51st Reserve Division (German Empire)

51st Reserve Division
active	August 1914 to January 1919
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Prussian Army
Armed forces	army
Type	Infantry Division
structure	See: Outline
First World War	Western front First Battle of Flanders Second Battle of Flanders Battle of the Somme Battle of the Aisne German spring offensive 1918 Meuse-Argonne offensive
Commanders
Please refer:	Commanders

The 51st Reserve Division was a major unit of the Prussian army in the First World War .

Lineup

The division was set up with the Prussian Reserve Divisions 43 to 54 and the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division in August 1914 during the first major army increase at the outbreak of World War I and together with the 52nd Reserve Division formed the XXVI. Reserve Corps .

The Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 233 was set up in Meiningen with regimental staff, 1st and 2nd Battalion and machine gun platoon from the replacement troop unit of the 2nd Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 32 . The III. The battalion was formed from the replacement troops of the 6th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 95 in Gotha . The regiment was transferred to the training area in Ohrdruf for training .

The Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 234 was in Kassel with regimental staff, 1st battalion and machine gun platoon from the replacement troop part of the infantry regiment "von Wittich" (3rd Kurhessisches) No. 83 , the 2nd battalion from the replacement troop part of the 1st Upper Alsatian Infantry Regiment No. 167 formed. The III. Battalion was formed by the replacement troop part of the 2nd Kurhessian Infantry Regiment No. 82 in Göttingen . About 75% of the teams were volunteers, such as numerous Göttingen students.

The Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 235 in Koblenz was formed from the replacement units of the Infantry Regiment “von Goeben” (2nd Rhenish) No. 28 and 6th Rhenish Infantry Regiment No. 68 and in Bonn from the 9th Rhenish Infantry -Regiment No. 160 established .

The Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 236 was in Cologne- Deutz from the 5th Rhenish Infantry Regiment No. 65 , Infantry Regiment "von Lützow" (1st Rhenish) No. 25 and Infantry Regiment "Freiherr von Sparr" (3rd Westphalian) No. 16 formed.

The troops consisted mainly of volunteers and older reservists as well as officers, most of whom had left active, reserve or landwehr status for a long time and were thus either already retired or put up for disposition. After a shortened training period of only eight weeks, the young troops were thrown into the focus of fighting on the Western Front.

structure

Division of War of September 10, 1914

• 101st Reserve Infantry Brigade
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 233
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 234
  • Reserve Hunter Battalion No. 23
• 102nd Reserve Infantry Brigade
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 235
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 236 (transferred to 195th Infantry Division in August 1916 )
• Division troops
  • Reserve Cavalry Division No. 51
  • Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 51
  • Reserve Engineer Company 51

The weaknesses of the structure were, first, that no infantry brigade commanders were available, so that the division had to manage the tactical deployment of four infantry regiments and two fighter battalions at the same time, a task that could hardly be solved under the circumstances. Second, the artillery, equipped with only one field artillery regiment and outdated artillery, was too weak and had too few artillery commanders to advise the appropriate combat troop commanders.

Division of War of February 16, 1918

• 102nd Reserve Infantry Brigade
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 234
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 235
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 236
  • Machine Rifle Sniper Division 73
  • Reserve Cavalry Division No. 51
• Artillery Commander No. 51
  • Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 51
  • I./Reserve Foot Artillery Regiment No. 11 (from April 16, 1918)
• Staff Engineer Battalion 351
  • Reserve Engineer Company 51
  • 7th Company / Engineer Battalion No. 28
  • Mine Thrower Company 251
• Division News Commander # 451

history

The contested Langemarck

Second battle of Ypres

Shot German position on the Somme

German trench on the Aisne

The division fought on the Western Front throughout the war . In October 1914 she came as part of the XXVI. Reserve Corps to Flanders when the war of movement entered its final phase with the advance on the Channel coast. In the heavy fighting near Ypres , the regiments inexperienced in the war suffered heavy losses in mass attacks when they tried unsuccessfully to take Langemarck and Mangelaere.

The division then went to the Yser to trench warfare over.

