Imperial-Royal Mountain Troops


The Imperial-Royal Mountain Troops were founded in 1906 as part of the Austrian Landwehr, the territorial army of the Cisleithanian half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a result, the abbreviation "k.k." was used and not "k.u.k." which would have implied a connexion with the Hungarian half of the Empire.
Proposed in a memorandum by Conrad von Hötzendorf, in February 1906 the War Ministry in Vienna convened a session on Alpine border security. Field Marshal Tunk, agreed with him and put forward a concept, the fundamentals of which were then carried out.
The existing state rifle regiments were to be trained as mountain troops and, together with the Landsturm border patrol companies and gendarmerie departments were to form the backbone of a territorial defence force with local knowledge on the border of Tyrol.

Formation and deployment on 1 Aug 1914

On 1 May 1906 the two state rifle regiments with their HQs stationed in Bozen and Trient and the 4th Landwehr Infantry were nominated as "high mountain troops" and, in 1909, a third state rifle regiment, with its HQ stationed in Candido, was added. In 1911, the fifth regiment followed: the 27th Imperial-Royal Landwehr Infantry.
The area of the Carnic ridge in Carinthia and the Julian Alps was assigned to the 4th Landwehr Infantry and the 27th Landwehr Infantry. These two, hitherto standard infantry regiments were given the new uniform of the mountain troops. From 11 April 1917 they bore the names 1st and 2nd Mountain Rifles.
1st Imperial-Royal State Rifles
2nd Imperial-Royal State Rifles
3rd Imperial-Royal State Rifles
Mounted Tyrolean State Rifle Division
The regiments began with high alpine training and moved into so-called summer stations in mountain inns, Alpine Club huts and tented camps, where they carried out intense training. The winter stations were naturally located in the valleys, but this did prevent there being a comprehensive programme of winter exercises, alpine skiing course and skiing training in the mountains.

Dress and equipment

In 1907, the gamecock spray of white and black feathers that had been worn on the cap until 1887 by the state rifles was re-introduced.
Together with the edelweiss on the collar, it formed the badge of the Imperial-Royal Mountain Troops. Otherwise the uniform was the same as that of the Jäger infantry. What was new was the pike gray mountain dress: mountain boots, mountain socks, britches, heavy jacket, cap, coat, cape. Officers continued to wear their previous Landwehr uniform as individual on parade.
Battalions and companies were given pack animals. The rifle was replaced by the 8mm Mannlicher M 95 carbine. They were issued with additional equipment adapted to the requirements of mountain warfare; including skis, ropes, crampons and ice axes. Regiments were reinforced by a mountain machine gun section of four machine guns which, to improve mobility, could be carried by pack animals or in manportable packs at the highest altitudes. The same applied to the take-apart mountain guns. Portable field stoves and heated tents assisted troops to operate in inhospitable conditions.
When skiing the two-stick approach had replaced the single-stick method. The Bilgeri binding was a touring binding that could be used with the normal hiking boot.
The rank stars and the edelweiss badge of the officers were made of metal thread. The stars of the other ranks were made of celluloid, the edelweiss of metal. From 1914, cadets and Staffsoberjäger wore stars of white silk.

Literature