Towards evening there was a Russian attack on the right wing of the regiment, which was repulsed.

While the German 11th Army was already thinking of retreating on October 23, the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army still considered the situation to be favorable. In fact, south of Ivangorod, there were nine of its own, already 17 Russian divisions, so the Russian Guard Corps was deployed with two divisions before the 33rd division.

While IR 83 remained quiet on October 26th, its right neighbor, IR 19, was attacked by the Russian Guard Divisions. The regiment withstood the attacks until 1 p.m. before it began to withdraw, which also meant that the positions of the entire 33rd Division could no longer be held, so that a general withdrawal order was issued at 2 p.m. Since the transmission of orders only worked via messengers, not all units could be informed of this surprising retreat. When the Russian guardsmen attacked IR 12 on the left wing of the division and shot its artillery into the retreating Austro-Hungarian soldiers with shrapnel , only 270 men of this regiment reached a rescue line. At least around 800 soldiers from the IR 83 arrived at Zwolen, but this meant a loss of 70 percent of its combat strength in just one day for the regiment. In Zwolen, which had served as a military hospital in previous battles, many lightly and seriously wounded people tried to join the withdrawal of the defeated Austro-Hungarian units in order to escape the threat of imprisonment.

This ended the risky plan of having the Russian army widen the Ivangorod bridgehead in order to push it in with a flank maneuver in a severe defeat of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army. The 33rd Division, and with it IR 83, suffered particularly heavy losses from the attack by the Russian Guard.

Retreat to Krakow

On October 27th, the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army received the order to move onto the Kielce - Opatów - San Mouth line , which they reached in four days of forced marches. A further return to the Cracow area , as suggested by the army itself, in order to maintain the connection with the retreating German 9th Army in the west, was initially rejected because it would remove the positions of the Austro-Hungarian 3rd and 4th Army in Galicia would have become untenable. In addition, the army command needed some time to replenish the stocks of the fortress of Przemyśl , which would inevitably be enclosed by the advancing Russian troops.

The withdrawal of the defeated units of the 33rd Division was initially carried out without any major disturbance by Russian units pushing forward. After a march of more than 100 km, the regiments reached the north-east of Łagów by the 1st of November via copy and Kuczów , where the front was made according to the withdrawal order. The IR 83 could be reorganized on October 29th by the arrival of a marching battalion, while this under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Dezső Tormássy became the new 1st Battalion, all infantry parts escaped from Ivangorod were amalgamated in the 2nd Battalion under Major Heinrich Uffenheimer.

In the regimental history published in 1934, the chronicler of IR 83 described the condition of the 33rd Division at that time as follows:

"The teams are tired, there is no bread, with the 8 1/2 battalions the division has a combat strength of only 8,000 men, the combat strength is very weak, the mood is apathetic."

In this condition, the 33rd Division took up position northeast of Łagów on the northern edge of the Holy Cross Mountains on the night of October 31st. The two battalions of the IR 83 formed the right wing of the division and had to occupy a six-kilometer section despite their small number of men. Its right neighbor was the IR 72 of the 14th Division, on the left the badly damaged IR 26 followed. With this regiment and the adjacent II / IR 83 on November 1st, the focus of the Russian attack was. The enemy managed to break into the position, and the situation was cleared up again by counter-attacks by the 9th and 12th companies. At around 1.30 p.m., however, the situation had become untenable, so that the order to retreat over the approximately 500-meter-high ridge had to be given. Regimental commander Spiess covered the retreat with his regimental staff and two companies of the 2nd battalion. The 9th Company suffered losses of around 50 percent, while the other units were able to move over the Heiligkreuzgebirge without major losses in order to form a new front line.

Since the three worn out corps of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army (I., V. and X. Corps) faced seven corps of the Russian 4th and 9th Army, they had lost contact with the German 9th Army in the west and therefore had to roll up threatened the entire front, the army command issued the further withdrawal order on November 2nd. Since this meant that the positions of the Austro-Hungarian 4th, 2nd and 3rd armies fighting further east could no longer be held, this applied to all Austro-Hungarian armies, whereby the Army Command surrendered the entire space gained during the October offensive. The new goal of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army was to establish a line of resistance on the Nida , but after a few days it became apparent that this too could not be held. On November 5th, therefore, the new order to withdraw was issued to the army, which now had to withdraw in the direction of Cracow .

After crossing the Nida, IR 83 brought up the rear and had to cover the retreat of the entire kuk V Corps. When the regiment reached the area west of Skalbmierz on November 7th, due to the overloading of the railway lines, there was a backlog of the outgoing rail transport trains, so that the IR 83 had to fight following Cossack units. It lost around 80 men dead, wounded and missing. Hardly pressed by the Russian pursuers, the companies were so dispersed that the next morning only around 400 men showed up in Wężerów, 35 kilometers to the south-west. In the course of the next few days, however, individual groups repeatedly joined the regiment, so that the combat strength rose to around 1,500 men again by mid-November. At this time there was also a change in the regimental leadership, because Colonel Spieß was entrusted with the leadership of his main regiment, the IR 26, while the IR 83 received a new commander in Major Heinrich Uffenheimer.

The three-week retreat ended for the regiment in the Bolesław area , while the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army was again in position northwest of Cracow. In the meantime, Chief of Staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf had not only ordered the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army deployed further to the east to retreat to Krakow, but had also transferred units of the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army, which was withdrawing from Eastern Galicia, to this area. Due to this troop massing, an offensive could be resumed on November 16, from which the battle of Krakow developed between November 16 and 25 .

November 1914: Battle of Krakow

The Battle of Krakow was opened by an attack by the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army on November 16, in the afternoon the right wing of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army, the X. Corps, went on the offensive, while the IR 83 and 33. Division as army reserve initially not involved in the fighting. The very next day the attack by the kuk X. Corps came to a standstill, so that the 33rd Division was ordered to the area east of Olkusz , where it again faced the Russian Guard Corps.

The task of the division was to attack on November 18 along the village of Sułoszowa to the east. The IR 83 formed the center of the attack, while it was flanked by IR 19 in the north and by IR 12 in the south. The regiments had to carry out their attack in an uncovered area, which, however, offered the Russian guardsmen ideal defenses. These were able to act flanking from elevated defensive positions with numerous machine guns and, above all, this machine gun fire led to heavy casualties, especially on November 19 at IR 83. Among them was the regimental commander Uffenheimer, who was fatally wounded when he visited a battalion that had remained in the machine gun fire. Captain Oskar Lehner then took over command of the regiment. When the regiment was relieved by a battalion of the IR 26 on November 20, it had paid for the small gain in land with 60 dead and almost 500 wounded. The survivors, who were relocated to the hinterland as a division reserve, only reached the combat strength of half a battalion.

The battle of Krakow hardly gained any space for the other divisions of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army. The losses were so high that the 33rd Division reported to the Army Command on November 22nd that, due to the low number of crews, they were no longer able to attack. The severely decimated units of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army now took on the task of binding the Russian units in front of them, while further east the Austro-Hungarian 4th and 3rd Army in the battle of Limanowa-Lapanow and later in the battle in the Carpathians again fought bloody skirmishes with the Russian army. The 33rd Division, which was superordinate to IR 83, received a new commander, Ferdinand von Goglia , who succeeded Karl Edler von Rebracha on December 3, 1914.

December 1914: Persecution of the Russian army

Due to the successes of the Austro-Hungarian 3rd and 4th Armies in the battle of Limanowa-Lapanow, the Russian Army also withdrew from the front of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army, which followed the retreating enemy from December 15th. The IR 83 advanced as the advance guard of the 33rd Division in rain and snowfall via Miechów and Buszków about 85 kilometers without enemy contact to the northeast, and on December 19 reached the village of Złota five kilometers northeast of Wiślica . At that time the regiment only had a combat strength of 1,154 men, who were divided into four companies in a battalion.

