Transylvanian Regiments and the Székely Division

Károly Kratochvil Szentkereszthegyi (1869-1946) was a military officer, commander of the Székely Division. In 1894 he entered the Vienna Military Academy, which was considered the anteroom of the General Staff. Shortly after completing his studies, in 1900, he was appointed Captain of the General Staff. It is characteristic of his qualifications and abilities that from then on he became a teacher first at the Pécs Military School and then at the Ludovika Academy. The talented young officer was also noticed at court, and from 1909 he supervised the education of Archduke Joseph's two sons, Archduke Joseph Ferenc and Archduke László Liutpold. At the beginning of the First World War, he was exempted from court service at his own request and assigned to front-line service. From the end of 1914 (as a lieutenant colonel) he served in the Royal Hungarian Army. He became commander of the 4th Infantry Regiment in Oradea, and with his regiment he traveled throughout both the Galician and Italian theaters of war. During the battles of the Isonzo, his regiment distinguished itself in the defense of the Monte San Michele hill near Görz. During the long, harsh fighting, their uniforms became so dirty that they were unrecognizable, which is why the regiment was later nicknamed the "clay men". Kratochvil became commander of the 39th Brigade (which included the 4th Regiment). In 1917, he received the Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order for his heroic deeds during World War I in 1929. At the end of 1918, after the defeat in the war, he led his troops in closed military order to their station in Oradea, which was considered a significant act under the circumstances of the time (Béla Linder's infamous statement and the agitation among the front-line soldiers). In November 1918, he was appointed to head the 5th Transylvanian Military District Command, in Kolozsvár. This was actually only an administrative position (since the soldiers of the formations had been dispersed due to the fault of the revolutionary government), and he did not have any actual military force at his disposal. In December 1918, seeing the Romanian invasion of Transylvania, he made efforts to create opportunities for armed resistance, and he hastily organized recruitment to replenish the former Transylvanian regiments. In Kolozsvár, he approached some young Székely reserve officers who offered to recruit volunteers from the already occupied Székely Land. Kratochvil accepted the plan, and this recruitment laid the foundation for the later creation of the Székely Division. On December 24, 1918, the Romanian troops entered Kolozsvár. Kratochvil had previously decided - since they were not yet suitable for successful resistance - to withdraw his troops further west, to the heights, passes and gorges that marked the geographical border of Transylvania, and there to await further reinforcements. The Székely Division and other troops under the Transylvanian Military District Command (both of which were commanded by Kratochvil) blocked the Romanians' path from the Máramarossziget to the Belényesi Basin from January to April 16, 1919. However, on March 21, after the proclamation of the Soviet Republic, Kratochvil visited the head of the Transylvanian Governing Council and declared that he was "ready to fight alongside the Romanian army against the dictatorship of the proletariat". Kratochvil wrote in his memoirs that on April 16 he "regrouped" his division - that is, he retreated without the permission of the military command. In his report to the military command, he justified his decision by saying that he had suffered 60% losses from the Romanians, which was not true. On April 20, 1919, he broke off all contact with the People's Commissariat for War and began negotiations with the Romanians about surrendering. On the 26th, they laid down their arms at Demecser. After the surrender, the Romanians, despite their promise, interned Kratochvil and his fellow officers in Brasov for a while. After his release from captivity (in the meantime, a trial was being held against him on charges of crimes against the Romanian state, which also included the death penalty), he was appointed commander of the Debrecen mixed brigade and military district in 1921 with the rank of lieutenant general. At the end of his military career, in 1923-24, he was director of the Military History Museum, and then retired relatively young and in full force. His unpublished writings, diaries, and notes are not only an excellent and indispensable source for historians, but also an exciting war history for those interested in the everyday life of the chaotic years after World War I. Some parts of the notes testify to an even earlier period, to the events of the Western Front (e.g., Isonzo) or the hell of Galicia. Although some of these writings were published in a collected edition in the 1930s, most of them were only published in newspaper articles. Equally exciting are the stories of the Transylvanian war theater, his daily chronicles, and the unknown knowledge of the contemporary reports and accounts made with the author, which until now only appeared in the columns of Hargitaváralja, Pesti Hírlap, Egyetértés, Ellenzék, Nemzeti Újság, and Kis Újság between 1933 and 1942.