Help Identifying Uniform Please

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ariedl
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Help Identifying Uniform Please

#1

Post by ariedl » 24 Jan 2015, 16:15

I am trying to find out more about my grandfather's service during WW1, but I am having difficulty getting started. Here's what I know:
Name: Adalbert Riedl
Birthdate: 28 JUL 1898
Location: Oberpetersdorf, Austria

What little I know from family history is that he served in the Austrian-Hungarian army, most likely in an artillery unit, in the Italian Alps. That's it, unfortunately. I have several pictures of him in uniform, some with groups of soldiers, but I'm not having any luck identifying them. I'll post them below in the hopes that someone can help me out.

Thanks for any information or suggestion of where else I can go to search--
Alec
riedl_adalbert1.jpg
riedl_adalbert2.jpg
riedl_adalbert6.jpg
riedl_adalbert7.jpg
riedl_adalbert8.jpg

ariedl
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Re: Help Identifying Uniform Please

#2

Post by ariedl » 24 Jan 2015, 16:26

Sorry, couldn't fit the group pictures in! I can post enlargements of anything that might be helpful.

Thanks again!
riedl_adalbert3.jpg
riedl_adalbert4.jpg
riedl_adalbert5.jpg


GregSingh
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Re: Help Identifying Uniform Please

#3

Post by GregSingh » 25 Jan 2015, 14:12

Location: Oberpetersdorf, Austria
That's what it is called today. According to his Hungarian ID document, he was born in Felsö Péterfa, Sopron county.
His rank was hadnagy (Leutnant). Hungarian coat of arms is visible on one photo.

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IanE
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Re: Help Identifying Uniform Please

#4

Post by IanE » 26 Jan 2015, 01:13

The badge on the uniform (photo No. 3) appears to be for Honved Infantry Regiment 18.
There is a Hadnagok Janos Reigl (not Adalbert Riedl) listed in the 1918 Honved rank list, could this be your grandfather?

ariedl
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Re: Help Identifying Uniform Please

#5

Post by ariedl » 26 Jan 2015, 04:42

GregSingh wrote:
Location: Oberpetersdorf, Austria
That's what it is called today. According to his Hungarian ID document, he was born in Felsö Péterfa, Sopron county.
His rank was hadnagy (Leutnant). Hungarian coat of arms is visible on one photo.
Greg, thanks for pointing that out! I wasn't sure what the document was, and hoped it related to his military service. I just looked at a couple of pages I didn't post, however, and it just looks like tallies from 1920. Probably not much help, so I'm glad you were able to see that his rank was hadnagy!

ariedl
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Re: Help Identifying Uniform Please

#6

Post by ariedl » 26 Jan 2015, 04:47

kaisertreu wrote:The badge on the uniform (photo No. 3) appears to be for Honved Infantry Regiment 18.
There is a Hadnagok Janos Reigl (not Adalbert Riedl) listed in the 1918 Honved rank list, could this be your grandfather?
Thanks for the reply! I don't see how my grandfather could be listed as Janos Reigl, but you never know. All of the documents I have for him say either Adalbert or Bela Riedl. To which badge are you referring? Is it in the picture of him holding a sword? I might be able to post a larger picture that might clarify.

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Glenn2438
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Re: Help Identifying Uniform Please

#7

Post by Glenn2438 » 26 Jan 2015, 10:34

There is a Leutnant in der Reserve (1.12.17) Adalbert Riedl listed in k.u.k. Infanterieregiment Nr. 87 in the 1918 k.u.k. Army List. However, as noted above he does appear in the photograph to be a k.u. Honvéd officer.

Regards
Glenn

ariedl
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Re: Help Identifying Uniform Please

#8

Post by ariedl » 27 Jan 2015, 00:06

ariedl wrote: I wasn't sure what the document was, and hoped it related to his military service. I just looked at a couple of pages I didn't post, however, and it just looks like tallies from 1920. Probably not much help...
Since I don't know a word of Hungarian, I shouldn't act like I know whether the document is helpful or not. So just in case it is, here's the rest of it. There are some pages missing, but this is the condition it was in when I was able to scan it.

Thanks!
riedl_adalbert2b.jpg
riedl_adalbert2c.jpg
riedl_adalbert2d.jpg
riedl_adalbert2e.jpg

GregSingh
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Re: Help Identifying Uniform Please

#9

Post by GregSingh » 27 Jan 2015, 03:04

Thanks for posting these pages.
It's a salary book issued by Economic office of Sopron Infantry Regiment, II battalion.
On page 13 we have May 1920, on page 17 - June 1920.

It's quite possible he stayed in the same unit after Austro-Hungarian empire collapse in 1918, so it may confirm kaisertreu information, that before 1918 he was in Honved Infantry Regiment 18, which was also from Sopron.

ariedl
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Re: Help Identifying Uniform Please

#10

Post by ariedl » 28 Jan 2015, 01:05

GregSingh wrote:Thanks for posting these pages.
It's a salary book issued by Economic office of Sopron Infantry Regiment, II battalion.
On page 13 we have May 1920, on page 17 - June 1920.

