83rd Infantry Division (German Empire)

83rd Infantry Division (83. Infanterie-Division)
Active 1914-1919
Country German Empire
Branch Army
Type Infantry
Size Approx. 12,500
Engagements World War I: Battle of Łódź (1914)

The 83rd Infantry Division (83. Infanterie-Division) was a formation of the Imperial German Army in World War I. The division was formed in November 1914 as the "Division Posen 1", part of the Posen Corps (Korps Posen), and became the 83rd Infantry Division in June 1915.[1] It was initially formed from the garrison infantry regiments of Fortress Posen (Festung Posen). The division was disbanded in 1919 during the demobilization of the German Army after World War I.

Combat chronicle

Division Posen 1 initially served on the Eastern Front, fighting in Poland, including at the 1914 Battle of Łódź, and then spent most of the period until mid-1915 fighting along the Rawka and Bzura Rivers. On June 2, 1915, it became the 83rd Infantry Division. It fought on the Narew River in July and August 1915 and participated in the capture of Białystok on August 26, 1915 and the subsequent conquest of Grodno. Until April 1917, it occupied the line along the Berezina River and was then along the Servech and Shchara Rivers for several months. It remained in the Bukovina region until the armistice on the Eastern Front. In March 1918, the division was sent to the Western Front, where it initially occupied the line in Lorraine and then moved to Flanders. It went to the Somme region in August and returned to Lorraine in September, where it was for the remainder of the war. Allied intelligence rated the division as fourth class.[2][3]

Order of battle on formation

The 83rd Infantry Division was formed as a square division. The order of battle of the division on June 14, 1915 was as follows:[4]

Late-war order of battle

The division underwent a number of organizational changes over the course of the war. It was triangularized in September 1917, losing the 332nd Infantry Regiment. Cavalry was reduced, artillery and signals commands were formed, and combat engineer support was expanded to a full pioneer battalion. The order of battle on April 15, 1918 was as follows:[5]

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Division-Posen-1 (Chronik 1914/1915); 83. Infanterie-Division (Chronik 1915/1918)
  2. ↑ 83. Infanterie-Division (Chronik 1915/1918)
  3. ↑ Histories of Two Hundred and Fifty-One Divisions of the German Army which Participated in the War (1914-1918), compiled from records of Intelligence section of the General Staff, American Expeditionary Forces, at General Headquarters, Chaumont, France 1919 (1920), pp. 550-553.
  4. ↑ Hermann Cron et al., Ruhmeshalle unserer alten Armee (Berlin, 1935).
  5. ↑ Cron et al., Ruhmeshalle.
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