On December 20, the kuk V Corps regrouped its forces. This led to a southward shift of the 33rd Division, with the IR 83 positions on the Nida opposite Wiślica. While Russian artillery fire claimed losses in the form of one dead and 15 wounded on December 21, the 14th Division deployed further south managed to cross the Nida with high losses. The IR 19 deployed north of IR 83 also managed to gain a foothold on the eastern bank, so that IR 83 was ordered to cross the Nida at Wiślica on December 23. To do this, engineers repaired a bridge that had been blown up by the Russians, so that it was possible to get all companies across the river by 10 p.m. An officer scouting party then discovered that before Wiślica there was still a tributary of the Nida to be crossed, over which another blasted bridge led. On the morning of December 24th, the engineers began to repair the second bridge under heavy artillery fire. The resulting high losses led the regiment to stop work.

In the meantime, the Russian defenders had counter-attacked the parts of the 14th and 33rd Divisions that had crossed over and put them on the defensive to such an extent that they had to be taken back to the west bank.

When the IR 83 also withdrew across the Nida, the bridge, which had been repaired with great sacrifice, had to be destroyed again in order to prevent the enemy from being pushed. When the regiment was replaced on December 27 by a unit of the 37th Honved Division, the deployment off Wiślica had cost 29 dead and 107 wounded. The previous regiment commander Lehner, who had held this position for about a month despite being wounded, was replaced on December 29 by Captain Wilhelm Gebhardt.

The high losses of the IR 83 in the first months of the war were also reflected in the fact that the entire 33rd Division at the end of 1914 had a combat strength of only 4,822 men compared to a target of around 15,000 men. Their combat strength thus corresponded to that of a reinforced regiment, and among the eight divisions of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army it was also the one with the lowest current status.

War year 1915

Turn of the year 1914/15: Transfer to the Third Army

After a renewed deployment in the position front, the IR 83 was replaced by the 32nd Landwehr Regiment on the night of January 3, 1915. The background to this transfer was the relocation of the 33rd Division and the 37th Honvéd Division as well as the higher level V Corps by rail transport to the Imperial and Royal 3rd Army to the east, while the 14th Division, which up to this point had always been part of the V Corps remained with the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army.

The next day, IR 83 marched around 45 kilometers via Bejsce to Drwinia in the rain . Replacement teams were already waiting there so that the regiment could be regrouped into two battalions. Captain Wilhelm Gebhardt took over the 1st battalion, while Colonel Kiszling was his successor as regimental commander.

The 33rd Division was deployed on the right wing of the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army in the Forest Carpathians and assembled in the Wołosate area . The reinforcement of the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army had become necessary because after its successes in the battle of Limanowa-Lapanow it had been pushed back into the Carpathian Mountains by a counter-offensive that began on December 20th. As if that weren't enough, the Russian army had crossed the Ushok Pass and thus threatened the Hungarian heartland.

Subordination of IR 83 as of January 23, 1915:

January 1915: Recapture of the Uschok Pass

Memorial at the Ushok Pass for the fallen soldiers

The battles of the next few weeks, in which the kuk V Corps and thus also the IR 83 were involved, took place in the course of the battle in the Carpathian Mountains , the long-term goal of which was to relieve the approximately 150,000-strong crew of the enclosed Przemyśl fortress . The recapture of the Uschok Pass was also of great importance. While the right neighbor of the 33rd Division, the Korps Szurmay , was directly on the pass, the division was to support this attack with a flank thrust. For this purpose it was divided into two parts, while the 65th Brigade had to join the general advance of the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army to the north, should the 66th Brigade with its 12th and 83rd regiments lead the flank thrust from Wołosate towards the pass.

In order to have a unified command in the attack on the Uschok Pass, which began on January 23, the 66th Brigade was subordinated to the Szurmay Corps. With the IR 12 and the II./IR 83 on their flank thrust they had to advance twenty kilometers in the snow-covered low mountain range in the direction of the Kinozyk Bukowszki mountain , while the I./IR 83 under the orders of regiment commander Kiszling on the Zolobina ten kilometers south - Summit was set. The advance of the 66th Brigade began on January 23 at 8 a.m. in Wołosate, after a night in snow caves, they attacked the mountain tops the next morning. When a heavy snowstorm came in the course of the day, the companies had to be withdrawn to avoid further frostbite losses. The actual fighting had cost the 2nd Battalion 32 dead and 83 wounded. Although the occupation of both hilltops failed, the attacks so disrupted the Russian defense that the 128th Brigade of Szurmay's Corps was able to capture the Ushok Pass on the 26th.

A contemporary report described the attack by the 66th Brigade:

“On January 23rd they set off into the icy hell of the Carpathian Battle. The Uzsok, Verecke and Wyszkower passes were stormed, but the snowstorm received the troops on the northern slope of the mountain. On January 25th, the victorious advancing brigade of Major General Lieb, after having thrown the enemy, was chased back through the icy northeast to its starting position. Doom falls. It is heartbreaking to read the accounts of those days. Hundreds freeze to death every day; every wounded man who cannot drag himself away is inevitably subject to death. "

- Josef Brauner: Austria-Hungary's last war 1914–1918: From the end of the battle at Limanowa-Łapanów to the capture of Brest-Litowsk, war year 1915 , page 142

For the kuk V Corps the uncomfortable situation arose from the successes of the attack that a free space 20 kilometers wide and ten kilometers deep formed between the 65th brigade of the 33rd division on the right wing of the corps and the 66th brigade lent to the Szurmay corps in which the Russian front had stopped. The advance of the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army itself failed due to the bad weather and the inadequate equipment and so it was again the turn of the Russian 8th Army, which recaptured parts of the lost territory in a counter-offensive from January 26th.

At the end of January, IR 83 was still forming the left wing of Szurmay Corps, which was hanging in the air, and secured its front to the north. The wintry conditions in the Carpathian Mountains led to massive supply problems, so on January 28 a 150-man company could only be given 18 loaves of bread. Another major problem was severe frostbite, which led to 60 casualties that day alone when the 66th Brigade joined an attack by the 8th Cavalry Division and IR 83 had to occupy the town of Tarnawa-Wyzna. In battles that were initially carried out only by the 2nd and 3rd companies, and in which three other companies of the regiment later intervened, this goal could be achieved with heavy losses.

February 1915: The fighting subsided and the second attempt at relief by Przemysl began

Although the supply situation had improved, the IR 83 still suffered from the fact that the supply and supply elements had remained with the 33rd Division, so that the regiment had to do without warm food for two weeks. The arrival of two marching companies was used to reorganize both battalions into three equally strong companies of around 160 men.

In order to clear up the gap between the kuk V Corps and the Szurmay Corps, a combat group of around 400 men was formed on February 13, which, under the leadership of regimental commander Kiszling, advanced into this area. Despite the bad weather and terrain, the group managed to establish contact with its own division fighting in the west.

Not all parts of the IR 83 were transferred to Korps Szurmay at the end of January together with the 66th Brigade. A company that had remained with the 33rd Division under the command of Captain Konstantin Straic succeeded in liberating parts of the IR 26 trapped in a loss-making counter-attack on February 11.

While Przemysl's second attempt at relief began on February 27 with attacks in an area about 40 kilometers west of IR 83, the regiment was pulled from the front and initially relocated to Sjanky as a corps reserve . The soldiers were very happy when on March 1st the order to relocate the 66th Brigade to their own 33rd Division arrived in order to be made available as an army reserve behind the positions of the Austro-Hungarian Corps.

March 1915: Failure of the second attempt at relief by Przemysl

Just one day later there was reunification with the 33rd Division near Ustrzyki Górne in the area north of Wołosate, where IR 83 and the higher-level 66th Brigade came to rest as an army reserve and were able to supplement their equipment.

