Austro-Hungarian Feldküche M.1915

[David]

The Austro-Hungarian used two different cooking wagons in WW1. The Feldküche M.1905 was the older and bigger variant, used to serve an entire company. Due to the fact that the Austria-Hungarians often had to fight in very rugged terrain, a lighter, more versatile type was also put into service. (A big cooking wagon, like the standard in the German Army, the Große Feldküche Hf.13W, needed four horses to move on bad roads or difficult terrain. And the bigger Austro-Hungarian variant weighed just over a ton when fully loaded.) This was the Feldküche M.1915. The Feldküche M.1915 had several interesting features. It was considerably lighter, and often needed just one horse to be moved. It had three 40 liters kettles, using the so called Warchalowski System, which meant that they were placed in a sort of turntable, enabling them to be moved around in relation to the fire - which, unlike the German system, was working directly on the vessels. The kettles were oval and and could lifted up from the cart, and put on a special cradle on a pack horse: two kettles per horse. Thus, one of these cooking carts could supply 120 soldiers with hot food.