Grandfather

[puslinch]

After visiting family in Slovenia and visiting part of the front I've decided to look into Deda's military history.Unfortunately the former Yugoslavia doesn't seem to have any records.I have found that Austria might have records on medals,wounded,and POW's.

He was born Filip Sattelmayer,1893 (June or July),Mramorak in Banat,moved to Bukovac Bosnia in 1905?.

Brothers who also served or were enlisted,

Heinrich Sattelmayer 1895? Heard either he or Nikolaus served in heavy artillery and suffered loss of hearing.

Johann Sattelmayer 1897? Was told he spent the war in Serbia and Albania.He refused to talk about the war.

Nikolaus Sattelmayer1899?Don't Know.

Friedrich Sattelmayer ? Don't Know.

August Sattelmayer ? don't Know.

I had heard that possibly the younger ones,(or others) came down with typhus or malaria.

Also others I know of,

Emile Reis...Deda's Brother in law and best friend.Served together on the front.I found mention of him? on a sight about Monte melleta but the spelling was Camile Reas?

? Strmski...Deda's brother in law.Only know he became POW on Russian front.

My information is limited since all refused to talk about the war. Regards. (i'll post some more)

[Golob_descendant]

Your search sounds similar to my own. I also visited Slovenia and while we were able to find relatives still living there, we were also told that all records were lost for that time period.

I found information for my great-uncles on the following site, and see that it also has some information on your grandfather, as well as his brother, Heinrich. The URL to search for "Sattelmayer" is :
http://kramerius.nkp.cz/kramerius/Searc ... ttelmayer+
The results of this search appear to be Casualty Lists for different times during the war. I haven't yet been able to decode all the information given in these Casualty lists for my great-uncles, but it was able to tell me what Regiment they were in as well as their class (birth) year.

You should also be able to search for the other 2 family names you mentioned.

Note: The site uses DjVu to encode it's scanned images for viewing. If your computer has problems with this format, as mine does, you can also click the "PDF Create" button on the left of any link you wish to look at.

[klemen55]

Hi puslinch,

I have been able to find two Sattelmayers from your list, but since we don't know their birthplaces or birth years it's impossible for me to say whether I found the right ones or not. Anyway here are what I was able to find.

Infanterist Heinrich Sattelmayer, born 1895 in Homokos, Temes, Ungarn, served with the 13th Company of the 61st (Temesvarer) Infantry Regiment. He was most probably wounded around 1-15 December 1915, when his battalion was, I believe, somewhere in the trenches around San Grado di Merna near Gorizia.

Infanterist Philipp Sattelmayer, born in Baranya, Ungarn, served with the 7th Honved Infantry Regiment and was captured by the Russians before 1917. No further details available.

If any of your ancestors was killed in action, died of wounds, missing in action or captured, then you can contact the Kriegsarchiv Wien and ask them to look for his (theirs) Totenkarte respectively Kriegsgefangenenkarte, which ideally should look something like this:

http://m.cdn.blog.hu/na/nagyhaboru/imag ... _large.jpg

But you won't have much success without finding out your ancestors' birthplaces and years of birth. That's almost imperative before starting any further research!

Good luck!

Klemen

[puslinch]

Thank you GOLOB and Klemen for your replies.

The names mentioned on the site are common names in our family,but those two are actually Deda's cousin's from the village in Banat that he moved from called Mramorak,but under Hungarian administration it's Homokos.

I will try the archives.Thanks.

I'm most interested in my grandfather Filip Sattelmayer born 1893 in Mramorak (Hungarian Homokos)Served in BHIR11.Wounded and taken prisoner.

I am presently in Russia for another month.but on return I will ask family for correct dates on other uncles.My grandfather and his brothers all lived into their 90's,it's a shame they wouldn't talk about their experiences.I heard it was common though.

Kind Regards

[puslinch]

Hello Klemen,
Some of you seem to have wealth of knowledge and resources regarding the Isonzo front.Could you help me put together some of the pieces?

Some where I had read that the Austrian line was down to 2 men every 50 meters opposing up to 6 lines of Italians,confirming what he said.True?If so was this when the British and French helped?This would help with a timeline.