This calm did not last long, however, because the 66th Brigade was supposed to support an attack by the Austro-Hungarian Corps, which was intended as a diversionary maneuver for the main thrust of the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army, which was set further west. On the morning of March 7th, the brigade attacked at Dźwiniacz Górny and crossed the San to establish themselves in the Kiczora highlands one kilometer to the north. The Russian army responded to this advance with heavy artillery fire, which prevented further action. The kuk V Corps then ordered the attack to be continued the next day, against which Brigade Commander Lieb protested, as not even wire cutters were available to overcome the deeply staggered trench system secured with barbed wire. In the east, too, the Szurmay corps hung far back, so that the brigade threatened to be cut off. After the repetition of the attack order, both regiments began again, three companies of the IR 83 came into heavy artillery fire, so that the attack had to be broken off with high losses. The IR 83 lost 9 dead and 76 wounded, in addition there were 66 casualties due to frostbite. The soldiers were then taken back to their starting positions and the front froze in trench warfare over the next few weeks.

The supply shortages played their part in the loss of the Kiczora Heights on March 20. The IR 83 suffered losses from artillery fire in the morning in the form of nine dead and numerous wounded. While the left neighbor, the 37th Honved Division, was pushed back by Russian attacks in the course of the day, the position of IR 83 initially remained unmolested. When the 6th Company was sent to the Kiczora Heights in the middle of a snowstorm in the evening, they suffered heavy losses from an artillery attack. Shortly thereafter, Russian infantry entered the position, which was not adequately protected due to the lack of barbed wire. A counterattack with the last reserves of the 2nd Battalion failed, and its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Pittreich, fell. Due to the strategic importance of the heights, the 66th Brigade received a battalion from IR 76 and two battalions from IR 3 of the 31st Division, which was in reserve near Wołosate, as reinforcements and the brigade itself was subordinate to this division. A counterattack by these troops failed in the defensive fire of the Russian defenders and when the news of the surrender of the occupation of Przemysl arrived on March 22, all offensive actions were stopped and the withdrawal from the area north of the Sans was ordered. Since the harsh winter weather had badly affected Colonel Kiszling's health, he had to hand over command of the regiment to Captain Konstantin Straic.

While the next few days were largely uneventful, on March 30 the Russian Army resumed offensive operations, primarily affecting its left neighbor, the 37th Honved Division. This could not withstand the Russian pressure and so the IR 83 had to give up the San line and withdraw together with the IR 12 to the high ground south of the river.

April 1915: Easter Battle in the Carpathian Mountains

The regiment's new position was of strategic importance for the entire kuk V Corps, because the Wołosate valley, through which it was supplied, was only two kilometers further south. On April 2, a massive attack took place, a Russian battalion succeeded in penetrating the position and occupying a section around 500 meters wide. Lieutenant Karl Ungár made a counter-attack with the regiment's 60-man intervention reserve and restored the old position. Despite high own losses (12 dead and 14 wounded), around 150 enemy soldiers were captured. The Russian battalion also had around 200 casualties, most of which had fallen victim to a flanking machine gun. For this act, which saved the kuk V Corps from being cut off, Ungár was again submitted after October 1914 to be awarded the Maria Theresa Order.

The negative development of the military situation along the Carpathian front caused not only the withdrawal of the Austro-Hungarian Corps, but also the entire Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army. In this, the 33rd Division formed the rearguard and was therefore subordinated to the Szurmay Corps to the east, which had stopped at the Uschok Pass out of consideration for the German Southern Army . At the insistence of their commander in chief, General of the Infantry Alexander von Linsingen , the Szurmay corps was subordinated to the Southern Army. As a result of this decision, which was not made entirely without friction at the highest level, IR 83 found itself at the interface of two armies and therefore had to suffer in the next few days from the disputes over the competence of the higher-level staff.

On April 3, the regiment received the order to withdraw slowly to the south together with the 33rd Division. In two strenuous night marches, the exhausted soldiers of IR 83 reached the Zhornava area via Wołosate , where the remaining 768 men were reclassified into five weak companies. On the same day the regiment was transferred by rail to the 31st Division, which, as part of the kuk V Corps, belonged to the kuk 2nd Army. When the Russian army conquered the Ceremcha Heights south of Wołosate and threatened the Ush valley leading to the Ushok Pass , three companies of IR 83 were put back on the march to the southern army at the urging of Szurmay's corps. There it was placed under the 65th Brigade, which actually belonged to the 33rd Division, but here as part of the 31st Division tried to occupy the ridge again. On April 11th, the battalion commander Hauptmann Höllriegel fell in the front line while trying to get the attack going in deep snow. Two days later the 65th Brigade managed to take the altitude position, after which the fighting subsided noticeably, so that the winter battle in the Carpathians gradually subsided in the course of April.

May 1915: Battle of Gorlice-Tarnów - turn of the war on the Eastern Front

In order to prevent a collapse of the Danube monarchy, the General Staffs of the Central Powers decided to dare a breakthrough battle near Gorlice . For this purpose, from April 21, 1915, the German 11th Army with eight German and two Austro-Hungarian divisions under Colonel General August von Mackensen was deployed southwest of the city . Beginning on May 2, the 11th Army not only achieved an operational breakthrough in the Battle of Gorlice-Tarnów , but subsequently the entire Russian Carpathian Front began to move.

The IR 83 received a new regimental commander in Colonel Desiderius Farkas on May 6th. Scouting troops of the regiment found that the opposing Russian 8th Army was still occupied in the first day of the German breakthrough. It was not until May 8th around 11 a.m. that 83 withdrawals of the Russian XVIII. Corps are observed, four hours later the Austro-Hungarian troops took up the pursuit. The Russian artillery put up slow resistance to slow the advance of the 33rd Division. On April 10, a marching battalion was incorporated into the IR 83 as the 2nd battalion, so that the combat strength rose to 2,130 men, who were now divided into three battalions. Despite the Russian delaying tactics, the regiment was able to cross the San on May 11 at Dwernik . Via Lutowiska (May 12) and Sambir (May 15), the 33rd Division reached the Strywihor , a tributary of the Dniester, by May 16 , where the Russian army again fought. During battles around the village of Koniuszki-Siemianowskie , the inadequate artillery equipment was once again noticeable (the Austro-Hungarian Army only had 14 guns at its disposal), while the Russian artillery between May 16 and 18 at 65 Fallen and 248 wounded could inflict heavy losses on the regiment. On May 22nd, the Russian VII. Corps counterattacked the 33rd Division, which was able to stop it with great losses for both sides. The IR 83 lost 273 dead and wounded and 254 prisoners of war. The combat strength had dropped to less than 1,000 men by the 29th, so that battalions (I. with III.) Had to be merged again.

At the end of May there were also reshuffles in the superior command authorities of IR 83. The previous commander of the kuk V Corps, Paul Puhallo von Brlog, became commander in chief of the kuk 3rd Army. His successor as corps commander was the previous commander of the 33rd division, Ferdinand von Goglia, who was succeeded by Theodor von Hordt as division commander.

June 1915: Battle of Lemberg

While further north the kuk X. Corps and the 11th Royal Bavarian Division succeeded in recapturing Przemyśl, IR 83 was declared a corps reserve. On June 8, a counterattack by the Russian army began south of the kuk V Corps, which the army command tried to stop by bringing in reserves. These units also included IR 83, which was moved on foot to the endangered zone on June 9 and was subordinated to the 51st Honved Division there.

