The Imperial-Royal Mountain Troops (
German: Kaiserlich-königliche Gebirgstruppe) were founded in 1906 as part of the
Austrian Landwehr, the territorial army of the
Cisleithanian half of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a result, the abbreviation "k.k." (for kaiserlich österreichisch, königlich böhmisch or "Imperial Austrian, Royal Bohemian") was used and not "k.u.k." ("Imperial and Royal") which would have implied a connexion with the Hungarian half of the Empire.
Proposed in a memorandum by
Conrad von Hötzendorf, in February 1906 the
War Ministry in
Vienna convened a session on Alpine border security.
Field Marshal Tunk, agreed with him and put forward a concept, the fundamentals of which were then carried out.
The existing
state rifle regiments were to be trained as mountain troops and, together with the Landsturmborder patrol companies and
gendarmerie departments were to form the backbone of a territorial defence force with local knowledge on the border of
Tyrol.
Formation and deployment on 1 Aug 1914
On 1 May 1906 the two state rifle regiments with their HQs stationed in
Bozen and
Trient (now
Bolzano and
Trento, both in Italy) and the 4th Landwehr Infantry (Klagenfurt) were nominated as "high mountain troops" (Hochgebirgstruppe) and, in 1909, a third state rifle regiment, with its HQ stationed in
Candido, was added. In 1911, the fifth regiment followed: the 27th Imperial-Royal Landwehr Infantry (Laibach).[1]
The area of the
Carnic ridge in
Carinthia and the
Julian Alps was assigned to the 4th
Landwehr Infantry (
Klagenfurt) and the 27th Landwehr Infantry (
Ljubljana). These two, hitherto standard infantry regiments were given the new uniform of the mountain troops. From 11 April 1917 they bore the names 1st and 2nd Mountain Rifles.
The regiments began with high alpine training and moved into so-called summer stations in mountain inns,
Alpine Club huts and tented camps, where they carried out intense training. The winter stations were naturally located in the valleys, but this did prevent there being a comprehensive programme of winter exercises, alpine skiing course and skiing training in the mountains.
Dress and equipment
In 1907, the
gamecock spray of white and black feathers that had been worn on the cap until 1887 by the state rifles was re-introduced.
Together with the
edelweiss on the collar, it formed the badge of the Imperial-Royal Mountain Troops. Otherwise the
uniform was the same as that of the Jäger infantry. What was new was the pike gray mountain
dress: mountain boots, mountain socks, britches, heavy jacket, cap, coat,
cape. Officers continued to wear their previous Landwehr uniform as individual (i.e. not in squads) on parade.
Battalions and
companies were given
pack animals. The rifle was replaced by the (shorter) 8mm
Mannlicher M 95carbine. They were issued with additional equipment adapted to the requirements of mountain warfare; including skis, ropes, crampons and
ice axes. Regiments were reinforced by a mountain machine gun section of four
machine guns which, to improve mobility, could be carried by pack animals or in manportable packs at the highest altitudes. The same applied to the take-apart
mountain guns. Portable field stoves (Schwarmöfen) and heated tents assisted troops to operate in inhospitable conditions.
When skiing the two-stick approach had replaced the single-stick method. The Bilgeri binding was a touring binding that could be used with the normal hiking boot.
Extract from the pamphlet "Mountain Warfare in Winter" (Gebirgskrieg im Winter)
Produced by the k.u.k. State Defence Command in Tyrol o.J.
Alpine equipment as follows:
A. General mountain equipment which is allocated to every soldier in combat units; it comprises:
1 rucksack with 2 breast pockets
1 climbing stick
1 pair of snow shoes (Schneereifen)
1 pair of snow glasses
1 pair of four-toothed crampons
B. Equipment of the high Alpine sections: the above equipment and, in addition:
The rank stars and the edelweiss badge of the officers were made of metal thread. The stars of the other ranks were made of celluloid, the edelweiss of metal. From 1914, cadets and Staffsoberjäger wore stars of white silk.
Carl von Bardolff: Soldat im alten Österreich. Diederichs Verlag, Jena 1938.
Stefan Rest, Christian Ortner, Thomas Ilming: Des Kaisers Rock im 1. Weltkrieg. Verlag Militaria, Vienna, 2002,
ISBN3950164200.
Michael Wachtler and Günther Obwegs: Krieg in den Bergen - Dolomiten. Athesia Bozen, 2003.
von Lempruch: Ortlerkämpfe 1915 - 1918. Buchdienst Südtirol, 2005.
Herman Hinterstoisser, M.Christian Ortner, Erwin A. Schmidl Die k.k. Landwehr-Gebirgstruppen. Vienna, 2006,
ISBN3-902526-02-5.
Literature
Hubert Fankhauser: Freiwillige an Kärntens Grenzen. Die Regimentsgeschichte der K. K. Kärntner freiwilligen Schützen 1915 bis 1918th Vehling Verlag.
ISBN978-3-85333-150-7