Athens Find

[Gary Cain]

I found this in the Plaka in Athens about 4 years ago. I can think of one reason it would be there can anyone come up with others? My idea is the father served in the regiment during WWI and gave it to his son for WWII and the son was lost during the Crete operation.

Cheers
Gary

[Chip M]

Gary,
Excellent case. Is the Austrian unit flag enameled? It looks like the Edelweiss is painted? Do you know what level unit the flag represents?

Chip

[kaisertreu]

Chip,
The flag (pennant) represents an Infantry Troop Division, in this case the 8th. The Austro-Hungarians also used flags to represent Korps commands and slightly different triangular pennants to represent Brigades.

I have seen discs used to identify Train Divisions and there are probably more that I don't know about
Cheers,
Ian

[Gary Cain]

Both the flag and the Edelweiss are enamelled.


Gary

Chip,
The flag (pennant) represents an Infantry Troop Division, in this case the 8th. The Austro-Hungarians also used flags to represent Korps commands and slightly different triangular pennants to represent Brigades.

I have seen discs used to identify Train Divisions and there are probably more that I don't know about
Cheers,
Ian

[haynau]

I found this in the Plaka in Athens about 4 years ago. I can think of one reason it would be there can anyone come up with others? My idea is the father served in the regiment during WWI and gave it to his son for WWII and the son was lost during the Crete operation.

Cheers
Gary

Hi Gary, greetings from vienna. I think your cigarettecase was maybe some kind of kriegsbeute from WWI.
In September 1918 there was the socalled breakthrough against the salonikifront. allied and greek forces overran german, austrian and bulgarian forces shortly before the end of WWI.
Maybe this cigarette case was taken from an austrian-hungarian officer who became prisoner of war.

regards
haynau

[Chip M]

Austrian Unit Level Flags

Gary,

Here are a couple of Austrian cap badges with a similar unit pennant/flag motif. I assume that the first is the 43.Landwehr Division and I have never been able to completely understand the second. It might be the Salonika Kommando, 10.Armee Korps?



Chip

[kaisertreu]

Chip,
I hope the following information might clear up the issue foir you with the
'SOL KOM 10 AK'
SOL KOM is 'solobritats kommission' they supplied and tested the (fresh) water. 10 Corp 4th General Command Lemberg ( 1 July 1917). A 'general Command' meant that it was for internal security and not operational.

Cheers,
Ian

[Chip M]

Ian,

Thanks for the info. I have had this piece for many years and had no idea what it was for. The design must have some meaning. I have not seen it anywhere else. Why is the abbreviation "SAL." if it is "solobritats"? I've seen a lot of Austro-Hungarian tinnies and never seen another like this one. Have you seen it before?

Chip

[kaisertreu]

Chip,
I have seen about 3-4 examples of this badge (various conditions). One I have seen has a yellow background with a blue cross and I was told by a collector in Slovenia that this indicated service in the Ukrain; however the jury is still out on this matter.
No idea on why they chose to use SAL instead of perhaps SOL, but I am sure you have seen several A-H badges that don't quite display what they are meant to represent. Confusing to say the least, but this is what makes this hobby interesting:-)
Regards,
Ian