THE FUNERAL PROCESSION

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POUR LE M~RITE WITH OAK LEAVES

It is most interesting to find out that this capable officer of the old Austrian Army got as high as Fieldmarshal, was pensioned off by the then Czech Government as an Army General retired, 4 stars, and, in the end, was promoted by Hitler to Generalfeldmar- schall, the highest rank in the Nazi Army, with the provision that he could carry his old Austrian baton. This baton, unfortunately, with the uniform and nearly all his orders, is lost. It would have been a tremendous show to display the Commanders Cross of the Military Maria-Theresien Order and the Imperial Pour le M~rite with oak leaves.

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The dossier which I received through the good offices of the U.S. Military Attache in Prague is a copy of the original and contains the permission granted to the Fieldmarshal to use both names, B~hm- Ermolli, since the Czechs had abolished the nobility. This copy is extremely rare. Apparently Austrian Military Archives sent the original to Prague shortly before the revolution, since most entries are in German. Not until January 6, 1920, was the first entry made in Czech, promoting him to General of the Second Class, which is in error, since that rank did not exist. It should have been General of the First Rank. The last two entries in Czech are of importance. The January I, 1930 entry indicates that the permanent rank of Army General retired was accorded to B~hm-Ermolli with a life-long pension of Kc 39,000. The last entry of May i, 1934 again mentions him as an Army General retired and includes permis- sion granted to use the double name.

B6hm-Ermolli was involved in the battle of Zborow, since he was in charge of the Heeresgruppe (Army Group) BOhm-Ermolli as Colonel- General, and specifically of the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army, which he commanded with his Chief of Staff, Dr. Carl Freiherrn yon Bardolf, Major-General.

The following information is taken from a seemingly highly reliable book, "Die Tschechoslowakische Legion in Russland," which was used as an Inaugural-Dissertation to obtain a Doctors Degree of Philo- sophy from Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany. Because is was printed and officially accepted to deliver a Doctoral Disser- tation, I have no doubt that the information given is true, though apart from this book it might not be 9asy to find objective and truthfu! publications regarding Zborow.

The Czechoslovak Republic celebrated Zborow as a special day of victory, since this was the first time that Czech units fought in disciplined units and actually succeeded in breaking into the Austro-Hungarian lines. No doubt it was a small victory, but nevertheless a victory. Every year the action of Zborow, 1 and 2 July 1917, was celebrated in Czechoslovakia. It had a special attraction to me because it always seemed that something was "fishy." I dug in deeper to get to the truth, and to my astonishment the Milit~rwissenschaftliche Institut in Vienna, Austria, produced a copy of the main excerpts from the above-mentioned book. It was a great revelation and at the same time a great disappointment. The three Czechoslovak Regiments, commanded by Russian Colonel Seliva- cev, were right across the line from the k.u.k. 19 Infantry Divi- sion, and specifically the 35 and 75 Infantry Regiments. Most soldiers in these regiments came from the Pilsen area in southern Bohemia. 61% of the 35th were Czechs and 82% of the 75th were Czechs.

The Czechoslovak Legion consisting of 3150 men, it is officially claimed, took prisoner 62 officers and 3150 men, about 15 guns, and other material. No one of the Czech Legion was taken prisoner, which would, of course, have been the same as suicide. General Janin, the French Attache, stated that when he visited the Czech Brigade on July I, 1917, he obtained from Russian Colonel Trojanov the information that his men cut holes into the wire of the Aus- trian line the night before, unbothered by their enemies. One thing is certain. The Czech Brigade knew of the presence across the line of Infantry Regiments numbers 35 and 75, since this was communicated to them by the Russian High Command. Also, it has been established without doubt that the will to fight of the Czechs in the Austrian Army quickly deteriorated when they recognized, in hand to hand combat, that they were facing their own people - Czechs. Considerable units of these two Austrian Regiments surrendered with- out seeing any kind of action.

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