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Description
Happy Orthodox Easter!

This year, the gap between the Catholic/Protestant Easter and the Orthodox one was especially pronounced, with the first one being on March 27 and the second on May the 1st.

Personally, I am an agnostic non believer, but that doesn't stop me in creating greeting cards for my reenactment group, "Traditia Militara"

This is a special picture because it depicts a lesser known episode in the history of World War one.

It takes place from the 29th October-to the 1st of December 1918, after the Armistice, and shows soldiers of the "Garda Nationala Romana" ("Romanian National Guard").

These were former soldiers of Romanian descent from the K.u.K III Seebatallion Pola (The Third Austro-Hungarian Marine Infantry Battalion, based in Pola, modern day Pula, in Croatia, itself a rather obscure unit, since it's largely overshadowed by the First Austro-Hungarian Marine Infantry Battalion based in Trieste, which say action in the Isonzo campaign) which organised to keep the peace after the naval base became part of the newly born (and very short lived) State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Austrians and Hungarians were pulled back.

The new state got off to a pretty shaky start and inter-ethnic strife between Croats, Serbs and Slovenes was depressingly common, which is why it was deemed necessary to have foreign, neutral troops keeping the peace (a rather good idea, methinks, considering the "slight unpleasantness" that took place in the region from 1991 to 2001, commonly considered the deadliest European wars since WW2).
In any case, the situation was resolved barely one month afterwards, when the new state joined with the Kingdom of Serbia to create the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia (confusingly, also called the Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs between 1918 and 1929), after which the Romanian troops were sent home, in mid-1919.

I'm using these uniforms for this year's Easter greeting card because this will be the uniforms my group will wear at the Verdun Centenary (26-30 May 2016). Initially we were supposed to come in Romanian WW1 uniforms, but at the last minute the organisers realised the cost of the commemorations far exceeded their budget, so they had to restrict participants to those that took part in the actual battle, namely French, German and Austro-Hungarian.

For us that's not that big of a problem, because there were plenty of ethnic Romanians in the Austro-Hungarian Army and which also saw action at Verdun, for example the K. und K. Infanterie-regiment nr. 51 "Klausenburg", from my native city of Cluj (Klausenburg in German and Kolozsvár in Hungarian).
Besides, this is the second Austrian regiment we reenact, because we also keep alive the traditions of the Grenzregiment n. 17 Siebenbürgisches- 2nd Walachen ( Transylvanian Military Border Regiment n. 17 - 2nd Wallachian) from Nasaud.

Interestingly, this picture and the commemoration at Verdun both tie in pretty closely with my family history -my great-grandfather, his two brothers and their cousin, ethnic Romanian from Transylvania were all drafted in the Austro Hungarian artillery at the start of the war and sent to the Italian Front, where they saw action in the Isonzo campaign up and including Caporetto, in 1917.

In May 1918, my great-grandfather and his cousin were moved with their unit to the Romanian front, at Marasesti. Unwilling to kill other Romanians, they planned to desert and switch sides to the Romanian army, but, before they could do so, Romania (at that point completely isolated after Russia's withdrawal from the conflict) was taken out of the war by the Treaty of Bucharest .

The war ended before they could be redeployed, so instead they joined the Romanian army after newly independent Transylvania joined the Kingdom of Romania, on the 1st of December, 1918.

They also saw action in the 1919 campaign against the Béla Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic (May-August 1919).

In the meantime, my two great-granduncles were deployed to two different stations - one of them was sent to Verdun in late 1918 and saw about a month of action there before the end of the war saw him return to Romania, in late December 1918, while the other one was sent to Pola and became part of the "Garda Nationala Romana", coming back to Romania in July 1919, meaning he was the only one from the family not to see action in the 1919 Hungarian campaign.

A small note about equipment - the weird ammo pouches are Mannlicher M88 ammo pouches. They had been superceded in the use of the Army by the M1895 individual ammo pouches, which is why they ended up in use with the Marines.

The soldiers also have the uniform tunic and trousers that are distinctive to this particular unit (the Trieste Sebatallion, for example, had grey uniforms of the same cut as the infantry). The design is that of the regular sailor outfits, including the distinctive sailor collar, but with chest pockets added and in beige instead of white (summer) or dark blue (winter). The cap is the regular sailor cap in either white or blue depending on the time of the year and with a band which either states the name of the ship the seaman came from, or, in the case of soldiers moved in form other arms, or from on-shore postings simply said "K.u.K Kriegsmarine" (Austro-Hungarian Navy).

Other than that, the gear is pretty standard for the K.u.K. - Mannlicher M1895 rifle, haversack with the M.1899 mess kit, canvas bread bag, M.1888 steel enamelled canteen with cup, M1895 bayonet and frog and entrenching tool with leather carrier.

When it comes to the drawing I should also point out the blue logo just above the flag - that is the log of the European Union of Military-Historical Groups (UEWHG - Union der Europäischen Wehrhistorischen Gruppen ) of which my group is part since 2009.

Oh, and the ship on the horizon is the 1902 battleship "SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max", which was based at Pola in 1918, handed over to the newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and later awarded as war reparations to Britain before being broken up for scrap in 1921.

