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Austro-Hungarian Mountain Artillery

This small grouping to one man, KuK mountain artillery. Gebirgs-Artillerieabteilung Nr 206, Batterie 1.

The papers are for his bronze bravery medal and his Karl Troop cross.

His leave paper from 1919 and based on the last paper in this group he also came into action during the Hungarian 1941 Erdély campaign as part of the artillery.

Including pictures of a ski trip on the well known Bosnian Bjelasnica mountain.

Up to the observatory. This mountain was an important strategic location and even was used in the last Bosnian war 1992-’95. At the top there is still an observatory today.

The postcard came with the group. It always nice to have a known reference point to a group of pictures!

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Austro-Hungarian Bandmaster

With the help of several researchers and the Facebook group “The Austro-Hungarian Army in the great War” these photo’s now have a name attached!

Regiments Tambour (sergeant)
And the back of the card where the IR number unfortunately cannot be read.
Regimentstambour (Sergeant bandmaster) of a KuK Infantry Regiment with bronze bravery medal and iron merit cross with crown, photo from 1918. The same as in the group photo above, left side.

The stamp on the back reads Feldpost Nr. 109. This means ID17 which consisted of IR39, IR43, IR46 and IR61 . In february of 1916 this division was on the Italian front, Doberdo plateau, south of Mt. San Michele, somwhere around Devetachi.

Photo taken from facebook

Another contributer researched the name and came up with the person likely to be this sergeant. The card is signed Simon and send to a Doszai in Szabadka. The combination of Simon Dozsai and Szbabadka leads to this information

Shotwound in the back

The announcement of being wounded in combat for a Sergeant of IR 46 (part of ID 17 which is linked to Feldpost 109 on the card. The sergeant is part of the staff of the regiment (which is logical for a bandmaster) but aslo saw action and was wounded twice (he appears on another date also as wounded) and even received a bravery medal!

And shot in the shoulder, also in 1915

Many thanks to Kajon Árpád and Tóth Marcell for their help in researching and identifying the man in these photo’s!

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Hungary WW2 – Air Defense Artillery group

This is the entire paper group to Artillery (Air Defense) captain Karleusa Iván (with the noble nemes prefix and from borynia as second prefix). Up to 1944 the activities of these forces were limited and for the 1944/45 period when they were very active few records survived and it was not the time anymore for new awards. Below his overview from the 1944 rank list as a captain.

Commisioned in 1933 he turned out to be the best student of the Ludovika Academy of his final year 1932. Below a picture of the silver cup with his name.

Picture from internet source.

He was awarded only 2 medals for his participation in two of the three annexations Hungary was active in between 1938 en 1941, the action in 1938 for Transylvania and the 1940 action for Southern Hungary.

Both documents are not the standard award document (igazolvany) version but commendations for his participation on top of the award of the 2 medals. The commendations are a distinct level below the actual award of a Signum Laudis (merit) medal. The first is the more or less standard paper for these and the second is one specifically made for the Air Defense so both relatively rare documents in this form.

Also he received 3 other commendations not linked to specific actions as the ones above. None of these resulted in the award of actual medals.

So a nice but not so important paper group. What makes it interesting?

The signatures are more or less a who is who from the Hungarian military in th 1930s to early 1940s. With thanks to Péter for the help with the signatures. In order of appearance in the pictures above (and the names in Hungarian order, family name first and then given name):

General of the Infantry (3 star equivalent), Sónyi Hugó (gyalogsági tábornok) Commander in Chief of the Hungarian Army 1936-1940.

General (3 stars) Justy Emil (vézerezredes) – commander of the Air Defense.

General (3 stars) Ternegg Kálmán (vezérezredes)

General Ternegg with signature (photo from Facebook, not my collection).

General (2 stars) Jány Gusztáv (altábornagy) – commander of the Hungarian 2nd army on the Don, winner of the German Knights cross. For WW2 one of the most important operational Generals.

General Jány, photo from internet

General (3 stars) Farkas Ferenc (vézerezredes), commander of the 6th army in 1944

General Farkas, photo from internet
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Austro-Hungarian War Cross for Civil Merit to German Police Commisioner Theodor Dix, Leipzig

The name of this decoration tells exactly what it is, a cross for civilians that showed merit during war time assisting the Austro-Hungarian empire. The cross existed in four classes and could be awarded both to foreigners and citizens.

The third class was in silver, 2nd class gilded and 4th class bronze. The document are related to the 3rd class so a silver one as pictured above (photo from internet).

Letter that accompanied the actual award document

The documents in this blog are made out to a German police commisioner (Polizeirat) from Leipzig named Theodor Dix. And as it often happens with researching civilians that is where it more or less stops…

With the development of online research possibilities more and more sources are available. So maybe in the future I hope to extend this short blog.

So far only this showed up:

It states that Dix held a presentation for a society regarding “Use and succes of our Medical dogs on the battlefields. So my working hypothesis is that he was in his role of police commisioner involved in these sanitary dogs that were used by many armies at that time including the German and Austro-Hungarian forces. Photo’s below from the internet, not my collection.

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MWO4 – Marine H. Jansma Atjeh 1874

This is the original paybook of the Dutch Marine (naval infanterist) H. Jansma (1854-1931) who was awarded the Military order of William 4th class and the Honorable Mention (Mention in Despatches) for his actions during the 2nd Atjeh war.

Jansma as a civillian in the 1920s

His blue paybook is covered in leather (pigskin) with his name on both sides.

