Page - 941 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

Four Million Heroes 941 for Bravery by the end of 1916. To these were added 70,000 Silver Medals 1st Class, 190,000 Silver Medals 2nd Class and 400,000 Bronze Medals for Bravery. The Bronze Medals existed only as a result of an endowment by the Emperor on 14 February 1915. As before, it was regarded as a distinction for the enlisted men. This was to change only under Emperor Karl. By the end of the war, as many as four million applications for an award of the Medal for Bravery may have been submitted. In other words, around half the Austro-Hungarian soldiers in the First World War regarded themselves as heroes. The Bronze Medals were conferred around 1.2 million times, the ‘Lesser’ Silver Medals up to 360,000 times, and the ‘Greater’ Silver Medals as many as 175,000 times. The rarest was the Gold Medal for Bravery, which was awarded only 4,661 times,2265 of which 4,316 bestowals were on enlisted men and 345 on officers.2266 Even if we account for conferment practice and keep in mind the not uncommon multiple bestowal, at the end of the day, around 1.7 million applications were adjudged positively and thus the particularly brave conduct of more than forty per cent of the four million applicants was attested to. The visible decorations were one thing. The related benefits were another. Knights of the Military Order of Maria Theresa received a lifelong honorarium, and the possessors of the Medal for Bravery could enjoy the progressive perks. An imperial resolution of 15 September 1914 regulated these perks. Subsequently, those who possessed the Gold Medal received a monthly allowance of 30 golden kronen, those with the Silver Medal 1st Class 15 golden kronen and those with the Silver Medal 2nd Class 7.50 golden kronen each month. Recipients of the Gold Medal for Bravery were, as a rule, to be removed from the front and only utilised in the hinterland. It was precisely the highly decorated enlisted men, however, who frequently pressed for a return to the front. And, of course, there were criteria beyond bravery and cowardice that made it clear how far identification and non-identification with this war actually went. Whether decorations could be a criterion remained to be seen. At least theoretically, the military distinctions, above all among the enlisted men, should have been distributed more or less equally across the regiments of the Common Army and the two standing armies. In addition to these, there were also the formations of the Landsturm (reserve forces) and the Navy. In fact, there were very large differences that were not only caused by one troop body being longer at the front than another, or that some troop bodies were formed only during the course of the war, that supply troops and medical facilities were generally lo- cated in the rear areas, that artillery, signallers and other branches of the military had to expose themselves less than infantry, cavalry was no more in demand than light cavalry, that bravery in the hinterland was generally barely considered a criterion and, finally, that in the case of the Navy and the aviation companies something else was emphasised than in the case of the so-called ‘queen of weapons’, the infantry. At least to some ex- tent, however, several additional indications can be gained for the conduct of the troops.