This ordered an attack on the villages of Hrushiv - Litynya for the next day . Carried out without artillery support and without adequate reconnaissance, the attack hit well camouflaged Russian positions and the regiment was shot down in such a way that over 50 percent losses occurred. The remaining 446 men were combined in the 2nd Battalion, which had to repeat the attack on June 12th on the orders of the 51st Division. The 83 battalion was subordinated to the 302nd Honved Regiment, with whose two battalions it carried out the attack. After fierce Russian resistance, the three battalions dug into the positions they had reached, where they also spent the following day. At dawn on June 14, a surprising Russian counterattack led to the defeat of both Honved battalions, and only 100 men returned to their own lines. The II./IR 83 owed it to the attention of an MG operator that it was able to withdraw with minor losses.

On June 18, the 11th Marching Battalion arrived, which was incorporated as the new 1st Battalion, thus increasing the combat strength to 1,307 men. At the same time, the Russian Army began to withdraw from the front of the regiment, which followed it to the northeast in the formation of the 51st Honved Division until June 21st. On June 22nd, when the kuk XIX. Corps recaptured the Galician capital Lemberg, which had been abandoned in September 1914, the IR 83 switched to the 14th Division, which was advancing to the north, before it could return to its own 33rd Division on June 24th. With this reached the regiment, after fighting in some cases against the Russian VI. Corps, via Bibrka (June 24th to 26th), Swirsch (June 27th) and Kymyr (June 28th) on June 30th the Hnyla Lypa near Peremyschljany , where it was defended.

The IR 83 had carried out seven assault attacks in June under the command of three different divisions (14th, 33rd and 51st) and lost almost 1,000 men. Towards the end of the month the combat strength had fallen back to around 800 men, who were divided into two battalions.

July, August: Trench warfare on the Zlota Lipa

On July 4, the Russian VI.Korps started again before the front of the 33rd Division withdraw, then took up their regiments the persecution that the IR 83 to Pnyatyn and on July 5, finally, to the Zlota Lipa in what is now Rajons Zolochiv led. There it was declared a divisional reserve and in this function built up a reserve position at Lissowi until July 12 , before it was used in the position front between Trudowatsch and Mytulyn from July 13 to the end of August .

Here the incorporation of the XII. March Battalion increased the combat strength to 1,718 men and the 3rd Battalion was set up again. With the marching battalion also arrived two companies of the IR 36 , which had been punished after being disbanded on May 27 in an attack by the Caucasian III. Corps did not offer any resistance and thus triggered a severe local crisis in the area of ​​the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army. The 200 Czech soldiers were not deployed as one group in IR 83, but were divided among the entire regiment. On this occasion, it also had to determine its mother tongue composition, according to which 54% stated Hungarian, 30% German, 7% each of Slovene or Czech and 1% Croatian as their mother tongue.

When on August 9th the XIII. March Battalion arrived, the combat strength of the IR 83 increased to over 3,000 men, so that now parts of the 4th Battalion were also set up. The previous regiment commander, Colonel Dezső Farkas, gave up command due to a serious illness, and the wounded brigade commander Joseph Lieb was replaced by Major General Michael Mihaljevic.

On August 27, the kuk V Corps, which had been reinforced to four divisions, began after a 60-minute artillery strike on the positions of the Russian VI. Corps of the campaign to Rovno . In the first days of the offensive, the IR 83 was divided into different units, so initially only the I./IR 83 took part in the fighting. The kuk V Corps managed to overcome the Zlota Lipa with high losses, so that the Russian VI. The next day's corps began to retreat eastwards. The regiments of the 33rd Division reached Potschapy on the 29th, initially without enemy resistance , in the afternoon an attack on Shulychi was initially with high losses before two battalions of IR 83 could take the town in a night attack. Here the front came to a standstill for a few days, by this time the IR 83 had lost 620 dead and wounded.

September: Campaign to Rovno

On September 2, the kuk V Corps started moving again and towards evening reached the area west of Pidkamin . Artillery fire and a counterattack by the Russian VI. Corps again suffered great losses in IR 83. After a few days of rest, the 33rd Division continued the offensive, which led IR 83 to Rydomyl , where attacks against well-developed Russian positions caused further losses of around 100 dead and wounded until September 10th. Since the attacking force of the kuk V Corps was exhausted, its regiments dug into the position they had reached.

On the night of September 13, Russian troops penetrated deep into the position system of the right neighboring division and in the morning began to deploy the position of the 33rd Division from the south. The 1st Battalion was almost completely wiped out by the IR 83, which formed the right wing of the division, but its resistance gave the 33rd Division time to withdraw with parts from 8 a.m. to the west towards Rostoky . Nevertheless, the evening when the division established a new resistance line at Wolicza, the division had only a combat strength of around 1,000 men, so the IR 26 in Rydomyl had been locked up and destroyed. With a combat strength of 400 men, the IR 83 provided the largest contingent in the new position, which rose to 530 men the next day due to stragglers.

On September 17, the IR 83 joined an advance of the 26th Division, which moved the front a few kilometers to the east. A day later the combat strength of the regiment increased to over 1,600 men through the incorporation of the XIV March Battalion, which made it possible to reorganize parts of the 1st Battalion. Towards the end of September, IR 83 was also withdrawn from the front and relocated to the Lopuschne area as a corps reserve .

October to December: trench warfare at Novyj Oleksynez

At the beginning of October, the 66th Brigade with regiments 12 and 83 moved to the 32nd Division in Novyj Oleksynez to relieve their units. After a relatively uneventful week, a Russian offensive against the Austro-Hungarian Corps began on October 21, during which the position of the 66th Brigade was attacked by seven Russian regiments. While IR 83 and sister regiment 12 were able to hold their positions, the Russian troops made a breakthrough further north, which threatened the 66th Brigade in the rear, so that they had to retreat around noon. Although the Russian offensive had stalled after a few kilometers, the IR 83 lost around 750 men in these battles, most of them taken prisoner of war. The daily loss of the kuk V Corps amounted to 7,500 men, the Russian advance could be stopped by bringing in reserves and after local counter-attacks the front froze in positional warfare.

While provisional trenches were built in the early days of the trenches, these were gradually expanded into a complex trench system consisting of three parallel trench systems secured with barbed wire. In November and December, a marching battalion could be incorporated, faced with departures in the form of 8 fallen, 265 wounded and 778 sick, so that by the end of the year the combat strength of the IR 83 had increased to around 3,000 men. Colonel Vinzenz Rosenmayr took over the regiment on December 16 as the new commander.

War year 1916

January to May: trench warfare at Novyj Oleksynez

Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli paid a troop visit to IR 83 on February 3rd

After three months of trench warfare, the IR 83 was replaced by the sister regiment 12 and relocated to Haji-Rostozki as a division reserve . There the Commander-in-Chief of the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army, Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli , paid a troop visit to the regiment before it returned south of the old position at Novyj Oleksynez on February 17 to the division's own IR 26 replace.

While losses from artillery raids and raiding troops were kept within limits, the fourth battalion could be re-established through the incorporation of further marching battalions, and all machine guns of the regiment were combined in a separate machine-gun company.

A notable event reminiscent of the 1914 Christmas Peace on the Western Front occurred on Easter Sunday (April 23) when soldiers from both sides came to shake hands and exchange cigarettes. However, the Russian side used the reconnaissance results obtained in this way for ultimately unsuccessful attack operations that took place the next evening against the 13th Company and the neighboring IR 12.

June to August: Defense against the Brusilov offensive

On June 4th the Brusilov offensive of the Russian army began in several places on the Eastern Front , whereby the Austro- Hungarian 2nd Army was not attacked directly at first. It was therefore able to march parts of the 33rd Division to the kuk 1st Army adjoining to the north, which tried to seal off the indentation at the front at Lutsk . In the near future, this not only meant that the IR 83 was often subordinate to different higher staffs, but also that its battalions were deployed separately. While it mostly acted as a brigade, division, corps or army reserve and thus had relatively few battles to contend with, the 2nd Battalion, transferred to the 11th Division, suffered heavy losses on June 17th and 18th west of Lutsk. The remaining units were in the second half of June between Brody and Pidkamin in various reserve functions, the regimental staff was subordinate to the 53rd Brigade (27th Division). At the end of June, Lieutenant Colonel Ludwig Breuer replaced the regimental commander Rosenmayer, who had fallen ill.

