Page 311 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

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company also took their side, and together they laid siege to the Frederick Barracks in
town. After breaking the resistance of the 1st and 2nd Reserve Companies that were garri-
soned there, they took the barracks and were joined by the former defenders. Two captured
officers were killed. The mutineers also took and pillaged the Fehérváry Barracks, and then
they occupied the railway station. In the morning, a field battalion of the Royal Hungarian
9th Infantry Regiment, the reserve battalion of the Royal Hungarian 19th Infantry Regi-
ment, the reserve company of the Royal Hungarian 8th Hussar Regiment, as well as the
Bosnian military police rifle units stationed in Siklós and Villány were placed under the
command of Major General Rudolf Pillepič, military commandant of the town. The Royal
Hungarian 9th Infantry Regiment, which had carried out requisitioning tasks in western
Hungary, was also directed to Pécs. By noon, the infantry had captured the two barracks
from the mutineers, and later the railway station, too. Consequently, the mutineers, whose
number totalled about 1,500, barricaded themselves into the cemetery, and got in touch
with those 150 miners who had been on strike in Pécsbányatelep since 19 May. The miners
acquired guns from the mutineers and with those they disarmed the officers, and killed two
of them. By the evening of 20, in an actual clash, the 9th Infantry had dispersed the rebels,
who withdrew in three groups in the directions of Pécsbányatelep, Mohács and Németbóly.
Until the morning of 21, 1,500 out of the 2,000 mutineers were caught. 3 officers and 11
soldiers of the policing troops of the Royal Hungarian 19th Infantry Regiment and the 6th
“common” Infantry Regiment were killed and 21 injured, whereas 9 of the mutineers were
killed and the number of those injured is unknown. On 5 June, another 169 soldiers of the
6th Infantry Regiment’s reserve battalion were still hiding in Slavonia. The court-martial,
which started its activity on 21 May, established that the leaders of the mutiny were mainly
Serbian soldiers, many of whom considered themselves Bolsheviks. 13 soldiers and 2 min-
ers of the 6th Infantry Regiment’s reserve battalion were sentenced to death, 22 soldiers
and 14 miners to 5-10 years’ imprisonment. Until the middle of September, the court-
martial sentenced another 2 soldiers and 2 miners to death, 23 soldiers and 6 miners to
imprisonment. 2 officers and one NCO, as well as 5 guards of Pécsbányatelep were also
found guilty. 33
On 24 August, the Royal Hungarian 15th Infantry Regiment’s 7th Combat Company re-
volted while marching from Dombóvár to Kaposvár. At the station of Hidas-Bonyhád, the
soldiers prevented the arrestment and tying up of two drunken NCOs by force of arms, and
fired at one of the officers. By the time the 300 mutineers reached Kaposvár at 3 p.m., two
and a half combat companies of the 44th “common” Infantry Regiment and a machine gun
platoon had already been waiting for them at the emptied railway station. The mutineers
were arrested and disarmed by the arriving military police troops, 11 leaders were taken into
custody. The transport continued its journey in the evening of the same day under the super-
vision of a military police company of the 44th Infantry. 34
dePlOyMent against deserters
The forests of Croatia and Slavonia had been a centre of deserters since March 1918.

33 Plaschka, Haselsteiner and Suppan. Vol. I: 370-384; Farkas: 141-142; Tóth: 103; Wassermair: 232-252;
Military Archives, Vienna: Estate B/201. No. 61.
34 Plaschka, Haselsteiner and Suppan. Vol. II: 61-62.