Throughout World Struggle II, greater than 11 million troopers served within the Army. Just one small unit may depend amongst its ranks three European royals, sons of the final Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg emperor. It was a small, virtually totally forgotten infantry battalion fashioned as a part of an effort to recruit and practice “free” models composed of troopers with particular ethnic backgrounds, reminiscent of Greeks or Norwegians.
Because the army started to quickly increase in 1942, consideration was given as to how the Army may doubtlessly use the language and cultural abilities of international nationals and up to date immigrants from nations now below Axis occupation. Over the course of that 12 months, the Army started establishing a number of of those infantry battalions based mostly round ethnic teams.
The 99th Infantry Battalion, for example, was fashioned in Might 1942 as an all-Norwegian unit. Equally, the 122nd Infantry Battalion fashioned in January 1943 at then-Camp Carson, Colorado, as an all-Greek formation.
The recruits had been a combination of current immigrants or service provider sailors who had discovered themselves stranded within the U.S. Extra typically, they had been first- and second-generation immigrants who spoke the language. In fact, this being Army paperwork, there have been sure to be just a few oddities added to the combo. A member of the 122nd, for example, recalled one officer being assigned to the battalion just because he studied classical Greek in class.
The “ethnic” battalions had been initially educated as typical infantry models, with particular consideration given to the nations they’d theoretically be employed in. Each the 99th and 122nd Infantry Battalions, for example, had been educated in Colorado for winter and mountain warfare. Given the considerably political nature of their institution, additionally they loved loads of particular consideration, with President Franklin Roosevelt personally reviewing each models at Camp Carson in 1943.
Nonetheless, they remained considerably of an oddity within the Army. They had been separate models, not assigned to any larger regiment or division. And by 1944 it was changing into obvious that the missions they’d been raised for weren’t on the desk.
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The 99th was finally despatched to Europe and operated as an impartial battalion, being despatched to wherever additional troops had been wanted on the battlefield. It did finally make it to Norway in 1945, as a part of an occupation drive despatched to just accept the give up of German troops nonetheless stationed there.
The 122nd was disbanded in 1944 when it grew to become obvious that no important invasion of Greece would happen. Most of the troopers, although, had been quickly recruited into the Workplace of Strategic Providers and would spend the following 12 months as a part of a secretive guerilla marketing campaign supporting partisan exercise in Greece.
Neither of those two models, although, can compete with the weird historical past of a 3rd “ethnic” unit, the all-Austrian a hundred and first Infantry Battalion.
In 1942 Empress Zita, spouse of the final emperor of Austria-Hungary, Charles I, was residing within the U.S. alongside along with her oldest son Otto — now inheritor to the Hapsburg throne. She was fairly adamant that the royal household may play a significant function in the way forward for a free Austria and lobbied for the creation of an all-Austrian unit that might carry out an identical function as its Norwegian or Greek counterparts. This was an concept that was actually solely shared by exiled royalty and some individuals on the State Division, however they nonetheless willed it into being.
The battalion was fashioned in 1942 at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, and from the beginning it may politely be described as a clusterfuck.
For starters, in contrast to the Greek or Norwegian battalions, there have been few, if any volunteers. That meant the Army started scrounging up males wherever they might discover them, so long as they’d Austria listed as a place of origin or nationality someplace of their personnel data. This, after all, ignored the truth that the defunct empire had contained many different nationalities — Hungarians, Croatians, Poles — who had typically listed “Austria” or “Austria-Hungary” as their place of origin when emigrating elsewhere.
The battalion was quickly as various and chaotic because the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been. Not that there weren’t not less than just a few native Austrians within the group. Two of the Von Trapp kids had been initially assigned to the a hundred and first Infantry Battalion once they joined the Army.
Empress Zita additionally enlisted her three youngest sons, Charles, Felix, and Rudolph, within the unit. The three Archdukes had been now lowly privates. Unsurprisingly sufficient, they had been supposedly extremely unpopular amongst their comrades and even requested that they be addressed with their royal titles.
The battalion was identified principally for its low morale and poor self-discipline, and the Army — not wanting something to do with what might be seen as an effort to reinstall the Hapsburg monarchy — sequestered the unit in a separate part of the camp had public affairs officers censor any references to its existence.
Lastly, within the spring of 1943, the Army acknowledged the battalion’s existence with a press launch and a few pictures. A 1971 article within the Indianapolis Star Sunday Journal, written by a person who had served at Camp Atterbury as a public affairs soldier on the time, claimed that the troopers seen within the pictures and described within the article weren’t even from the a hundred and first.
Inside a month, the Army started quietly disbanding the unit, delivery the troopers elsewhere in teams of 1 or two. The three archdukes had been among the many final to go, being discharged from the Army totally.
These models are little remembered now, however they continue to be an attention-grabbing a part of how a lot the Army was prepared to experiment throughout World Struggle II.
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