At the beginning of July, the IR 83 moved to the Brody area and performed security tasks in the 54th Brigade, which also belonged to the 27th Division. On July 21, the command staff of the 33rd Division arrived in Brody together with the sister regiment 12 and took over command of the IR 83 again. Just two days later, it was relocated to the area 30 kilometers further north between Sahatka and Stremiltsche in order to be used in the position front on the Styr .

At the end of July, German troops replaced the regiment on the Styr Front, which then relocated around 50 kilometers south to the Harbusiw area in order to return to that section of the front from where it had been recalled on June 4th. This new position was about 20 km west of the starting point at Novyj Oleksynez, as the front had shifted in the course of the Brusilov offensive. In local counter-attacks, which were successfully denied by the regiment, losses of 250 men occurred by the end of the month (30 of them were killed). However, due to the incorporation of various marching battalions, the regiment had received an unprecedented strength at that time, so that one and a half reserve battalions could be set up in addition to the four regular battalions. At the end of August, the 33rd Division received a new commander, Artur Iwanski von Iwanina , who had commanded IR 83 from 1911 to 1913.

September to December: Trench warfare at Batkiw

On September 6th, the IR 83 moved into a five-kilometer section between the villages of Batkiw and Swyschen in what is now Brody Rajon , where it spent the next 13 months in trench warfare , the Russian XVII. Corps of the Russian 11th Army.

Subordination ratio of the IR 83:

  • 2nd Army - Colonel General Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli
    • Group Eben ( German I. Army Corps ) - General of the Infantry Johannes von Eben
      • IV Corps - Lieutenant Field Marshal Theodor von Hordt
        • 33rd Division - Major General Artur Iwanski von Iwanina
          • 66th Brigade - Colonel von Magerl
            • 83rd Infantry Regiment - Lieutenant Colonel Ludwig Breuer

Since the terrain proved to be very unfavorable and at that time the positions were not yet adequately developed, losses of 60 dead and 300 wounded occurred by the end of September, which were due to the incorporation of the XXIII. March battalions were more than equalized. On the night of October 5th, Russian artillery fire started, which increased to drumfire in the course of the morning. The infantry attack took place shortly after noon and penetrated deep into the regiment's positions, so that in the afternoon, Division Commander Iwanina had the German IR 233 attacked from the north and the II / IR 83 and parts of the IR 26 attacked the break-in area from the south. With heavy losses, these units were able to restore the old front line by evening. That day, the IR 83 claimed particularly high losses with 103 fallen, 182 wounded and 600 missing (mainly prisoners of war). The German IR 233 and IR 26 together lost around 400 men, including 63 dead, while the Russian attacker left over 100 dead and around 300 prisoners, many of whom were wounded, in the reconquered position system.

On October 16, the III. The battalion was fired at with gas grenades , the subsequent infantry attack failed because of the wire barriers, so that the Russian side had around 70 casualties, while the losses of the IR 83 with 8 casualties and 11 wounded were relatively minor.

By the turn of the year, an extensive trench system secured with barbed wire had been created in the area of ​​the 33rd Division, there was now sufficient artillery support and the regiment had perfected trench warfare by holding special courses and permanent alarm exercises .

War year 1917

January to October: trench warfare at Batkiw

The first weeks of 1917 went very quietly in the section of the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army, apart from the occasional raid troop operations and artillery raids. All the more surprising was the demolition of a mine tunnel on March 13th at 3 a.m. by Russian units, which they had driven in weeks of work to the front of the 33rd Division or the German 195th Division in the south . The explosion tore a crater with a diameter of 60 meters and a depth of 30 meters. Battalion of the IR 83 and the neighboring German unit can be repelled with ease.

One day later, the IR 83, together with units of the IR 12 and the German IR 233, which belonged to the 195th Division adjacent to the south, launched an attack on Russian positions in which 300 prisoners were brought in and two machine-gun positions were destroyed.

On April 11th, Colonel Josef Turba took over command of the regiment that he was to hold until the end of the war.

June, July: Kerensky offensive

Although the Russian army was internally weakened due to the February Revolution in 1917 and the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II on March 15, 1917, preparations for a new offensive could be observed in front of the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army from mid-June. On the front of the 33rd Division, combat activity actually began on June 17. However, this was only interpreted by the higher staff as a diversionary maneuver in order to disguise the actual intention to attack.

In fact, the main thrust of the so-called Kerensky offensive , which was planned in the area of ​​the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army, hit the front of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on July 1, 1917 near Zborów about 40 kilometers further south. Corps. In the Battle of Zborów , prepared reserves were able to stop the advance of the attacking Russian 11th Army, with a regiment from the 33rd Division as part of the German 197th Division being brought up to the break-in area from the north.

July 6, 1917: traditional day of the successor units

In order to make countermeasures by the Central Powers more difficult, the Russian plan provided that the Siberian V Corps should conduct a side attack in the sector of the 33rd Division. As with the main thrust at Zborów, the attack on Batkiw with artillery fire, which began on June 29th, was also prepared.

On the night of July 4th, Lieutenant Emil Popper undertook a successful raid, in which five prisoners were brought in who reported the imminent attack. Popper was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order for this act, which made it possible to take appropriate precautions.

On July 6th, the fighting finally broke out so violently that it was even mentioned in the army report. For the traditional Austrian successors of the IR 83, the Feldjägerbataillon 2 of the 1st Republic and today's Jägerbataillon 19, this day was or is therefore a traditional day:

“In the afternoon, several attacks against Austro-Hungarian troops failed near Batkow-Zwyzyn. The Györ infantry regiment Kaiser and King Karl No. 19 and the Szombathely infantry regiment 83 threw the enemy completely in the bravest resistance and in bitter scuffle. "

- The Austro-Hungarian Army Report - The World War on July 7, 1917 , accessed on July 13, 2018

In the last few months, a sophisticated system of positions had emerged in the section of IR 83, the main battle line of which consisted of two trenches running in north-south direction. The trenches, about 300 meters apart and secured with barbed wire, were connected by cross trenches. 300 to 600 meters behind was the reserve position, which was connected to the front ditch system via cross aisles. From this, further cross trenches led into the hinterland towards Batkiw, in order to allow reserves for the protected approach. To the south, a small lake fed by the Sereth River delimited the position system.

The IR 83 had only part of its troops at its disposal, because the II / IR 83 commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Karl Stampfl was a division reserve and the 14th and 16th companies of the IV battalion formed the reserve of the 66th Brigade. The 15th Company was a regimental reserve in a forest east of Batkiw.

The III./IR 83 (Commander Captain Ferdinand Baur) with 9th, 10th and 12th companies from south to north was directly deployed in the position over a length of one kilometer, behind it in the second trench there were parts of the 11th Company , the rest of which reinforced the battalion command post in reserve. The 13th Company of IV./IR 83, which was distributed over the entire length of the reserve position, was also subordinate to the battalion. In the north, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd companies of I./IR 83 (Commander Captain Caesar van Aken) defended the main battle line, behind it in the second system of positions was the battalion command post with a large part of the 4th Company. The positioning system of the IR 19 followed further to the north.