It's quite possible he stayed in the same unit after Austro-Hungarian empire collapse in 1918, so it may confirm kaisertreu information, that before 1918 he was in Honved Infantry Regiment 18, which was also from Sopron.
Greg--
Thanks for the information! I had no idea that he might have remained in service after the war, so that's very interesting to learn. I would greatly appreciate it if you'd be kind enough to take a look at the only other document I have relating to my grandfather's service. Would you be able to tell me if it contains any useful information? I can see several place names: Kiew, Schwarzenbach (Niederösterreich), Osterberg, but can't make any sense of the references.

Thanks again!
riedl_offenerbefehl.jpg
riedl_offenerbefehl_back.jpg

GregSingh
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Re: Help Identifying Uniform Please

#11

Post by GregSingh » 28 Jan 2015, 04:27

It's a permission for travel document for Fähnrich in der Reserve Adalbert Riedl issued by Feldpost 618 on the 14th of November 1918 with the expiry date of 30th November, destination Schwarzenbach (Niederösterreich).
It's actually near his birthplace - Oberpetersdorf.

He arrived in Kiew on the 17th of November, was given 700 Korun and sent to the destination by Bialystok and Oderberg.

So looks like he participated in the Ukrainian offensive of early 1918 and after war ended, was sent home.

ariedl
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Re: Help Identifying Uniform Please

#12

Post by ariedl » 28 Jan 2015, 17:25

GregSingh wrote:It's a permission for travel document for Fähnrich in der Reserve Adalbert Riedl issued by Feldpost 618 on the 14th of November 1918 with the expiry date of 30th November, destination Schwarzenbach (Niederösterreich).
It's actually near his birthplace - Oberpetersdorf.

He arrived in Kiew on the 17th of November, was given 700 Korun and sent to the destination by Bialystok and Oderberg.

So looks like he participated in the Ukrainian offensive of early 1918 and after war ended, was sent home.
Greg--
Thanks so much for your help! I guess our "family history" of him serving the Italian Alps was a little off. I apologize that I don't know how to research this myself, but this is a whole new (strange) world to me. It was easy to find information on my Scottish grandfather who also served during WW1, but at least I could understand the language!

Thanks again!

ariedl
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Re: Help Identifying Uniform Please

#13

Post by ariedl » 28 Jan 2015, 17:34

Glenn2438 wrote:There is a Leutnant in der Reserve (1.12.17) Adalbert Riedl listed in k.u.k. Infanterieregiment Nr. 87 in the 1918 k.u.k. Army List. However, as noted above he does appear in the photograph to be a k.u. Honvéd officer.

Regards
Glenn
Glenn--
Thank you for posting this information. Is the k. u. k. Army List available to search online? I contacted the Kriegsarchiv several years ago to see if they could find any information on him, but there was some confusion on their end as to which Adalbert Riedl they were researching (his eldest son was also named Adalbert and served during WW2), and I never heard back from them. Perhaps I'll have better luck if I get in touch with them now.

Thanks again!

GregSingh
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Re: Help Identifying Uniform Please

#14

Post by GregSingh » 29 Jan 2015, 01:33

One more interesting fact from that travel document:
Stamp is of K.u.K. Divisions Ausbildungs Gruppe Nr.15, which was division's training group for 15th Infantry Division. So at some point he was moved from Honved to K.u.K. unit.
In Ukraine 15 ID was in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipropetrovsk) area in October/November 1918.

I am not exactly sure how military post worked, but I've seen a postcard from late 1917 cancelled with Feldpost 618 stamp which had K.u.K. Infanterie Regiment Nr.66 writing on it. IR 66 was part of 15 ID in 1917 (on Romanian front), as in 1918 in Ukraine.
Perhaps another clue for you!

ariedl
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Re: Help Identifying Uniform Please

#15

Post by ariedl » 30 Jan 2015, 04:29

GregSingh wrote:One more interesting fact from that travel document:
Stamp is of K.u.K. Divisions Ausbildungs Gruppe Nr.15, which was division's training group for 15th Infantry Division. So at some point he was moved from Honved to K.u.K. unit.
In Ukraine 15 ID was in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipropetrovsk) area in October/November 1918.

I am not exactly sure how military post worked, but I've seen a postcard from late 1917 cancelled with Feldpost 618 stamp which had K.u.K. Infanterie Regiment Nr.66 writing on it. IR 66 was part of 15 ID in 1917 (on Romanian front), as in 1918 in Ukraine.
Perhaps another clue for you!
Thanks so much for pointing that out! I definitely have a lot more to go on now. My next step may be to reconnect with the Kriegsarchiv in Vienna to see if they can find any records. I also let my aunt know what I've learned so far from the kind people who have posted on this thread, to see if she knows anything about this new information. She let me scan these pictures and documents several years ago, and was also the person who told me he served in Italy. So hopefully we can get to the bottom of when and where he served!

Thanks again--
Alec

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