Page 306 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

306 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

ans. 6

trOOPs aVailable tO carry Out POlicing duties
On 1 January 1918, there were 60 companies available for such purposes in Hungary,
each 100 strong, recruited from Czech, Moravian and Bosnian territories. In the whole Em-
pire, the number of those troops totalled 41,181.
In addition to reserve units in the hinterland, field units were also deployed to carry out
policing duties. At the beginning of February, 15 “common” as well as Hungarian Honvéd
battalions and 6 cavalry half-regiments were available for such purposes in the country, and
there were policing artillery batteries stationed in the towns of Sopron, Pozsony (Bratislava),
Budapest, Kassa (Košice), Nagyszeben (Sibiu), Temesvár (Timičoara) and Eszék (Osijek),
too. At the same time, the total number of troops available to perform policing tasks in the
7
Empire was 46,200. 8
At the beginning of March 1918, Major General Géza Lukachich, commander of the mo-
bile troops in Hungary had at his disposal the following units of the field army: the Imperial
and Royal 2nd and 16th Infantry Regiments; one battalion each of the 29th, 101st and 131st
“common” Infantry Regiments, the Royal Hungarian 6th, 11th and 14th Infantry Regiments,
and the 5th and 17th Territorial Infantry Regiments; the Imperial and Royal 7th Hussar Regi-
ment; and parts of the 6th “common”, the 3rd and 8th Honvéd, and the 1st territorial Hussar
Regiments. 9
On 20 May, there were altogether 1,224 companies deployable to carry out policing duties
at the reserve units in the hinterland, which was the highest number they reached between
February and October 1918. At the end of May, there were 37 field battalions stationed in
10
Hungary. From June, regular military police battalions were being set up, and in Septem-
11
ber, there were 70 companies garrisoned in Hungary, 12 in Transylvania and 22 in Croatia,
altogether 208 in the whole Empire. 12
By autumn, their number had dropped, and on 21 October, only 20 military police com-
panies were ready to be deployed in Croatia and 65 in the rest of the country. Their troops
had been recruited from Hungary and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Another 56 companies were
13
available to perform policing tasks in the territories of the military headquarters, while mili-
tary schools too set up 52 companies. About half of those troops were stationed in Budapest
and its environs. 14
the dePlOyMent Of POlicing trOOPs against the ciVilian POPulatiOn

6 Ibid: 40-42.
7 Ibid: 175-176.
8 Ibid: 166.
9 Ibid: 178.
10 Plaschka, Haselsteiner and Suppan. Vol. ii: 10.
11 Ibid: 14.
12 Ibid: 27-30.
13 Ibid: 118-120.
14 Ibid: 251-253.