Publication details
Deník nadporučíka c. k. armády z let 1914—1918. Obrázky českého důstojníka Hynka Doležala z balkánského bojiště Velké války
| Title in English | The Journal of a First Lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1914—1918 .Czech Officer Hynek Doležal's Photographs from the Balkans Theater of the Great War |
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| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Monograph |
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| Description | This book is above all a highly original photographic eye-witness account of the Balkans Theater of the Great War, which today is little known and neglected. The war, which began with the Austro-Hungarian army’s failed offensive against Serbia, resulted in four years of suffering and took millions of lives before ending in victory for the Allies and causing old empires to fall apart––the Austro-Hungarian, the Russian, and the Ottoman Empires. Divisions comprised of Czech volunteers, which began forming in autumn 1914 in Serbia, France, and Russia, from which the well-manned Czechoslovak Legion eventually emerged, helped achieve victory. On the Balkan Front, which is the subject matter of this book, three thousand soldiers and officers of Czech nationality served mainly in the Serbian army. Despite appeals to pan-Slavism and sympathy for the “enemy,” which in the Balkans Theater primarily meant the Serbian army, most mobilized Czech soldiers remained loyal to the “emperor” and to their “broader native land” and thus remained in their regiments or brigades. One Czech who remained loyal to the emperor until the end of the war was Hynek Doležal (30 July 1880–13 June 1938). He was saved from oblivion by the fact that he created a photographic journal that was unparalleled by any other such work produced by a Czech. In fact, his unique images from the Balkans Theater provide interesting insights not only into the Czech and Austrian situation, but also into the situation in Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, and Macedonia. He travelled through all these Balkan countries with his combat unit, and he left striking records of them in his journal. This book presents images selected from a photo album containing 300 photographs. Photographic edition is accompanied by a detailed study of the fate of the author's diary and his forces - first23rd Landwehr Infantry Regiment and later 20th Landsturm Mountain Brigade during the years of the First World War in the Balkans. |