In April 1915 she joined the 4th Army to attack again. In the Second Battle of Ypres , for the first time, deadly chlorine gas was used on a large scale , but when the division began its attack, it had already decomposed and had little effect due to the warm, sunny weather. The 51st Reserve Division ran in vain against the positions of the 45th French and 1st Canadian divisions at Langemarck and St. Julien and had to dig in again after heavy losses on both sides and little gain in terrain. The division remained in Flanders until September 1916.

In the meantime the major Allied offensive on the Somme , which had been going on since July, had brought about a crisis, and the division, after being quickly loaded into the focus of the Allied attacks at Combles, was deployed. Heavily fortified and sheltered by the surrounding hills, Combles was the cornerstone of the northern part of the summer at the interface between the British and the French. Underground caverns made it possible to provide reserves and the handling of weapons and ammunition, while the network of roads and a light railway ensured communications and supply connections. When the division arrived, however, Combles was already in the immediate fire zone, threatened by the 56th London Division from the western wooded areas, and French attack formations were pushing up from the south and east. On September 25, the enemy broke through on the flanks and blocked off the remaining connection route to the north; only with heavy losses could the melted companies break through one by one at night.

The division was now transferred to Champagne , where it was replenished with new forces. On February 15, 1917, she went to the successful attack at Ripont on Ferme Maison de Champagne, where an important height should be taken. The German Army Report reported: “ In the Champagne south of Ripont, after effective preparation by artillery and mortars, an attack was carried out by our infantry with care and guts to full success. In the storm, four enemy lines were taken at the Champagne Ferme and at height 185 at a width of 2,600 meters and a depth of 800 meters. 21 officers and 837 men are captured, 20 machine guns and a mine thrower brought in as booty. "

In May 1917, the division was in the successful defense against the French attack on the Aisne in use.

From August to October 1917 the division fought in front of Verdun , where it was used on September 9, 1917 in the unsuccessful attack operation "chicken hunt" to recapture height 344. Supported by storm pioneers with flamethrower troops and machine guns, the infantry regiments fought their way across the heights to the rear slope, but were thrown back almost to the starting positions by French counter-attacks in the fog when there was insufficient artillery support.

The division returned to Champagne in autumn 1917 . There she went to the Great Battle of France in March 1918 .

The division also took part in the last offensive operations on the Marne in the summer of 1918, in which German troops did reach the Marne, but the attacking power of the German units was finally exhausted.

From September to the armistice in November 1918 , the division withstood the Meuse-Argonne offensive against French and American troops, whereby it was classified in American reports as a high-quality major unit of the second line, although it suffered heavy losses towards the end of the war. The division commander Major General Ewald von Kleist was killed on October 28, 1918 in the heavy defensive battles . He was the last German general of the First World War to be killed in action at the front.

Battle calendar

1914

• October 18 to November 30, 1914 --- Battle of the Yser
  • October 19, 1914 --- Rumbeke and Roulers
  • October 20, 1914 --- Westroosebeke
  • October 21 to 28, 1914 --- Poelcappelle, Mangaare, Langemarck
• from December 1st --- trench warfare on the Yser
  • December 11, 1914 --- French attempted breakthrough at Wallemolen

1915

• until April 21 --- Trench warfare on the Yser
• April 22nd to May 25th --- Fighting for Ypres
  • April 22nd to 23rd --- Big breakthrough via Pilkem- Langemarck to the heights north of Ypres (first gas attack on the German side)
  • April 23rd --- Storming of Kerselaer
  • April 24th --- Storming of St. Julien and de Roode-Carrière-Ferme
  • 2nd to 3rd May --- Storming of Vanheule-Ferme
  • May 8th --- Storming the heights east of Wieltje
  • May 13th to 24th --- Fighting for the heights northeast of Ypres
• from May 26th --- Trench warfare on the Yser

1916

• until September 16 --- trench warfare on the Yser
• September 19-30 --- Battle of the Somme
• October 4th to December 31st --- Trench warfare in Champagne

