17th Reserve Division (German Empire)

17th Reserve Division
active	August 2, 1914 to January 1919
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Prussian Army
Armed forces	army
Type	division
structure	See: Outline
Insinuation	IX. Reserve Corps
First World War	Western front Battle of the Somme Second battle of Cambrai
Commanders
Please refer:	List of commanders

Monument to the fallen of the "Lübeck" infantry regiment (3rd Hanseatic) No. 162 in Lübeck

Division of War of the 17th Reserve Division in 1916

Monument to the Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 76 in Hamburg

The 17th Reserve Division was a major unit of the Prussian army in the First World War .

structure

Organization of war during mobilization in 1914

• 81st Infantry Brigade
  • Infantry Regiment "Lübeck" (3rd Hanseatic) No. 162
  • Schleswig-Holstein Infantry Regiment No. 163
• 33rd Reserve Infantry Brigade
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 75
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 76
• Reserve Hussar Regiment No. 6
• Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 17
• 4th Company / Schleswig-Holstein Pioneer Battalion No. 9

Division of War of March 28, 1918

• 81st Infantry Brigade
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 76
  • Lübeck Infantry Regiment (3rd Hanseatic) No. 162
  • Schleswig-Holstein Infantry Regiment No. 163
• 1st Squadron / Reserve Hussar Regiment No. 6
• Artillery Commander No. 110
  • Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 17
• Engineer Battalion No. 317
  • 4th Company / Engineer Battalion No. 9
  • Engineer Company No. 340
  • Mine thrower company No. 217
• Division News Commander No. 417

Battle calendar

The division was formed with the mobilization at the outbreak of the First World War on August 2, 1914 and consisted of troops from the Free Hanseatic Cities and Schleswig-Holstein . It contained the regular 81st Infantry Brigade from Lübeck and the 33rd Mixed Reserve Infantry Brigade, which came mainly from Hamburg and Bremen . Besides these, other troops came from the province of Hanover . At the beginning of the war it formed together with the 18th Reserve Division the IX. Reserve Corps .

The division fought on the Western Front , was involved in the war crime of Leuven and was in the Aisne area until September 1915. In February 1915, the division formed a recruit depot in Libermont . From here it went to Flanders and the Artois. Here she stayed in trench warfare until June 1916. From mid-July to late October she fought in the Battle of the Somme . The division remained in the trenches off Ypres until May 1917. In May she fought in the Siegfried Line before heading back to Flanders. In 1918 she fought in the Battle of Kemmel (part of the Fourth Battle of Flanders ), in front of Soissons and Reims and as part of the Hundred Days Offensive at the second Battle of Cambrai . The Allied reconnaissance classified the division as an "elite division".

At the end of August 1918, the severely decimated regiments marched through places they knew well from the years up to 1916 to convalescent in Bohain . There should deputations of its constituents on Sedan Day in the former commanding general of the Reserve Corps, Max von Boehn (the winner of Aisne ), vorbeiparadierten . It should be their last.

The division was demobilized by January 1919 and finally disbanded.

1914

• August 25th to September 7th --- Security against Antwerp
  • August 25th --- Street fight in Leuven
• September 15th to 17th --- Fights on the Aisne
  • September 15th to 18th --- Battle of Noyon
• October 2nd to 15th --- Fights at Roye
• from October 16 --- Trench warfare west of Roye-Noyon

1915

• until October 16 --- Trench warfare west of Roye-Noyon
  • January 8-14 --- Battle of Soissons
• from October 21st --- Trench warfare in Flanders and Artois

1916

• until June 23rd --- Position battles in Flanders and Artois
• June 24th to July 7th --- Reconnaissance and demonstration battles by the 6th Army in connection with the Battle of the Somme
• July 7th to 19th --- Position battles in Flanders and Artois
• July 19 to August 25 --- Battle of the Somme
• August 25th to September 26th --- Trench warfare in Flanders and Artois
• September 28th to October 16th --- Battle of the Somme
• from October 26th --- Trench warfare on the Yser

1917

• until May 9th --- Trench warfare on the Yser
• May 9th to 20th --- Spring battle near Arras
• May 21st to November 5th --- Trench warfare in Flanders and Artois
• November 6th to 15th --- Fights in the Siegfried Line
• November 15th to December 3rd --- Autumn battle in Flanders
• from December 4th --- Trench warfare in Flanders

1918

• until April 9th ​​--- position battles in Flanders
• April 10th to 29th --- Battle of the Kemmel
• April 30th to June 3rd --- Trench warfare in Flanders
• June 5-8 --- Battle of Soissons and Reims
• June 9-13 --- Battle of Noyon
• June 9th to August 7th --- Fights on the Avre and Matz
• August 8 to September 3 --- Defensive battle between the Somme and Oise
  • August 9-27 --- Battle of Roye and Lassigny
• September 3 to 7 --- Fighting in front of the Siegfried Front
• September 8th to 15th --- Defensive battle between Cambrai and St. Quentin
• September 15 to October 3 --- Trench warfare in the Woëvre plain and west of the Moselle
• October 3 to 10 --- Defensive battle in Flanders
• October 11th to 28th --- Fights in front of and in the Hermann position
• November 1st to 11th --- Trench warfare in Lorraine
• from November 12th --- evacuation of the occupied territory and march home

Commanders

Rank	Surname	date
Lieutenant General	Gustav Wagener	August 2 to September 21, 1914
Major general	Richard von Kraewel	September 22nd to November 22nd, 1914
Major general	Max Schwarte	November 23, 1914 to February 13, 1915
Major General / Lieutenant General	Ernst von Hoeppner	February 14 to June 29, 1915
Major general	Ernst von Ziethen	June 30, 1915 to April 12, 1916
Lieutenant General	Hugo Freiherr von Freytag-Loringhoven	April 13 to December 19, 1916
Major general	Ernst von Reuter	December 20, 1916 to April 14, 1917
Major General / Lieutenant General	Albert of Mutius	April 15, 1917 to January 9, 1919

literature

• Hall of Fame of our Old Army. Published on the basis of official material from the Reich Archives . Military Publishing House. Berlin 1927. pp. 66, 115-116.
• Histories of Two Hundred and Fifty-One Divisions of the German Army Which Participated in the War (1914-1918). United States War Office as War Department Document No. 905. Office of the Adjutant. 1920. pp. 279-282.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hugo Gropp: Hanseatic people in battle ; on behalf of the Association of former Members of Reserve 86 e. V. ', 1932 Hamburg
2. ↑ Histories of Two Hundred and Fifty-One Divisions of the German Army which Participated in the War (1914-1918), compiled from Records of Intelligence Section of the General Staff, American Ecpeditionary Forces, at General Headquarters , Chaumont, France 1919 (1920 ), Pp. 279-282
3. ↑ Dermot Bradley (Ed.), Günter Wegner: Occupation of the German Army 1815-1939. Volume 1: The higher command posts 1815-1939. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1990. ISBN 3-7648-1780-1 . P. 172.