First Battalion, Erzherzog Karl Regiment No 3

Having completing the Poles, now it is onto the Austrians. I have four battalions, the ones gifted to me, assembled and waiting. There are another three battalions still boxed and unassembled. I have decided to do the first of the line battalions as Infantry Regiment Number 3, Erzherzog Karl (Archduke Charles).

The regiment could trace its origins back to 1714 under the name Regiment Jung-Lothrungen zu Fuß. Its initial deployments were on the Austro-Ottoman border fighting against the Turks. It was brought into the Imperial Army as Regiment Number 3 in 1726.

It fought in the War of Polish Succession (1733-35), then, alongside the Russians, against the Turks again ten years later. It fought in the War of Austrian Succession, the Seven Years War, the War of Bavarian Succession and against the Turks again in the 1790.

In the Revolutionary Wars, the regiment served under Generalmajor Hegel in the actions that drove the French under Jourdan and Moreau back across the Rhine.

When Austrians joined the Fifth Coalition in 1809 it was generally considered one of the elite infantry regiments in the army.  In V Corps it fought at Landshut, Teugen-Hausen, Abensberg, Eggmühl, and Regensburg. At Aspern-Essling it was involved in the furious fighting in the streets around granary, suffering heavy casualties, but played a critical role in securing the tactical victory. A few weeks later at Wagram, in IV Corps, it endured the devastating artillery bombardment and defended against massed French infantry assaults. In 1813 it fought in the campaigns in Saxony and Bohemia, fighting at Dresden, Klum and Leipzig.

After the Napoleonic Wars the regiment fought in Italy in 1848 under Radetsky, fighting at Custoza and Novara. It went on to help suppress the revolts in Vienna and fought in the campaign in Hungary. In 1859 it fought in Italy again, at Solferino and in 1866 and was involved in the disastrous Bohemian Campaign, fighting in Gablenz's 10th Corps at Trautenau, Burkersdorf and Königgrätz.

In the Great War the regiment first served on the Eastern Front, in Galicia against the Russians, helping defeat them in at the Battle of Krasnik. Later after the offensive failed and the front stabilised, the regiment was transferred to the Italian Front where it remained until the end of the war. Disbanded in November 1918, elements of the regiment, largely Czechs, were absorbed into the newly formed Czechoslovakian army.