The Siberian V Corps began artillery shelling on July 6th at 6:30 am, which damaged the wire barn and collapsed parts of the trenches, before the infantry attack began at 12:30 pm. While the Siberian 87th Regiment stormed the positions of I./IR 83 and IR 19, the 86th Regiment attacked the section of III./IR 83. The northern battalion of IR 83 withstood the onslaught and was reinforced by a company of IR 19, which placed it on the right flank as a security to III./IR 83.

The Siberian 86th Regiment managed to overrun the 9th and 10th companies of III./IR 83 and penetrate half a kilometer into the hinterland over a width of 700 meters. The break-in area was limited in the south by Lake Batkiw, in the north the 12th Company had stopped and was now fronting south. Battalion commander Baur, with his staff and parts of the 11th and 13th companies, also held a deadlock position to the south. Regimental commander Turba brought his reserve company (15./IR 83) up, which leaning against an access ditch also delimited the break-in area. Turba was also assigned the brigade reserve in the form of the 14th and 16th companies of his regiment. While the 16./IR 83 and other parts of the regiment set up a second security line, the 14./IR 83 reinforced the command post of III. Battalion, so that around 4:30 p.m. the Russian intrusion was sealed off. The final decision brought the appearance of the divisional reserve in the form of II./IR 83, whose four companies succeeded in driving the broken-in Siberian infantrymen from the position and reoccupying the front line from 6:30 p.m.

The IR 83 paid for this victory with high losses, 92 soldiers died, 270 were wounded and 240 missing people were probably taken prisoner of war. The Russian side lost 240 men dead and 80 prisoners of war.

October, November: Relocation to the Italian front, army reserves at the Battle of Karfeit

Effects of the Battle of Karfeit

At the beginning of October the IR 83 was replaced by parts of the German 33rd Reserve Division and, together with the units of the Austro-Hungarian 33rd Division, relocated to Ljubljana by rail from October 3rd . The 33rd Division, together with two other divisions detached from the Eastern Front (4th and 13th), formed the army reserve for a deployment of German and Austro-Hungarian troops for an offensive in Italy, which ended in the Battle of Karfreit . In the fighting that began on October 24th, the Central Powers quickly succeeded in bringing down the Italian front and destroying or capturing large Italian units. The front could be moved more than 100 kilometers to the south by mid-November before it froze again in trench warfare on the Piave .

The 33rd Division and the IR 83 were spared these advance battles because they followed the advancing troops as army reserves. After the division had reached the Feltre area , it was transferred to the German 14th Army on November 21 as an army reserve , which had carried the brunt of this twelfth Isonzo battle.

December: Trench warfare on the Piave until the end of the war

On December 12th, the 33rd Division moved into the Piave position to relieve German troops of the 14th Army previously deployed there. The area southwest of Vazzola was to remain the operational area for the IR 83 and its sister units until shortly before the end of the war. She was now part of the kuk XVI. Corps part of the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Isonzo Army .

War year 1918

March: Formation of the 106th Infantry Regiment

Anton Lehár, commander of the new IR 106

The conversion of the kuk infantry units, which began in October 1917, led to a reduction in the number of battalions per division from 16 to twelve and per regiment from four to three battalions. With effect from March 3, 1918, the IR 106 was set up from duties of the 76 and 83 regiments, and Anton Lehár, a former officer of the 83 IR , became its commander . Since the new regiment from the same districts complemented each other as its two predecessor regiments, half of its teams consisted of German- and half Hungarian-speaking soldiers from Western Hungary. Together with the IR 83 it formed the 66th Brigade of the 33rd Division and was therefore mostly deployed alongside the IR 83 for the remainder of this war.

The units of this new regiment arose from the following charges:

  • I. Bataillon / IR 106 from III./IR 83
  • II./IR 106 from IV./IR 83
  • III./IR 106 from III./IR 76

After the surrender of two battalions, only the III. Battalion set up again, so that now both regiments had three battalions each.

March / April: Trench warfare on the Piave

In March and April 1918, the 33rd Division was in the area southwest of Oderzo and held a section of several kilometers on the Piave. In the front line (from northwest to southeast) lay regiments 19, 106 and 83, while IR 12 formed the reserve. Although there was no major fighting during this time, there were losses from artillery fire almost daily.

June: Second Battle of the Piave

In the course of the Second Battle of the Piave , the 58th and 33rd Divisions southeast of Salettuol were supposed to force the crossing over the river. The Lehár group , which consisted of the IR 106, the III./IR 83 and various special units of the 33rd Division, was subordinated to the 58th Division . This association, under the leadership of Colonel Lehár, was to cross the Piave as the northernmost of a total of five units of the 58th Division, in order to form bridgeheads there for the advancing elements of both divisions.

On June 15, from 3 a.m. onwards, preparations for the transition were made by artillery fire on the south bank, with short shots resulting in heavy losses among the storm troops deployed.

The flood-carrying river had to be crossed without any means of translation, as the boats provided had either been driven away by the current or destroyed by the Italian artillery. Nonetheless, the IR 106 with subordinate III./IR 83 made the transition in the morning, albeit with heavy losses. On the south bank, barbed wire barricades and a few trenches could be negotiated and advanced around a kilometer inland. When the pressure from enemy counterattacks increased in the early afternoon and there was no connection to their own forces, it turned out that the Lehár group was fighting completely isolated against the Italian 31st Infantry Division, because the neighboring units had not succeeded in the Piave To exceed. After the IR 106 could not be supported by its own artillery and ammunition supplies could not be brought across the river, Colonel Lehár ordered a retreat across the Piave at around 4:30 p.m., which succeeded despite recent losses. This was covered by the sister regiment, the IR 83. This advance, including subordinate units, had cost the IR 106 around 1200 men in losses, of which IR 83 accounted for twenty dead, 143 wounded and 186 missing.

The regiment's crossing of the Piave was also recognized in the army report on June 17th:

"For the Piave battles on June 15th, the young West Hungarian Regiment 106 deserves a special mention among the infantry, which is above all praise."

Colonel Lehár was awarded the Golden Medal of Bravery for the performance of his regiment . He was the only soldier of the Habsburg Monarchy to be awarded both this award and the Military Maria Theresa Order .

On June 21, regiments 83 and 106 crossed the Piave a second time to replace the kuk dragoon regiment "Emperor Ferdinand I" No. 4 deployed in the bridgehead of Zenson di Piave . Due to a withdrawal order, the bridgehead position was cleared again the next day, whereby the IR 106 alone had 16 dead and 50 wounded in an infantry attack and artillery fire.

October / November: retreat fights and demobilization

At the end of October 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Piavefront was in retreat because, due to the political disintegration of the Habsburg Monarchy, Croatian, Czech and Slovenian imperial and royal units refused to fight against Italian and supportive French and English troops. The 33rd Division with its regiments 12, 19, 83 and 106 slowly withdrew from the Piave to the northeast from October 30th. The IR 106, reinforced with a battalion of the IR 83, was sent ahead to secure a bridgehead over the Livenza , while the rest of the IR 83 and the IR 12 fought rearguard battles against parts of the Italian 58th Division that had landed on the north bank of the Piave. Both regiments subsequently succeeded in retreating to the Livenza bridgehead held by IR 106, where the following Italian forces stayed for two days, while the majority of the 33rd division continued to withdraw to the northeast.

The next line of resistance on the Tagliamento was first held by the IR 83, before the IR 19 was involved in fierce fighting against the advancing Italian associations. The Villa Giusti armistice was due to come into effect on November 4th at 3:00 p.m. An attack by Italian cavalry on the retreating columns of the 33rd Division collapsed on the morning of that day in the machine-gun fire of regiments 12 and 83. For the West Hungarian regiment, this would be the last combat action in its history. When the armistice came into force, the columns of the 33rd Division passed the town of Aiello del Friuli . The Italian army then made no further attempt to catch the withdrawing units and take them prisoner, so they reached the Austria-Hungary border south of Gorizia unmolested in the course of November 5th .