Is it true the Archive has a list of medals awarded?Did soldiers wear their medals to battle?Were they stripped of medals in captivity?It's definitely him in photo on Monte Melleta.No Medals?It was said that he declined them!

Why did some soldiers wear a black fez and some a grey?

His brother supposedly spent the war in Serbia-Albania.Strange.I read some where that soldiers that suffered from snow blindness were transferred to other units.True?
Sorry, but resources are unlimited on the western front,yet here I run into a language barrier and resource barrier.

What books are recommended for bhir11?Are you aware of any in English?
Lastly,is there any place recommendable for purchasing genuine BHIR11 memorabilia in Slovenia?

Thanks in advance for your time!!

[aljaz]

Some where I had read that the Austrian line was down to 2 men every 50 meters opposing up to 6 lines of Italians,confirming what he said.True?If so was this when the British and French helped?This would help with a timeline.


Why did some soldiers wear a black fez and some a grey?

Sounds like late period of war to me. Black fezes are actually red ones, but they are replaced with field grey type.(grey on pic).

[klemen55]

Hello puslinch,

Some where I had read that the Austrian line was down to 2 men every 50 meters opposing up to 6 lines of Italians,confirming what he said.True?If so was this when the British and French helped?This would help with a timeline.

I cannot officially confirm whether this is true or not (although 2 men on every 50 metres does sound a little bit overstretched), but it is true that the Italian Army always enjoyed the numerical superiority on the Italian Front from May 1915 to November 1918.

Is it true the Archive has a list of medals awarded?Did soldiers wear their medals to battle?Were they stripped of medals in captivity?It's definitely him in photo on Monte Melleta.No Medals?It was said that he declined them!

Yes, the Kriegsarchiv still holds an extensive collection of the award (decoration) applications and on top of that their library also posesses the entire collection of the Personalverordnungsblätter (PVBL), including the post-war volumes (1919-1920). To research the latter you need to go to the library of the Kriegsarchiv, while to obtain an award application (Belohnungsantrag) you need to contact the Kriegsarchiv. Only the archive staff is allowed to research through them, so you need to contact the archive directly if you want them to look for your (great)grandfather's record. I doubt that your (great)grandfather declined the decorations. At least I haven't heard so far of any such similar cases.

If he was with the Bosnians on Monte Meletta, as you claim it to be, then he was almost certainly serving with the 2nd Bosnian and Herzegowinian Infantry Regiment (BiH IR 2).

Why did some soldiers wear a black fez and some a grey?

The Bosnian soldiers wore red and grey fez. You see black fez because old pictures you're looking are almost all exclusively black & white and on them red is seen as black.

Red fez was mostly a peacetime and parade version, while grey fez was used in the field (trenches) because of better camouflage.

His brother supposedly spent the war in Serbia-Albania.Strange.I read some where that soldiers that suffered from snow blindness were transferred to other units.True?

I don't know. Probably.

What books are recommended for bhir11?Are you aware of any in English? Lastly,is there any place recommendable for purchasing genuine BHIR11 memorabilia in Slovenia?

There was no 11th Bosnian and Herzegowinian Infantry Regiment. You probably confused it with BH IR 2 (Roman numerals II with 11), which was indeed the Bosnian regiment which stormed Monte Meletta in summer 1916.

The best books about Bosnian troops in Great War (1914-1918) are:

- Werner Schachinger: "Die Bosniaken kommen: Elitetruppe in der k.u.k. Armee, 1879-1918", Graz 1989
- Sigmund Gandini: "Das bosnisch-herzegovinische Infanterie-regiment Nr.2 im Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918", Wien 1971
- Prof. DI Hermann Hinterstoisser, Erwin A. Schmidl, Christoph Neumayer and Helmut Wohnout: "Des Kaisers Bosniaken. Die bosnisch-herzegowinischen Truppen in der k. u. k. Armee", Wien 2008

And, of course, the archive fonds in the Kriegsarchiv Wien.

I don't know where in Slovenia you can buy memorabilia about BH IR 2. There are other far more competent people on this forum who should be able to provide you an answer to this question.

lp,

Klemen