In 1908, for camouflage reasons the Imperial Royal army decided to abandon the traditional bright- coloured uniforms with shiny buttons and adopted the grey colour for infantry uniforms - hechtgrau. After the beginning of the war, it turned out that grey was a perfect camouflage on rocky terrains but was less suitable for the rest of the front. Therefore in September 1915 the field-green colour- feldgrau - was adopted. It was similar to the Italian and German ones.

The Austro-Hungarian infantryman carried a battle equipment of about 30 kg consisting of a rucksack, a complete change of underwear, greatcoat, field blanket, tent cloth, breadbag, water bottle, spade, bayonet, cartridge box and small pan. In another holder was the gas mask of German make. In the shoes they did not use socks but cotton wrap leggings - Fußlappen. Every six months, on 1st April and 1st October, the soldier would receive a new shirt, a pair of underpants and two wrap leggings to replace the worn-out ones.