48th Reserve Division (German Empire)

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48th Reserve Division

active August 25, 1914 to January 10, 1919
Country German EmpireThe German Imperium German Empire
Armed forces Prussian Army
Type Infantry Division
structure See: Outline
First World War Eastern Front
Battle for Łódź
Battle in the Carpathian Mountains
Battle of Gorlice-Tarnów
Brusilov offensive

Western front

Commanders
Please refer: List of commanders

The 48th Reserve Division was a major unit of the Prussian army in the First World War . It had been founded in September 1914 and was part of the first wave of new reserve divisions at the beginning of the World War, which were numbered 43rd to 54th.

structure

The division was relatively mixed, but most of the members came from the areas of the XI. and XVIII. Army Corps . The Reserve Infantry Regiments No. 221 and 222 were in the Grand Duchy of Hesse , the Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 223 in the Province of Hesse-Nassau , each with a battalion from the former Electorate of Hesse , the Duchy of Nassau , and the city of Frankfurt am Main excavated. The Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 224 came from the Thuringian states and the Prussian province of Saxony. Numerous Alsace-Lorraine residents also served in it.

Division of war on January 9, 1915

  • 95th Reserve Infantry Brigade
    • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 221
    • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 222
  • 96th Reserve Infantry Brigade
    • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 223
    • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 224
    • Reserve Hunter Battalion No. 20
  • Reserve Cavalry Division No. 48
  • Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 48
  • Reserve foot artillery battery No. 24
  • Reserve foot artillery battery No. 25
  • Reserve Engineer Company No. 48

Division of War of July 6, 1918

  • 96th Reserve Infantry Brigade
  • Artillery Commander No. 48
    • Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 48
    • 1st Battalion / Foot Artillery Regiment No. 23
  • Engineer Battalion No. 348
  • Divisional News Commander # 448

Battle calendar

After completion of training in October 1914, the division was concentrated in the Metz area and initially deployed on the western front in the Artois in the Lille area. In November the XXIV Reserve Corps with the 47th and 48th Reserve Divisions was transferred to the Eastern Front. While the 48th Division took part in the fighting of the 9th Army in the area south of Łódź , the 47th Reserve Division was transported to Krakow to reinforce the Austrians . During the Battle of Belchatow , the 48th Reserve Division, together with Menges Division and the Hauer Cavalry Corps , attacked the Widawa- Zdunska Wola line at the end of November .

Since January 13, 1915, a German Carpathian Corps under General Alexander von Linsingen with the 48th Reserve Division, the 1st and 3rd Guard Division and the 5th Cavalry Division was set up to reinforce the Austrians. These units were combined as the so-called German Southern Army and pushed in on the eastern section of the front between the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army and the army group of General Karl von Pflanzer-Baltin , which followed at Nadworna .

Between February and May 1915, the 48th Reserve Division was used in the winter battle in the Carpathians and wrestled at the Czyrak. As a result of the breakthrough battle of Gorlice-Tarnów , the accompanying attack of the southern army in the direction of Stanislau took place . The division wrestled at Zydaczow between June 10 and 22, and reached Gnila-Lipa at the end of June. In mid-July, troops of the Gerok corps forced the Dniester crossing at Zurawno. In the course of the Russian Great Withdrawal , the division reached the Zlota Lipa near Podhajce and by the end of August the Styr in the area south of Tarnopol . At the end of September changeable position battles began on the Strypa between Wosuszka and the Sereth . In the summer of 1916, the 48th Reserve Division was in defense in this area during the Russian Brusilov offensive and had to fall back before strong Russian attacks on the Zlota-Lipa and the Bystrzyca. From October 1916 to April 1917 the division was subordinate to the Imperial and Royal 3rd Army and subsequently to the Imperial and Royal 2nd Army .

In May 1917 the division returned to the Western Front, where it was deployed on the western bank of the Meuse near Verdun . On October 7, 1917, the division of Army Division A was transferred to Lorraine and was used in the Medewich section. From the beginning of December 1917 to mid-February 1918, the division was in Upper Alsace. From March 1918, the division acted as an army reserve in Flanders and was used in April in the Battle of Armentières . During the Allied Hundred Day Offensive , the division fought in the Battle of the Scarpe and had to go back to the Siegfried Line. Defensive battles between Cambrai and St. Quentin followed at the beginning of October, and at the end of the war the division was fighting in the Valenciennes area . The 48th Reserve Division was disbanded in early 1919.

Commanders

Rank Surname date
Lieutenant General Ferdinand von Hahn August 25, 1914 to June 7, 1915
Lieutenant General Hermann von Oppeln-Bronikowski June 8, 1915 to May 25, 1917
Major general Konrad von Hippel May 26, 1917 to February 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. p. 71.
  • Hermann Cron et al .: Old Army's Hall of Fame. Berlin 1935.
  • Hermann Cron: History of the German Army in the World War 1914–1918. Berlin 1937.