In the territory of the Habsburg monarchy, the effects of the political events of the last few days became apparent. Regiments 83 and 106 therefore dismissed their Czech officers and men in all friendship in order to make it easier for them to be transported back by rail. The remaining soldiers boarded transport trains in Logatec in the direction of Szombathely on November 12th . When the trains passed the Hungarian border at Nagykanizsa , the now German-Austrian Colonel Josef Turba handed over command of IR 83 to the highest ranked Hungarian officer, Captain Arpad Nagy.

Together with the IR 106, the IR 83 reached its former garrison town by November 14th, where they were received by the vice Spaniard, the mayor and a huge crowd. After the demobilization of the units, the soldiers were immediately released to their home villages. This ended the regiment's 36-year history in a relatively unspectacular way.

Regimental commanders

The following list shows the regimental commanders and the battalions they commanded:

Commanders of the 83rd Infantry Regiment
From To Rank commander Battalions
1883 1885 Franz Morocutti I., II., III., IV.
1885 1890 Bolla Kálmán I., II., III., IV.
1890 1895 Karl Przedák from Burgwall I., II., III., IV.
1895 1898 Colonel Franz Düringer von Langenwart I., II., III., IV.
1898 1903 Colonel Franz Kratky I., II., III., IV.
1904 1906 Colonel Ludwig Reitz I., II., III., IV.
1907 1910 Colonel Adolf Biedermann I., II., III., IV.
1911 1913 Colonel Artur Iwanski v. Ivanina I., II., III., IV.
1914 1914-Aug. Colonel Leopold Hofbauer I., II., III., IV.
1914-Sep. 1914-Sep. Lieutenant colonel Josef Knechtl I., II., III., IV.
1914-Oct. 1914-Nov. Colonel Sylvester Spiess I., II.
1914-Nov. 1914-Nov. major Heinrich Uffenheimer I., II.
1914-Dec. 1914-Dec. Captain Oskar Lehner I.
1914-Dec. 1914-Dec. Captain Wilhelm Gebhardt I.
1915-Jan. 1915-Mar. Colonel Kiszling I., II.
1915-Mar. 1915-Apr. Captain Konstantin Straic I., II., III.
1915-May 1915-Jul. Captain Desiderius Farkas I., II., III.
1915-Aug. 1915-Aug. Lieutenant colonel Berghammer I., II., III.
1915-Sep. 1915-Dec. Lieutenant colonel Ludwig Breuer I., II., III.
1915-Dec. 1916-Jun. Colonel Vinzenz Rosenmayr I., II., III., IV., MG-Btl.
1916-Jul. 1916-Sep. Lieutenant colonel Ludwig Breuer I., II., III., IV., MG-Btl.
1916-Oct. 1917-Mar. Colonel Vinzenz Rosenmayr I., II., III., IV., MG-Btl.
1917-Apr. 1918-Nov. Colonel Josef Turba I., II., III., (IV.), MG-Btl.

Awards

The following awards were given to soldiers of the IR 83. The ranking listed corresponds to the official ranking of awards in Austria-Hungary from 1917 .

Overview awards of the 83rd Infantry Regiment
Rank Award step Awards Owners known by name
10 Military Merit Cross II class 1 Colonel Josef Turba
12 Order of the Iron Crown II class 1 Captain Ferdinand Baur
14th Military Order of Maria Theresa Knight's cross 2 First Lieutenant Emil Poppr First
Lieutenant Karl Ungár
16 Leopold Order Knight's cross 5 Colonel Johannes Berghammer
Captain Ferdinand Baur
First Lieutenant Rudolf Magda
Colonel Vinzenz Rosenmayr
Colonel Josef Turba
19th Order of the Iron Crown III. class 27 Major Caesar van Aken
captain Marcel Aslan
Captain Ferdinand Baur
Colonel John Berghammer
Captain Josef Doromby
Lieutenant Josef Haala
Colonel Karl Hausmaninger
Colonel Alfred Heinlein
Colonel Leopold Hofbauer
Lieutenant John Klobucharich
Franz Krachler
Lieutenant Viktor Kramer
Colonel Anton Lehár
Captain Oskar Lehner
Lieutenant Josef Lorenz
Captain Geza Nagy
Captain Arpad Nagy
Hauptmann Eugen Perneczky
Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Pittrelch First
Lieutenant Emil Poppr
Colonel Vinzenz Rosenmayr
Colonel Sylvester Spiess
Colonel Josef Turba
Major Heinrich Uffenheimer
First Lieutenant Karl Ungar
Karl Wertheimer
First Lieutenant Anton Zechmeister
20th Franz Joseph Order Knight's cross 7th Captain Eduard Asboth
Colonel Wolfgang Hreglianovic's
Captain Franz Holler
Regimental Doctor Dr. Adolf Reich
Colonel Vinzenz Rosenmayr
Regimental Doctor Eduard Szokolik
Colonel Josef Turba
21st Military Merit Cross III. class 276
29 Military Merit Medal silver 348
30th Military Merit Medal bronze 773
31 Medal of Bravery gold 16 Corporal Benczik
Zugsführer Ludwig Czech
cadet Joseph Eckstein
Sergeant Josef Gerencser
Emanuel mill wheel
cadet Eugene Nádas
infantryman Josef Nemeth
Lieutenant Richard Peitz
Lieutenant Emil Poppr
Franz Sari
Lieutenant Zoltán Stiftar
Corporal Josef Varga
Ensign Eugen Weisz
infantryman Josef Weisz
infantryman Rochus Wigrincsics
Lieutenant August Wimmer
32 Merit Cross with Crown gold 123
35 Cross of Merit gold 42
36 Medal of Bravery Silver, 1st class 1086
37 Medal of Bravery Silver, 2nd class 5050
38 Medal of Bravery bronze 10161
39 Merit Cross with Crown silver 85
40 Cross of Merit silver 29
42 Cross of Merit iron 1475

Franz Joseph Order

  • Military Merit Cross II. Class with war decoration

  • Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order

  • Order of the Iron Crown III. Class with war decorations

  • Honorary gold medal for bravery (1866–1917)

  • Golden Cross of Merit with the crown on the red ribbon

  • Bronze medal for bravery

Regimental marches

The Feldjägerbataillon 2 as the first traditional successor to the IR 83 in the barracks in Pinkafeld
Unveiling of the memorial for the soldiers of the 83 and 106 regiments on July 1, 1934 in Pinkafeld
The unveiling of the monument took place with great sympathy from the population
Wreath-laying by the Jäger Battalion 19 at the 83 monument in Pinkafeld

83 regimental march

Various marches have been dedicated to the IR 83 in the course of its existence. Franz Josef Sykora (1856–1905) is the composer of the 83rd regimental march , while Anton Ambrož was responsible for the 83rd parade march .

The most famous march of the IR 83 is the 83 v. Schikofsky march by Gustav Feifer (alternative spellings: Anton Feifer or Anton Pfeifer or Gustav Pfeifer) (1876–1942), who was Kapellmeister with the regiment from 1910 to 1918.

Piave March

Franz Lehár composed the Piave March for the IR 106 commanded by his brother Anton Lehár on the occasion of the battle on the Piave .

Association tradition after 1918

Since many soldiers of the IR 83 came from villages that came to Austria in the course of the conquest of Burgenland, units of the federal army stationed in Burgenland also took over the tradition of the former Austro-Hungarian regiment.

The first traditional bearer functioned in the 1920s was the Feldjäger Battalion 2, which was stationed at the Neusiedl am See barracks at the time and was assigned the additional designation of the 83rd Infantry Regiment by the Army Ministry . The current traditional successor is the Güssing- based Jägerbataillon 19 , which, like the Feldjägerbataillon 2 before, chose both the 83er slogan Forward with fresh courage and July 6, 1917 as its traditional day.

