The 101st Infantry Battalion (Separate) was an independent battalion on the US Army designed to be formed of Austrian-Americans and Austrian Nationals resident in the United States.
[1] In 1942 the United States created several separate infantry battalions composed of Americans of ethnic descent or citizens of certain nations who were not yet American citizens.
[3] Zita of Bourbon-Parma, the wife of the last Emperor of Austria supposedly lobbied the American government for such a unit following President Franklin D. Roosevelt's officially declared restoration of an independent Austria to be an American war aim.
Three of her sons Carl, Rudolf and Felix von Habsburg served in the unit that served at Camp Atterbury, Indiana.
[4] Werner von Trapp also served in the Battalion.