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

German Empire

The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The 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...

 in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. 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 province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1945. Its capital was Magdeburg.-History:The province was created in 1816 out of the following territories:...

.

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 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...

, 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 Niemen 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 Klaipėda. It is the northern border between Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast in its lower reaches...

 and at Vilnius

Vilnius

Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...

. 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 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...

. 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 , also known as the Ludendorff Offensive, was a series of German attacks along the Western Front during World War I, beginning on 21 March 1918, 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 Spring Offensive on the Western Front during the First World War. The German attack failed when an Allied counterattack led by France 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 divisions are organized. In a triangular organization, the division's main body is composed of three regimental maneuver elements. These regiments may be controlled by a brigade headquarters or directly subordinated to the division commander...

. 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