Austria-Hungary Austro Hungarian Soldier?

[Brian Wolfe]

Hello Everyone,

I may be in the wrong area with this post card as it is not German but it is WWI and, if the identification of the soldier is correct, they were both on the same side so I posted it here.

As time goes by and the prices of medals goes up I have been drawn more and more to the post cards and photographs of the people involved in the wars, both the First and Second World Wars but I like WW I the best. At around $6.00 to $10.00 each they are a lot cheaper to collect than the associated medals.

I've noticed that the British and Canadian postcards feature soldiers who seem very tense before the camera while the German soldiers seem a lot more relaxed. Perhaps I'm dreaming but that is the way it seems to me.

The postcard I'm posting here is of a very relaxed subject. It looks like they had to get him a chair just to keep him awake! I was told by the seller that this is a soldier of the Austro Hungarian Army. Would the members agree or was the dealer incorrect?

Your opinions, as always, are most appreciated.

Cheers

Brian

[Guest Rick Research]

Yes. He is a Hauptmann: three rank stars & officers' uniform (no straps, leather footwear, "kepi" shape). If you could read "FJI" or "K" on his cap cockade, that would tell you pre- or post-1916, since he is not wearing any awards here. Looks like a WW1 era uniform to me.

I'll move this to the Austrian section.

You must just be getting an accidental survey. I've got a lot of 40-year-old looking teenagers etc in my accumulations of photos. The most happy looking are the ones from 1919

"I made it! I'm alive! It's over!"

20 year old Honved Leutnant Balkanyi at a training course for replacement machine gunners in Slovakia in 1918 has got the 1,000 Yard Stare. Three valor awards already with his Troop Cross, and he's going back to the front again with the new enlisted men....

He did survive THAT war, but I don't know what happened to him afterwards. He was the baby brother of a Jewish doctor who survived both wars (he was the fascist Hungarian regime's War Minister's wife's obstetrician) whose family (Dr's wife was an "enemy alien Serb" due to the way Yugoslavia was partitioned in 1941) survived both wars and ended up in Canada.

[Brian Wolfe]

Hi Rick,

Many thanks for the identification.

Your photo says a lot regarding the stress of war, I have one of a Canadian soldier just a few weeks before he was killed in action. Compairing the photo taken just after enlistment with his last one is like night and day.

Cheers

Brian

Edited September 18, 2007 by Brian Wolfe