Description
Happy Orthodox Easter!

This year, the gap between the Catholic/Protestant Easter and the Orthodox one was especially pronounced, with the first one being on March 27 and the second on May the 1st.

Personally, I am an agnostic non believer, but that doesn't stop me in creating greeting cards for my reenactment group, "Traditia Militara"

This is a special picture because it depicts a lesser known episode in the history of World War one.

It takes place from the 29th October-to the 1st of December 1918, after the Armistice, and shows soldiers of the "Garda Nationala Romana" ("Romanian National Guard").

These were former soldiers of Romanian descent from the K.u.K III Seebatallion Pola (The Third Austro-Hungarian Marine Infantry Battalion, based in Pola, modern day Pula, in Croatia, itself a rather obscure unit, since it's largely overshadowed by the First Austro-Hungarian Marine Infantry Battalion based in Trieste, which say action in the Isonzo campaign) which organised to keep the peace after the naval base became part of the newly born (and very short lived) State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Austrians and Hungarians were pulled back.

The new state got off to a pretty shaky start and inter-ethnic strife between Croats, Serbs and Slovenes was depressingly common, which is why it was deemed necessary to have foreign, neutral troops keeping the peace (a rather good idea, methinks, considering the "slight unpleasantness" that took place in the region from 1991 to 2001, commonly considered the deadliest European wars since WW2).
In any case, the situation was resolved barely one month afterwards, when the new state joined with the Kingdom of Serbia to create the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia (confusingly, also called the Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs between 1918 and 1929), after which the Romanian troops were sent home, in mid-1919.

I'm using these uniforms for this year's Easter greeting card because this will be the uniforms my group will wear at the Verdun Centenary (26-30 May 2016). Initially we were supposed to come in Romanian WW1 uniforms, but at the last minute the organisers realised the cost of the commemorations far exceeded their budget, so they had to restrict participants to those that took part in the actual battle, namely French, German and Austro-Hungarian.

For us that's not that big of a problem, because there were plenty of ethnic Romanians in the Austro-Hungarian Army and which also saw action at Verdun, for example the K. und K. Infanterie-regiment nr. 51 "Klausenburg", from my native city of Cluj (Klausenburg in German and Kolozsvár in Hungarian).
Besides, this is the second Austrian regiment we reenact, because we also keep alive the traditions of the Grenzregiment n. 17 Siebenbürgisches- 2nd Walachen ( Transylvanian Military Border Regiment n. 17 - 2nd Wallachian) from Nasaud.

Interestingly, this picture and the commemoration at Verdun both tie in pretty closely with my family history -my great-grandfather, his two brothers and their cousin, ethnic Romanian from Transylvania were all drafted in the Austro Hungarian artillery at the start of the war and sent to the Italian Front, where they saw action in the Isonzo campaign up and including Caporetto, in 1917.

In May 1918, my great-grandfather and his cousin were moved with their unit to the Romanian front, at Marasesti. Unwilling to kill other Romanians, they planned to desert and switch sides to the Romanian army, but, before they could do so, Romania (at that point completely isolated after Russia's withdrawal from the conflict) was taken out of the war by the Treaty of Bucharest .

The war ended before they could be redeployed, so instead they joined the Romanian army after newly independent Transylvania joined the Kingdom of Romania, on the 1st of December, 1918.

They also saw action in the 1919 campaign against the Béla Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic (May-August 1919).

In the meantime, my two great-granduncles were deployed to two different stations - one of them was sent to Verdun in late 1918 and saw about a month of action there before the end of the war saw him return to Romania, in late December 1918, while the other one was sent to Pola and became part of the "Garda Nationala Romana", coming back to Romania in July 1919, meaning he was the only one from the family not to see action in the 1919 Hungarian campaign.

A small note about equipment - the weird ammo pouches are Mannlicher M88 ammo pouches. They had been superceded in the use of the Army by the M1895 individual ammo pouches, which is why they ended up in use with the Marines.

The soldiers also have the uniform tunic and trousers that are distinctive to this particular unit (the Trieste Sebatallion, for example, had grey uniforms of the same cut as the infantry). The design is that of the regular sailor outfits, including the distinctive sailor collar, but with chest pockets added and in beige instead of white (summer) or dark blue (winter). The cap is the regular sailor cap in either white or blue depending on the time of the year and with a band which either states the name of the ship the seaman came from, or, in the case of soldiers moved in form other arms, or from on-shore postings simply said "K.u.K Kriegsmarine" (Austro-Hungarian Navy).

Other than that, the gear is pretty standard for the K.u.K. - Mannlicher M1895 rifle, haversack with the M.1899 mess kit, canvas bread bag, M.1888 steel enamelled canteen with cup, M1895 bayonet and frog and entrenching tool with leather carrier.

When it comes to the drawing I should also point out the blue logo just above the flag - that is the log of the European Union of Military-Historical Groups (UEWHG - Union der Europäischen Wehrhistorischen Gruppen ) of which my group is part since 2009.

Oh, and the ship on the horizon is the 1902 battleship "SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max", which was based at Pola in 1918, handed over to the newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and later awarded as war reparations to Britain before being broken up for scrap in 1921.