Bodies of WWI soldiers found in Alpine glacier -

ABC News - Australia ^ | August 23, 2004

[Calpernia]

Ping!

[Calpernia]

Ping, Ping

[Calpernia]

Bump and thank you for posting that awesome piece of history.

[Calpernia]

Check the libraries too.

[Old Sarge]

I can't help but wonder, what military honors these troops will be buried with? Since they were Austrian, that means they served under the Austro-Hungarian Empire - my mother's and grandmother's people.

Will they be honored with the Hapsburg Eagles, or the Austrian flag before the Anschluss, or the old Hungarian banner?

[Jet Jaguar]

I dunno. An interesting question.

[Old Sarge]

I'm reminded of Baron Von Trapp - the father of the Trapp Family Singers.

I read Maria Von Trapp's autobio, long ago. She mentions that when Georg von Trapp passed away, they buried him with military honors from his time in the Imperial Navy in WWI. Austian naval ensign, medals awarded, the works.

[risk]

Highest war in history ping. See also the Forte Strino museum links and pics from http://www.dolomiti.it/eng/zone/valdisole/fortestrino.htm at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1198107/posts

Really the highest war? I suspect there have been higher between India and Pakistan and possibly in the Himalyas.

[Atlantic Friend]

At that time regiments did most of their recruiting locally, so if they know the regiment they came from, they'll be buried as either Austrian or Hungarian soldiers, I suppose, maybe with a ceremony showing both modern Austrian (or Hungarian) and Imperial Austro-Hungarian flags.

[Modernman]

I can't help but wonder, what military honors these troops will be buried with? Since they were Austrian, that means they served under the Austro-Hungarian Empire - my mother's and grandmother's people.

To add an interesting wrinkle, what if they were from one of the many smaller groups within the Austrian Empire? Say, Croatian, Slovenian or Italian. My grandfather, for example, was a Slovenian from Trieste but he was born in the old Austrian Empire.

I wonder who buries them in that situation?

[najida]

How sad,
but I do hope they get a hero's burial.

[Calpernia]

Bodies of WWI soldiers found in Alpine glacier

Rest in peace and thank you for your services.

[F14 Pilot]

Yeah!

[Alamo-Girl]

Bump!

[Squantos]

When one thinks of the gear and conditions these men fought in it makes the tear in my gore tex or the weight of my wiggy extream sleeping bag seem moot......

[Cronos]

well the indians and the pakis don't really call it a war -- they're pretty coy about it and call it a leetle skirmish at 8000 feet!

[swarthyguy]

I believe the Siachen battlefied is about 20K feet, IIRC. Not to mention some of the skirmishes in mountain passes between India and China in 1962.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Thanks for the ping. Alpentruppen were tough troops.

[qwertz]

I can't help but wonder, what military honors these troops will be buried with? Since they were Austrian, that means they served under the Austro-Hungarian Empire - my mother's and grandmother's people.


I did some googling. They were Tyrolese Kaiserschuetzen, specifically from the III. Regiment. So they were members of traditional Tyrolese home defense ("Landesschuetzen") which was part of the k.k. Austrian army, as opposed to the k. Hungarian army, or the k.u.k. common Austrian-Hungarian army. The Landesschuetzen were reservists, yet considered elite troops, and in 1917 were given the right to call themselves "Kaiserschuetzen" ("the Emperor's riflemen") for their bravery. In 1914 they were moved to the eastern front where most of them perished fending off the Russian steamroller, and in 1915 back to Tyrol to face the Italian army.

The three were likely killed in a foggy battle on Sept. 3, 1918 when the Austrians retook the peak of San Matteo which had been lost the month before. The Italian defense was completely crushed.

Today the body of the best preserved soldier was moved to a hospital in Bozen/Bolzano (South Tyrol, Italy) to be examined by experts of the same archeological museum that's studying Oetzi. He will be later buried next to his comrades at a military cemetery in Pejo - where the other two were buried yesterday with full military honors: representatives of the Kaiserjaeger (who are obviously still around in some form), Tyrolese Schuetzen, the Austrian Black Cross, and an honor guard of the Austrian army were present.

Thought this might interest you.

[Old Sarge]

THANK you, so much, for finding this out for us!

I would render proper honors even to the Tawalkana Division, who stood against us in Iraq - they fought and lost as men should.