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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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Austro-Hungarian Kaiser Karl, visiting the front

Karl was a well known visitor to the front like many others from the royal family. There are many photo’s of him visiting the front. Especially from the period before he became the Austro-Hungarian Kaiser so up to 1916.

These few all come from one album of an officer in the 306th Honvéd Infantry Regiment (Honvéd Gyalóg Ézred)

And below my favorite of this small series. Karl needs a table for his map so he uses a decorated Huszar officer for this….

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Austro-Hungarian Machinegun Detachments

Although Machine Guns were not new in the beginning of WW1 they were still quite rare in the Austro-Hungarian army with only 2.700 pieces in the entire army.

During the war the importance of the machinegun became clear and many new machineguns were produced and deliverd to the infantry but also to cavalry units (that often became dismounted) during the war and of course the mountain troops. By the end of the war more than 40.500 machineguns would be in use!

Badges of the Machinegun Units

Machine gun units could be recognized by the specific collar badge as can be seen above (left and right). It depicts a three headed dragon spraying fire in all directions. The specific cap badge for machine gun units can be seen in the middle between the rank stars.

Badges as mounted on a photo album by the original owner.
The official announcement for the above badges

There was a proficiency badge for machinegun markmanship. The badge also with the dragon. It could be worn on the right breast above the pocket.

Below pictures of the actual badges on the photo album being worn by the original owner who was part of the Machinegun Company II of KuK IR 51.

Below examples of Machinegun collar badges being worn on different uniforms of men of several different units!

The back from the postcard above right, also part of Honvéd Huszar unit!

Cavalry: KuK Dragoons and Honved Hussars

The cavalry units that became dismounted during the war and most often acted as regular infantry. They also had machinegun detachments in their regiments. The collar badge was the same as can be seen with the Huszar in the photo above. But the clothing could be different, specifically the jackets had some different versions.

Honved Cavalry Machinegun detachments Field Grey Fur Jacket being worn in the photo above and next to it a photo from the book The Emperor’s Coat describing this type of coat.

Dragoon officer of a Machinegun detachment with the regular Dragoon’s fur coat with white lambskin and not the black version.

Cavalry Machine Gun unit with a nice variation of all of the coats shown and discussed above! Both the Honvéd and the regular KuK cavalry versions

Photo probably of Husaren Regiment 14, HR14 based on the Kappenabzeichen of the officer in the middle (recognized by Hermann Attila)

KUK IR 48 – Machinegun Instruction detachment

And a document from my collection the Belobende Anerkennung (Bronze Signum Laudis medal equivalent) or honorable acknowledgment for the Commander of a Machinegun Instruction unit of KuK Infantry Regiment 48. He received the document upon his leave of this command.

Machineguns in the field. All period pictures and the paperwork are part of my collection.

Source: The Emperor’s Coat by Dr. Ortner