THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN ARMY: In the First World War

1-203750

Two volumes, bound in linen with a protective cover, in a slipcase that total 864 pages with more than 2500 color and contemporary black and white photographs, and other illustrations.

Volume 1 concentrates on the Army caught in the field of tension created by the dualism of 1867 to 1914 and the development of their field uniforms before 1914. Chapters detail the pike grey field uniforms introduced for the Landwehr in 1907 and for the joint Army and the Landwehr in 1908 and the peculiarities of the cavalry, still dressed in their colorful uniforms at the beginning of the war.

Following chapters cover the field grey uniforms of 1915 in their various forms, wartime economy at a time when materials were becoming increasingly scarce, rank insignia, and unit badges. Photographs of the original official samples for many items of uniform are also included.

Volume 2 deals with the personal items of equipment carried by the soldiers and the uniforms of special formations such as the motorized and aviation troops, tropical uniforms, field pastors, military bands, medical personnel, and voluntary formations and legions. Belts, haversacks, canteens, knapsacks, and gasmasks are all illustrated and described in detail.

Photographs of the clothes worn by prisoners of war and the uniforms of the Volkswehr at the turn of 1919 are published here for the first time, completing this portrayal of the uniforms of the old Austro-Hungarian Army.

One whole section is devoted to the Heir Apparent, Franz Ferdinand, and his assassination in Sarajevo. Eyewitness accounts describe the dramatic sequence of events on 28 June 1914. The uniform that Franz Ferdinand was wearing on the fateful day, which has been displayed in a glass case at the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna since 1914, has been carefully photographed for this book, bearing witness to the tragic event that plunged the world into war in 1914.