AH troops on Western Front in 1918

[Joda]

Good evening,
I'd like to have your help about this question: were there AU troops on Western Front in 1918?
if so, where there these troops?
I need to know if there were links between AU troops and 115th Field Signal Battalion USA in the last months of 1918..

Many thanks in advance,
Marco

[IanE]

Marco,
A brief summary of Austro-Hungarian troops on the Western Front.
Originally ordered to Venetia the division was transported to the Western front in September 1918. With an overall strength of around 10,200 rifles the Division was under the command of FML Ludwig Goiginger’s XVIII Corps. The division was positioned in the Orne sector North of Verdun. Pulled out of the line on the 3rd November the division was separated into national groups and transported by rail to their homelands.
US forces engaged the Austrian 35th Division during the St. Mihiel offensive on the 12th of September 1918. Most likely. Losses were given as 99 officers and 3,268 other ranks, as well as 79 MG's and 18 artillery pieces.
Regards,
Ian

[Joda]

Thank you very much Ian!
Any chance to know if US 115th field signal Btl was involved in these actions?

[henryk]

Marco,
A brief summary of Austro-Hungarian troops on the Western Front.
Pulled out of the line on the 3rd November the division was separated into national groups and transported by rail to their homelands.

http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.ne ... ia-hungary

further steps were taken to improve the situation of the returnees.

The Collapse↑

From mid-1918 on the Austro-Hungarian army was visibly falling apart. The last offensives of the Central Powers against France[54] and Italy[55] in the spring and summer of 1918 had failed, destroying the last hopes of achieving a decisive military victory and causing the morale of the German and Austro-Hungarian soldiers to decline rapidly. Moreover, in summer 1918 neither soldiers nor civilians were able to satisfy their basic needs.[56] A growing number of soldiers decided to desert the army in order to return to their families or to hide in the hinterland to avoid the front. Consequently, the High Command had to withdraw more and more troops from the front in order to search for deserters (up to 230,000 in summer 1918) or to take action against the rising number of strikes and demonstrations of starving workers in the provinces of the Habsburg monarchy.[57] At the same time, Austria-Hungary, having unsuccessfully tried to negotiate a separate peace, was forced to further strengthen its ties with Germany.[58] That step finally made the Entente conclude that it was necessary to destroy Austria-Hungary in order to end the war. Consequently, Great Britain, France and the United States officially recognized the national committees formed by the anti-Habsburg activists in exile, allowing them to form provisional governments and promising them the independence of their peoples’ respective territories after the war.[59]

This news spread quickly within the Habsburg monarchy and created an inner conflict for many civilians and soldiers: Should they stay loyal to a country that was losing the war or should they join the ranks of the political forces that demanded the dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy? The Austro-Hungarian government recognized this critical situation but was no longer able to interfere. Emperor Charles I’s Manifesto, published in October 1918, which granted all the nationalities full sovereignty within the boundaries of the Austrian state, was a last ditch effort to save the country.[60] This manifesto, however, was generally interpreted to mean that the Emperor had allowed the ethnic groups of the Habsburg Monarchy to choose their own paths. Consequently, by the end of October the Czechs, Slovaks, Germans, Hungarians and Southern Slavs had declared their independence, leaving the emperor without a state to rule.[61] This splintering had a disastrous effect on the k.u.k. army. Most of the soldiers, even Germans and Magyars, were no longer willing to fight for a state that had ceased to exist and left their units to return home.[62] This process of disintegration quickly spread within the armed forces and brought about its total collapse by the armistice of 11 November 1918.

[IanE]

I am afraid I have no knowledge of the US 115th field signal Btl was involvement in these actions.
Regards,
Ian

[Joda]

Thank you both for your help
If anyone has info about the US 115th Field Signal Btl if involved or not during these actions, I appreciate the help.

I found only these info about 115th : http://www.scharch.org/Ray_Baer/40th%20 ... Battle.htm

[James A Pratt III]

See "Austria-Hungary's Last War 1914-1918" the 1918 volume that is online and in this section. It's the A-H official history in German and English

[Joda]

Thank you very much! I'll do

[stevebecker]

Mate,

Sorry I know little of US forces in France, but if the 40th Div was used as replacement troops for other units then, did the 115th Sig Bn get into action at all?

As a Sig unit this first job was to support the forward troops with comms, but since these units of the 40th Div had been broken up, was the 115th Sig Bn also broken up into other Sig units?

Was there a unit war diary for this unit?

Had you contacted the US library of Congress to see what they have on the 115th Sig Bn and or the 40th Div?

Sorry that's not much

S.B