201st Division (German Empire)

201st Division
Division headquarters in Okopy (near Baranowitschi) October 1916 BC left: Rittmeister dR Heckt, Adjutant, Lieutenant General von Dickhuth-Harrach, Rittmeister dR Hasbach, Oberlt.dR Hannemann Kdr. of the headquarters,?
active	July 6, 1916 to October 22, 1918
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Prussian Army
Type	Infantry division
structure	XVII. Army Corps
First World War	Eastern Front Western front Great battle in France Second Battle of the Marne
Commanders
Please refer:	Commanders

The 201st Division was a major unit of the Prussian army in the First World War .

structure

Division of War 1916

• 401st Infantry Brigade
  • Infantry Regiment No. 401
  • Infantry Regiment No. 402
• 402nd Infantry Brigade
  • Infantry Regiment No. 403
  • Infantry Regiment No. 404
  • Field Artillery Division No. 401
  • Field Artillery Regiment No. 402
  • Engineer Company No. 401

Division of War 1917

• 402nd Infantry Brigade
  • Infantry Regiment No. 401
  • Infantry Regiment No. 402
  • Infantry Regiment No. 403
  • 4th Squadron / Jäger Regiment on Horseback No. 4
  • 4th Squadron / Westphalian Dragoon Regiment No. 7
  • Field Artillery Regiment No. 401
  • Engineer Battalion No. 201

Division of War of February 5, 1918

• 402nd Infantry Brigade
  • Infantry Regiment No. 401
  • Infantry Regiment No. 402
  • Infantry Regiment No. 403
  • 4th Squadron / Westphalian Dragoon Regiment No. 7
• Artillery Commander No. 156
  • Field Artillery Regiment No. 402
• Engineer Battalion No. 201
• Division News Commander # 201

history

The division was formed from new infantry regiments, which had been composed exclusively of replacement battalions and consisted of troops from the garrison of the Thorn Fortress . In 1916 the majority of the young people fit for military service had already been drawn and trained, so that such training units were no longer necessary. The general inventory decree was issued at the beginning of July 1916, the numbering was mostly done at the beginning of October 1916. Since there was a risk that Holland and Denmark would side with the Allies, this unit was initially intended as a coastal and border guard. The formation was carried out by Lieutenant General Gustaf von Dickhuth-Harrach and his First General Staff Officer, Captain Bulcke, and the command was in Allenstein .

The division always had an unusually high rate of capture casualties during its active engagements. When they were dissolved, fewer than 1,000 rifles are said to have been in their possession.

Battle calendar

1916

• 0July 6th to December 31st - trench warfare on the upper Shchara - Servetsch
  • July 10th to August 9th - Battle of Baranovichi- Gorodishche
  • 0November 9-10 - Skrobowa battle

1917

• 0January 1 to September 11 - trench warfare on the upper Shchara-Servetsch
• September 12th to November 30th - trench warfare on the upper Shchara – Servetsch – Nyemen
• November 12th - Battle at Vygoda
• November 30th to December 3rd - transport to the west ( Baranowitschi - Brest-Litowsk - Warsaw - Chemnitz - Nuremberg - Heilbronn - Rastatt - Saargemünd ). The 402nd Infantry Brigade was in the west as early as June 1918
• from December 3rd - trench warfare in Lorraine

1918

• to January 9th - Trench warfare in Lorraine
• January 10-16 - Trench warfare in Lorraine and the Vosges
• January 16 to June 9 - Trench warfare on the Meuse heights near Saint-Mihiel and in the Ailly and Apremont woods
• June 10-13 - Battle of Soissons and Reims
• June 14th to July 4th - trench warfare between Oise , Aisne and Marne
• 0July 5th to 17th - Trench warfare between Aisne and Marne
• July 18-25 - Defensive battle between Soissons and Reims
• July 26th to August 3rd - Mobile defensive battle between Marne and Vesle
• 04th to 31st August - Trench warfare in the Argonne
• 0September 3rd to 7th - fighting before the Siegfried Line
• 0September 8th to October 8th - defensive battle between Cambrai and Saint-Quentin
• 0September 18th Battle of Épehy
• 0October 9th to 13th - fights in front of and in the Hermann position
• October 26th - Division disbanded

Commanders

Rank	Surname	date
Lieutenant General	Gustaf von Dickhuth-Harrach	0July 5, 1916 to November 11, 1917
Lieutenant General	Ludwig Bachelin	November 12, 1917 to October 26, 1918

photos

• Eastern Front Gorodishche (north of Baranowitschi)
• 

  Captain Henke - General Staff Officer 201st ID in Division Staff 201nd ID in Okopy (near Baranowitschi) October 1916

• 

  Visit of the Div. Kdr. And the Austrian Kdr. KuK IR. 64 in Baranowitschi swamp forest, October 1916

• 

  Shelters in the Pogorjeletz Forest - IR. 403 - winter 1916/17

• Western Front Marne
• 

  Chateau Thierry - Positions IR401, 402, 403 on July 6, 1918

• 

  Height 204 north west. Chateau Thierry - Positions IR401, 402, 403 - late June to July 20, 1918

literature

• The battles and skirmishes of the Great War 1914–1918. Great General Staff, Berlin 1919.
• 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. 648-650.
• Hall of Fame of our Old Army. Published on the basis of official material from the Reichsarchiv , Militär-Verlag, Berlin 1927, pp. 74, 164.
• E. Berger: The 201st Infantry Division in World War I 1914-18. Stuttgart 1922.

Web links

Commons : IR 403  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Map with positions on Google Maps

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Histories of Two Hundred and Fifty One Divisions of the German Army Which Participated in the War, 1914-18: USA 1920
2. ↑ Dermot Bradley (ed.), Günter Wegner: Occupation of the German Army 1815-1939. Volume 1: The higher command posts 1815–1939. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1990, ISBN 3-7648-1780-1 , p. 152.