In 1929 the foundation stone was laid for barracks in Pinkafeld and Oberwart , to which the Feldjäger Battalion 2 moved in 1932. The Pinkafelder barracks was renamed Turba barracks in the 2nd republic , the last commander of the IR 83, Colonel Josef Turba, acted as namesake.

In 1934 in Budapest József Doromby, a former officer of IR 83, published a book in Hungarian which, in addition to the history of the regiment, also contained numerous biographies of members of the regiment.

On June 19, 1930, the founding meeting of the comradeship association of the former kuk IR 83 in Pinkafeld took place in the Hotel Lehner in Pinkafeld . Colonel Josef Turba was the guest of honor. According to the adopted statutes, the main task of the comradeship association was to maintain the memory of the fallen comrades. The efforts of the association led to the erection of a memorial in the so-called Rehpark, which was inaugurated on July 1, 1934. The sculptor Hans Wolfgang Elischer, who was commissioned with the planning and a former member of the IR 83, had already received an order from Turba in July 1918 to erect a memorial in Fossalta Maggiore for the comrades who died on the Piave. The design known as the "Praying Striker" also served as the basis for the Pinkafelder version; a third '83 monument is located in Szombathely, which is also based on the original by Fossalta Maggiore.

The monument, which was destroyed in Pinkafeld in the course of the war in 1945, was rebuilt in 1959 by the municipality in the Rehpark following an initiative by Governor Johann Wagner , also a former member of the regiment. In mid-1996 it was relocated to the grounds of the Turba barracks, where it was inaugurated again on the traditional day of the 19 Jäger Battalion. When the armed forces sold the barracks in 2014 to move to the newly built Montecuccoli barracks in Güssing , there were considerations to move the monument to Güssing as well. However, at the request of the municipality of Pinkafeld and the new owner of the former barracks area, it remained at its location in Pinkafeld.

See also

literature

  • Series of publications Austria-Hungary's Last War 1914–1918
    • Czegka, Hoen, Kiszling, Meduna-Riedburg, Steinitz, Wisshaupt, Zöbl: Austria-Hungary's last war 1914–1918: From the outbreak of war to the outcome of the battle at Limanowa-Lapanów . Publishing house of the military science reports, Vienna 1931.
    • Brauner, Czegka, Diakow, Franek, Kiszling, Steinitz, Wisshaupt: Austria-Hungary's last war 1914–1918: The war year 1915 - Part one: From the end of the battle at Limanowa-Łapanów to the capture of Brest-Litowsk . Publishing house of the military science reports, Vienna 1931.
    • Brauner, Kiszling, Mühlhofer, Wisshaupt, Zöbl: Austria-Hungary's last war 1914–1918: The war year 1915 - Part two: From the capture of Brest-Litowsk to the turn of the year . Publishing house of the military science reports, Vienna 1932.
    • Czegka, Franek, Heydendorff, Kiszling, Klumpner, Wisshaupt, Zöbl: Austria-Hungary's last war 1914–1918: The war year 1917 . Publishing house of the military science reports, Vienna 1936.
  • József Doromby: A volt cs. és kir. 83-as és 106-os gyalogezredek története és emlékkönyve , Budapest 1934
  • Anton Freiherr von Lehár: Regiment 106 - A contribution to the history of the Kaiserl. and royal Infantry Regions No. 106 , Paul Kaltschmid Publishing House, Vienna
  • Hans H. Piff: From Pinkafö to Pinkafeld , Quagala - History workshop Pinkafeld, Pinkafeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-200-03374-0

Web links

Commons : Hungarian Infantry Regiment "Freiherr von Schikofsky" No. 83  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hubert Zeinar: History of the Austrian General Staff . Böhlau, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-205-77415-9 .
  2. ↑ Overview map of the supplementary district division 1894 , website www.mlorenz.at, accessed on March 5, 2018
  3. ↑ Military territorial and supplementary district division 1908 , website www.mlorenz.at, accessed on March 5, 2018
  4. ^ Karl Martin Werkmann : Otto von Habsburg: an unsolved European problem , p. 133, 1932; (Detail scan)
  5. ↑ a b Occupation of the 83rd Infantry Regiment, 1909 , website www.mlorenz.at, accessed on March 5, 2018
  6. ↑ a b Overview of the infantry units of the Austro-Hungarian Army , website www.mlorenz.at, accessed on March 5, 2018
  7. ^ Austrian Society for Fortress Research : Description of the Komorn Fortress , website www.kuk-fortification.net, accessed on March 5, 2018
  8. ↑ Austro-Hungarian general assigned to the Austrian Landwehr 1914 , www.austro-hungarian-army.co.uk website, accessed on March 5, 2018
  9. ↑ Portrait photo of Karl Freiherr von Schikofsky , website www.bildarchivaustria.at, accessed on March 5, 2018
  10. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn bo bp bq br bs bt bu bv bw bx by bz ca cb cc cd ce cf cg ch ci cj József Doromby: A volt cs. és kir. 83-as és 106-os gyalogezredek története és emlékkönyve . Budapest 1934.
  11. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq Czegka ao: Austria-Hungary last war 1914–1918: From the outbreak of war to the outcome of the battle at Limanowa-Lapanów . Publishing house of the military science reports, Vienna 1931.
  12. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Brauner ao: Austria-Hungary's last war 1914–1918: The war year 1915 - Part one: From the end of the battle at Limanowa-Łapanów to Capture of Brest-Litovsk . Publishing house of the military science reports, Vienna 1931.
  13. ↑ Mihaljević, Michael (1864–1925), Feldmarschalleutnant , website Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon , accessed on January 7, 2020
  14. ↑ a b c d e Brauner et al.: Austria-Hungary's last war 1914–1918: The war year 1915 - Part two: From the capture of Brest-Litovsk to the turn of the year . Publishing house of the military science reports, Vienna 1932.
  15. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Czegha et al: The war year 1917 . Publishing house of the military science reports, Vienna 1936.
  16. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Anton Freiherr von Lehár: Regiment 106 - A contribution to the history of the Kaiserl. and royal Infantry Regiment No. 106 . Verlag der Militärwissenschaftlichen Mitteilungen, Vienna.
  17. ↑ A cs. és kir. 83. gyalogezred - The Imperial and Royal Infantry Regiment 83 , website komaromkatonai.blogspot.co.at, accessed on March 29, 2018
  18. ^ Military Kapellmeister of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (until 1918) , website www.anzenberger.info, accessed on July 13, 2018
  19. ↑ Militärsmusikfreunde.at - Die Infanterie , website www.militaermusikfreunde.at, accessed on July 13, 2018
  20. ↑ 83 regimental march , website www.youtube.com, accessed on July 13, 2018
  21. ↑ Jägerbataillon 19 , website www.bundesheer.at, accessed on July 13, 2018
  22. ↑ Composer Gustav Feifer , website de.musicainfo.net, accessed on July 13, 2018
  23. ^ Wiener Konzertverein: Piave Marsch , website www.youtube.com, accessed on July 13, 2018
  24. ↑ a b Protocol 1 of the Comradeship Association of the former kuk IR 83 in Pinkafeld, June 19, 1930, Collection of the Pinkafeld City, Cloth Makers and Fire Brigade System
  25. ↑ a b c Hans H. Piff: From Pinkafö to Pinkafeld . Quagala, Pinkafeld History Workshop, Pinkafeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-200-03374-0 , p. 260 .
  26. ^ Pinkafeld: Barracks advertised for sale , website www.bvz.at, accessed on December 22, 2017
  27. ↑ tattoo of the armed forces at the monument of the IR 83/106 in the former Turbakaserne in Pinkafeld , website www.meinbezirk.at, accessed on 22 December 2017