The 56th Infantry Division (56. Infanterie-Division) was a division of the Imperial German Army

German Army (German Empire)

The German Army was the name given the combined land forces of the German Empire, also known as the National Army , Imperial Army or Imperial German Army. The term "Deutsches Heer" is also used for the modern German Army, the land component of the German Bundeswehr...

. It was formed during World War I and dissolved with the demobilization of the German Army in 1919.

Formation and organization

The 56th Infantry Division was formed on March 5, 1915 and began organizing itself over the next two months. It received the 35th Fusilier Regiment (Füsilier-Regiment Prinz Heinrich von Preußen (Brandenburgisches) Nr. 35) from the 6th Infantry Division

6th Division (German Empire)

The 6th Division was a unit of the Prussian/German Army. It was formed in Düsseldorf in 1816 as a brigade and became the 6th Division on September 5, 1818. The headquarters moved to Torgau in 1820 and then to Brandenburg in 1850. The division was subordinated in peacetime to the III Army Corps...

, the 88th Infantry Regiment (2. Nassauisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 88) from the 21st Infantry Division

21st Division (German Empire)

The 21st Division was a unit of the Prussian/German Army. It was formed on October 11, 1866 and was headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. The division was subordinated in peacetime initially to the XI Army Corps and from 1899 to the XVIII Army Corps The 21st Division (21. Division) was a unit of...

, and the 118th Infantry Regiment (Infanterie-Regiment Prinz Carl (4. Großherzogl. Hessisches) Nr. 118) from the 25th Infantry Division

25th Division (German Empire)

The 25th Division , officially the Grand Ducal Hessian Division , was a unit of the Prussian/German Army. It was headquartered in Darmstadt, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. The division was subordinated in peacetime to the XVIII Army Corps when that corps was formed in 1899...

. The 35th Fusiliers was a Prussian regiment from Brandenburg

Brandenburg

Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...

, the 88th Infantry was a Prussian regiment from the former Duchy of Nassau, and the 118th Infantry was from the Grand Duchy of Hesse

Grand Duchy of Hesse

The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine , or, between 1806 and 1816, Grand Duchy of Hesse —as it was also known after 1816—was a member state of the German Confederation from 1806, when the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt was elevated to a Grand Duchy, until 1918, when all the German...

. The 56th Infantry Division's order of battle on March 7, 1915 was as follows:

• 112.Infanterie-Brigade:
  • Infanterie-Regiment Nr.35
  • Infanterie-Regiment Nr.88
  • Infanterie-Regiment Nr.118
  • Radfahr-Kompanie Nr. 56
• 4.Eskadron/Braunschweigisches Husaren-Regiment Nr. 17
• 56.Feldartillerie-Brigade:
  • Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr.111
  • Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr.112
  • Fußartillerie-Bataillon Nr.56
• Pionier-Kompanie Nr.111
• Pionier-Kompanie Nr.112.

Combat chronicle

After organizing and training in the Champagne region of France, the division was transported to the Eastern Front

Eastern Front (World War I)

The Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central and, primarily, Eastern Europe. The term is in contrast to the Western Front. Despite the geographical separation, the events in the two theatres strongly influenced each other...

. It participated in the Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive

Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive

The Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive during World War I started as a minor German offensive to relieve Russian pressure on the Austro-Hungarians to their south on the Eastern Front, but resulted in the total collapse of the Russian lines and their retreat far into Russia...

 of 1915, and the Battle of Lemberg

Battle of Lwów

During its long and complicated history, the nowadays Ukrainian city of Lviv was the site of several major battles and sieges. Among the most notable were:* Battle of Lwów - Lwów besieged by Cossack forces under Bohdan Khmelnytsky...

. At the end of June 1915, the division was transported back to the Western Front

Western Front (World War I)

Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...

.

The division saw action from September through November 1915 in the Second Battle of Champagne

Second Battle of Champagne

The Second Battle of Champagne was a French offensive against the invading German army beginning on 25 September 1915, part of World War I.-September 25 - October 6:...

. After a period in the trenchlines and then rest in the army reserve, in May 1915, the division entered the Battle of Verdun

Battle of Verdun

The Battle of Verdun was one of the major battles during the First World War on the Western Front. It was fought between the German and French armies, from 21 February – 18 December 1916, on hilly terrain north of the city of Verdun-sur-Meuse in north-eastern France...

, fighting in the struggle for the Dead Man's Hill. The division joined the Battle of the Somme at the end of August 1916. In October 1916, the division received the 47th Ersatz Infantry Brigade as reinforcement, and returned to the final phase of the Battle of the Somme in November. The 47th Ersatz Infantry Brigade was transferred from the division in January 1917. The division remained in positional warfare along the Somme and in Flanders in early 1917. It faced the British offensive at Arras

Battle of Arras (1917)

The Battle of Arras was a British offensive during the First World War. From 9 April to 16 May 1917, British, Canadian, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and Australian troops attacked German trenches near the French city of Arras on the Western Front....

 in April and May, and then after more time in the trenchlines, it returned to Verdun in August. The
division remained at Verdun into early 1918, and then returned to the Flanders region. It ended the war in battle before the Antwerp-Maas defensive line.

Allied intelligence rated the division as a second class division, mainly due to the heavy fighting it had seen and the losses it had taken.

Late-war organization

Given its late formation, the division underwent fewer structural changes than other divisions by late-war. It became more Hessian in nature, losing the 35th Brandenburg Fusiliers to the 228th Infantry Division and receiving the 186th Infantry Regiment (Infanterie-Regiment Nr.186), a regiment formed from the Grand Duchy of Hesse and the Prussian Province of Hesse-Nassau

Province of Hesse-Nassau

Hesse-Nassau Province was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1868-1918, then a province of the Free State of Prussia until 1944.Hesse-Nassau was created as a consequence of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 by combining the previously independent Hesse-Kassel , the Duchy of Nassau, the Free...

. The division's order of battle on October 19, 1918 was as follows:

• 112.Infanterie-Brigade:
  • Infanterie-Regiment Nr.88
  • Infanterie-Regiment Nr.118
  • Infanterie-Regiment Nr.186
• 4.Eskadron/Braunschweigisches Husaren-Regiment Nr. 17
• Artillerie-Kommandeur Nr. 56:
  • Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr.112
  • Fußartillerie-Bataillon Nr.56
• Pionier-Bataillon Nr.139
• Divisions-Nachrichten-Kommandeur Nr. 56