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79th Reserve Division (German Empire)

 

 
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79th Reserve Division (German Empire)
 
 
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The 79th Reserve Division (79. Reserve-Division) was a unit of the Imperial German
German Empire

The German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of William I, German Emperor as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became Weimar republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of William II, German Emperor ....
 Army
German Army (German Empire)

The German Army was the name given the combined armed forces of the German Empire, also known as the 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....
 in World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
. The division was formed at the end of December 1914 and organized over the next month, arriving in the line in early February 1915. It was part of the second large wave of new divisions formed at the outset of World War I, which were numbered the 75th through 82nd Reserve Divisions. The division was disbanded in 1919 during the demobilization of the German Army after World War I.






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The 79th Reserve Division (79. Reserve-Division) was a unit of the Imperial German
German Empire

The German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of William I, German Emperor as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became Weimar republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of William II, German Emperor ....
 Army
German Army (German Empire)

The German Army was the name given the combined armed forces of the German Empire, also known as the 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....
 in World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
. The division was formed at the end of December 1914 and organized over the next month, arriving in the line in early February 1915. It was part of the second large wave of new divisions formed at the outset of World War I, which were numbered the 75th through 82nd Reserve Divisions. The division was disbanded in 1919 during the demobilization of the German Army after World War I. Two regiments of the division were raised through Prussian Guard recruit depots throughout the kingdom, while the third was raised in Prussian Saxony
Province of Saxony

The Province of Saxony was a Provinces of Prussia of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1945. Its capital was Magdeburg....
.

Combat chronicle


The 79th Reserve Division initially fought on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War I)

The Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central Europe and, primarily, Eastern Europe. The term is in contrast to the Western Front ....
, seeing its first action in the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes
Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes

The Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes, also known as the Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes, was the northern part of the Central Powers' offensive on the Eastern Front in the winter of 1915....
. In 1915, it fought in the siege of Kovno and the battles on the Neman River
Neman River

Neman or Nemunas is a major Eastern European river rising in Belarus and flowing through Lithuania before draining into the Curonian Lagoon and then into the Baltic Sea at Klaipeda....
 and at Vilnius
Vilnius

Vilnius is the largest city and the Capital of Lithuania, with a population of 555,613 as of 2008. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality....
. From October 1915 to November 1916, the division was engaged in positional warfare, after which it was transferred to the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)

Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Empire army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France....
. It was in reserve and then engaged in positional warfare in Flanders and the Artois until April 1917, when it fought in the Battle of Arras. Later in 1917, it fought in the Battles of Passchendaele and Cambrai. The division participated in the German 1918 Spring Offensive
Spring Offensive

The 1918 Spring Offensive or Kaiserschlacht and also known as the Ludendorff Offensive was a series of German attacks along the Western Front during World War I, which marked the deepest advances by either side since 1914....
, fighting in the First Battle of the Somme (1918), also called the Second Battle of the Somme (to distinguish it from the 1916 battle). It saw action in the Second Battle of the Marne
Second Battle of the Marne

The Second Battle of the Marne, or Battle of Reims was the last major German offensive on the Western Front . It failed when an Allied counterattack led by French forces overwhelmed the Germans, inflicting severe casualties....
 and continued fighting against the various Allied offensives until the end of the war. Allied intelligence rated the division as third class.

Order of battle on formation


The 79th Reserve Division, like the other divisions of its wave and unlike earlier German divisions, was organized from the outset as a triangular division
Triangular division

A triangular division is a designation given to the way division are organized. In a triangular organization, the division's main body is composed of three regimental maneuver elements....
. The order of battle of the division on December 29, 1914 was as follows:

  • 79.Reserve-Infanterie-Brigade
    • Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 261
    • Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 262
    • Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 263
    • Reserve-Radfahrer-Kompanie Nr. 79
  • Reserve-Kavallerie-Abteilung Nr. 79
  • 79.Reserve-Feldartillerie-Brigade
    • Reserve-Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 63
    • Reserve-Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 64
  • Reserve-Pionier-Kompanie Nr. 81


Order of battle on February 23, 1918


The most significant wartime structural change in the divisions of this wave was the reduction from two field artillery regiments to one. Over the course of the war, other changes took place, including the formation of artillery and signals commands and the enlargement of combat engineer support to a full pioneer battalion. The order of battle on February 23, 1918 was as follows:

  • 79.Reserve-Infanterie-Brigade
    • Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 261
    • Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 262
    • Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 263
    • Maschinengewehr-Scharfschützen-Abteilung Nr. 12
  • 3.Eskadron/Husaren-Regiment Kaiser Franz Josef von Österreich, König von Ungarn (Schleswig-Holsteinisches) Nr. 16
  • Artillerie-Kommandeur 79
    • Reserve-Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 63
    • II.Bataillon/Fußartillerie-Regiment Nr. 20
  • Pionier-Bataillon Nr. 379
    • Reserve-Pionier-Kompanie Nr. 81
    • 1.Ersatz-Kompanie/Pionier-Bataillon Nr. 24
    • Minenwerfer-Kompanie Nr. 279
  • Divisions-Nachrichten-Kommandeur 479