In the paybook all his decorations are noted as well the Honorable Mention two times! First the actual MiD is mentioned and later the award of the crown device or in Dutch kroon is mentioned as such. These crowns were only introduced in 1878 and the MiD was already awarded in 1876 so before the actual device. The crowns were retrospectively awarded/added!

Here the citation of his award:

“On November 7th, as part of the Marine landing division in Atjeh, participated in battles distincting himself and especially excellent in the taking of the reinforced village of Lemboe by, together with two of his comrades being the first to penetrate the main stronghold on the Northwestern side.”

This type of citation, first over the wall, first entering a dangerous place etc. were typical of 19th century awards of the Military order of William.

Somehow I have only seen very few of such early “paybooks” with important gallantry decorations. They appear neither in private collections nor musea. The actual award documents are seen more often.

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Hungary – porcelain parachutist statue

The Hungarian para’s were a small elite group about whom only little has been written in English but most information can be found in this nice blog.

Photo from my own collection, see this blog for more details

They existed as a unit from 1938 up to 1944 at which moment theyre remaining men became integrated in the Saint László Division in which they fought untill the end of the war.

Recently I was able to acquire a porcelain statue that depicts a WW2 period para. Possibly it was made as a promotion item for the Hungarian Parachute manufacturer in Debrecen. It supposedly was made by the Hollohaza porcelain company but has not visible markings and also the exact period of production is unknown.

Photo from http://www.repulomuzeum.hu/
Photo from https://mult-kor.hu/az-orszag-elso-katonaja-feltarul-a-magyar-katonai-ejtoernyozes-szazeves-trtenelme-20180815

It turns out a variation of this statue also exists which was fully coloured! It is not exactly the same statue but very close, maybe a different porcelain producer? Several details show it was not based on the same mold.

And now I am waiting to see how long it takes for my wife to find out her porcelain cabinet has been invaded by a para…

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Thilly Weissenborn of photo studio ,,Lux”, Java

Thilly Weissenborn (1889-1964) became known as the first female professional photographer of the colonial Dutch East Indies, She photographed mainly in Western-Java (Garoet) working for and later owning Photo Studio ,,Lux”.

Original period (1917-1941) prints made by her are getting hard to find and are very collectable. In my collection I have an album with several of her photo’s. Some with the trademark of Lux and some unmarked but known photo’s by her.

This photo is titled “tea picker from Sundan (Indonesian Island) as she looks in real life” contrasting some other work Weissenborn made that was more “promotional” for the tea industry.

It seems to be an album of a mother and daughter covering a world trip in the 1920s visiting many countries including the East Indies. The album starts in the UK, going to Shanghai, Japan and Indonesia but ending again in Europe (Germany). Photo’s like these were bought and added to the privately made pictures. There are many professional pictures from Indonesia from which only some are confirmed by Lux.

  • Japan
  • Japan
  • Indonesia

Two pictures in Japan with the same mother and daughter combination and a photo of a large group in Indonesia, none of these by Lux of course.

Photo by Lux of unknown location
The Western Javanese Garoet plains from the “Ngamplang” sanatorium/hotel by Lux

All pictures from my own collection. Several original Lux pictures from the album went to a friend. The album had several loose pictures and many empty pages were the photo’s were already removed before the album came into my collection.

Source: Vastgelegd voor later, Indische foto’s van Thilly Weissenborn – Verzameld door Ernst Drissen, 1983

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Hungary – unknown sergeant, bronze by Turáni, 1938

As the title states this plaque is of a, so far unknown, sergeant of the Hungarian army. It has a diameter of almost 33cm and weighs 5kg! Any help with establishing who the sergeant is would be most welcome!!!

The artist who designed it is Turáni Kovács Imre who was born in 1910 and died in 1975. More details about his career you can find here.

The foundry that produced the plaque is also given on the bronze!

The front seems to have some old damage that was there when the plaque was repatinated or gilded at the outside again. This also seems to have been done a long time ago. My guess this plaque was placed at a house but where and why is unknown.

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Austro-Hungarian – autograph of Erzherzog Joseph

A full bio can be found here – it is in German though! He was an important member of the Hungarian branch of the Austro-Hungarian royal family of Habsburg -Lotharingen.

Born in 1872 in Hungary he had a military career spanning form lieutenant in 1890 up to full Field Marshall and the royal representative for Hungary in 1918.

The collecting of autographs is not a new trend but already existed in the late 19th and early 20th century and even before. This autograph was send to a Austrian collector, Fritz Wölfler, of autographs of public people of the Austro-Hungarian empire in the early 20th century. The collection was sold by a dealer in 2007 on Ebay in Austria.

In 1916 he was General of the Cavalary, in 1918 shortly before the end of WW1 he was promoted to Feldmarshall. The last of the Austro-Hungarian empire!

FH Joseph GdK (föherceg Joseph General der Kavelerie)

Recently I added also a photo and letter with his signature to my collection! Both signed as Fieldmarshall (fm) the letter is from 1953 and the photo from 1938, his last picture in the uniform of a Field Marshall by the Hungarian photo studio Rozgonyi

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German Hussar – Painting by Hoynck van Papendrecht

This is another work of the famous Dutch artist Jan Hoynck van Papendrecht who specialized in military subject. His full biography you can read here. And I have more extensive story about another watercolour by him in an earlier blog

This specific watercolour depicts a German Hussar (light cavalry) of the Brandenburger Husaren Regiment Nr. 3 – Husaren Regiment Von Zieten (Brandenburgisches) Nr. 3 and has the typical refinement of HvP.

It is dated 1901 in which period he made trip to Germany to study their uniforms and make paintings. There are several more of similar paintings from the same period that can be found here