Page 309 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

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aCta
16th “common” Infantry Regiment in Zombor; one battalion each of the 101st and 131st
“common” Infantry Regiments in the environs of Nagybecskerek (Zrenjanin); one battalion
of the Royal Hungarian 5th Territorial Infantry Regiment in Szombathely; one battalion of
the Royal Hungarian 1st Territorial Infantry Regiment south of Budapest; and one battalion
of the Royal Hungarian 17th Territorial Infantry Regiment in Arad. 23
The results of the requisitions were disappointing. For example, the troops of the 40th
Infantry Division collected only 1,541,800 kilograms of crops from the population in Croatia
between 17 April and 10 June, contrary to all expectations. in comparison with that figure,
24
the summer’s crop in Hungary totalled 7.7 billions of kilograms in 1918, and 116,633 troops
of the “common” Army, the Royal Hungarian Army and the Royal Hungarian Territorial
Army took part in the harvest. 25

the dePlOyMent Of the POlicing trOOPs tO suPPress Mutinies
The first mutinies in the army took place as early as in January. On 19 January, in the
course of their entrainment in the railway station of Szabadka (Subotica), the troops of the
86th “common” Infantry Regiment refused to be taken to the eastern front. The military po-
lice intervened; 400 troops escaped during the conflict, but were caught and escorted back to
the station by the policing units of the garrison. During the train’s journey to Ugocsa County
in the north-east of Hungary, further desertions took place. 26
As a result of the Treaty of Brest Litovsk, which was signed on 3 March 1918, hundreds
of thousands of prisoners-of-war returned home from Russian captivity (671,000 people until
12 October 1918), and there were hardly any among them who would have been willing to
go to the front once again. Most of them had become unreliable. The army had to quarantine
them and made efforts to re-educate them. It took at least three months to post them to their
new units and to re-educate them. The revolts of soldiers who had returned from Russian
27
captivity were usually spontaneous demonstrations against poor rations, the lack of freedom,
the short period of leave that they were granted, or their selection to join combat units. 28
On 25 April, as lunch rations were being served out, 300 Slovakian soldiers of the reserve
battalion of the Imperial and Royal 12th Infantry Regiment revolted against their officers in
Nagybecskerek (Zrenjanin). All of the mutineers had returned from Russian captivity and
the only way they could be brought round was pointing machine guns at them. Their leaders
were arrested. 29
On 12 May, in Rimaszombat (Rimavská Sobota), 711 soldiers of the reserve battalion of
the 80th “common” Infantry Regiment, which consisted of Rusyns to two thirds, as well as
Poles, Czechs, Germans and Romanians, rose in revolt. As a result, four people died, another

23 Ibid: 183.
24 ibid: 223.
25 Ibid: 229-230.
26 Ibid: 148; Farkas: 86.
27 Deák: 251; Plaschka, Haselsteiner and Suppan. Vol. I: 45.
28 Plaschka, Haselsteiner and Suppan. Vol. i: 323.
29 Ibid: 290; Tóth, Sándor., ed. Magyarország hadtörténete. Vol. II. (Zrínyi Katonai Kiadó, Budapest, 1985):
103.