1917

• January 1st to May 15th --- Trench warfare in Champagne
  • February 15, 1917 --- Removal of Altitude 185 south of Ripont
  • February 15th to April 1st --- Battle for the heights south of Ripont
• May 24-27 --- Battle of Champagne
• May 28th to June 10th --- Trench warfare near Reims
• June 14th to August 14th --- Position battles in Champagne
• August 20 to October 5 --- Defense battle near Verdun
• October 10th to 19th --- Position battles near Verdun
• from December 17th --- Trench warfare in Champagne

1918

• until February 27th --- position battles in Champagne
  • February 13-27 --- Fights between Tahure and the Butte du Mesnil
• March 2nd to 20th --- Training
• March 21st to April 6th --- Company Michael
• April 7th to May 2nd --- Fights near Montdidier
• May 7th to 24th --- Reserve of the OHL
• May 27th to June 13th --- Battle of Soissons and Reims
  • May 27th --- Storming the heights of the Chemin des Dames
  • May 28th to June 1st --- Pursuit battles between Oise and Aisne and over the Vesle to the Marne
  • May 30th to June 13th --- Aggressive fighting west and southwest of Soissons
• July 18th to 25th --- Defensive battle between Soissons and Reims
• July 26th to August 3rd --- Mobile defensive battle between Marne and Vesle
• 3rd to 28th August --- 7th Army Reserve
• August 29th to September 25th --- Trench warfare near Reims
• September 26th to October 6th --- Defensive battle in Champagne and on the Meuse
• October 10th to 16th --- Fights in front of the Hermann position
• October 21 to November 4 --- Trench warfare on the Aisne
• October 25 to November 1 --- Defensive battle in the Hunding position
• November 5th to 11th --- fighting in retreat in front of the Antwerp- Maas position
• from November 12th --- evacuation of the occupied territory and march home

1919

• by January 15th --- evacuation of the occupied territory and march home

Commanders

Rank	Surname	date
Lieutenant General	Ferdinand Waenker from Dankenschweil	August 23 to November 13, 1914
Lieutenant General	Friedrich von Kleist	November 14, 1914 to April 21, 1916
Major general	Felix Langer	April 22 to August 19, 1916
Lieutenant General	Hermann Heidborn	August 20 to September 4, 1916
Major General / Lieutenant General	William Balck	0September 5, 1916 to March 4, 1918
Lieutenant General	Albert Fritsch	0March 5-20, 1918
Lieutenant General	Gustav von Förster	March 21 to July 26, 1918
Major general	Ewald von Kleist	July 27 to October 29, 1918
Major general	Conrad Wolf	October 30, 1918 to January 10, 1919

literature

• Hall of Fame of our old army, 5th edition, Berlin
• The battles and skirmishes of the Great War 1914–1918, published by the Great General Staff, Berlin 1919
• Honorary ranking list of the former German Army based on the ranking lists from 1914 with the changes that have occurred in the meantime, Berlin 1926
• Formation history of the German infantry in the First World War 1914–1918, Hartwig Busche, 1998
• The Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 234 in the World War, Lutz Knieling - Arnold Bölsche, Zeulenroda

Web links

• Militaerpass.net accessed on July 5, 2013 (English)
• deutsche-kriegsgeschichte.de: Fate of Sergeant W. Schmehl from IR 234 called on April 11, 2009
• Overview of PH 8-II reserve divisions in the Federal Archives (files and war diary 1918) , accessed on April 11, 2009

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. www.deutsche-kriegsgeschichte.de , accessed on April 11, 2009
2. ↑ cf. History of the Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 238, by Georg Herbrechtsmeier, Neustadt
3. ↑ cf. www.greatwar.co.uk accessed April 11, 2009
4. ↑ cf. Report of the division commander GenLt. Balck in stahlgewitter.com, accessed on April 11, 2009
5. ^ Army report of February 16, 1917 , accessed on April 11, 2009
6. ^ Verdun Lexicon ( Memento of October 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
7. ↑ Histories of 251 Divisions of the German Army which participated in the War (1914–1918) - compiled from the reports of the Intelligence Section, General Staff, American Expeditionary Forces, General Headquarters Chaumont, France, 1919
8. ^ Biography of the von Kleist family (accessed June 27, 2009)