The Royal Saxon 23rd Reserve Division (''Kgl. Sächsische 23. Reserve-Division'') was a unit of the

Imperial German (, literally translated ) is an archaic term for those ethnic Germans who resided within the German state that was founded in 1871. In contemporary usage, it referred to German citizens, the word signifying people from the German ', i.e., Imp ...

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. The division was formed on mobilization of the German Army in August 191423. Reserve-Division (Chronik 1914-1918)
/ref> as part of the

XII (Royal Saxon) Reserve Corps The XII (Royal Saxon) Reserve Corps () was a corps level command of the German Army in World War I. Formation XII Reserve Corps was formed on the outbreak of the war in August 1914 as part of the mobilisation of the Army. It was initially comm ...

. The division was raised in the

Kingdom of Saxony The Kingdom of Saxony () was a German monarchy in Central Europe between 1806 and 1918, the successor of the Electorate of Saxony. It joined the Confederation of the Rhine after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, later joining the German ...

and was disbanded in 1919 during the demobilization of the German Army after World War I.

Combat chronicle

The 23rd Reserve Division fought on the Western Front, participating in the opening German offensive which led to the Allied

Great Retreat The Great Retreat (), also known as the retreat from Mons, was the long withdrawal to the River Marne in August and September 1914 by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and the French Fifth Army. The Franco-British forces on the Western F ...

and ended with the

First Battle of the Marne The First Battle of the Marne or known in France as the Miracle on the Marne () was a battle of the First World War fought from the 5th to the 12th September 1914. The German army invaded France with a plan for winning the war in 40 days by oc ...

. Thereafter, the division remained in the line in the Champagne region through the end of 1914 and until July 1916 and fought in the

Second Battle of Champagne The Second Battle of Champagne (, utumn Battle in the First World War was a French offensive against the German army at Champagne that coincided with the Third Battle of Artois in the north and ended with a French defeat. Battle On 25 Sep ...

in the autumn of 1915. In late July 1916, the division entered the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme (; ), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and the French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 Nove ...

. It remained in the Somme, Artois and Flanders regions thereafter. After a brief rest in April 1917, the division went into the line on the Yser. Its sister division in the Royal Saxon XII Reserve Corps, the 24th Reserve Division, was sent to the Eastern Front at the end of April. The 23rd Reserve Division remained in Flanders, and faced the British in the

Battle of Passchendaele The Third Battle of Ypres (; ; ), also known as the Battle of Passchendaele ( ), was a campaign of the First World War, fought by the Allies of World War I, Allies against the German Empire. The battle took place on the Western Front (World Wa ...

. In October 1917, after the heavy fighting in Flanders, the division was sent to the Eastern Front, arriving in November. It was on the line facing the Russians when the armistice on the Eastern Front went into effect. The division then went to Latvia and after a few months of fighting occupied the area between the

Daugava The Daugava ( ), also known as the Western Dvina or the Väina River, is a large river rising in the Valdai Hills of Russia that flows through Belarus and Latvia into the Gulf of Riga of the Baltic Sea. The Daugava rises close to the source of ...

River and

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. In March 1918, the division returned to the Western Front and was deployed in Flanders and the Artois. It then participated in the 1918

German spring offensive The German spring offensive, also known as ''Kaiserschlacht'' ("Kaiser's Battle") or the Ludendorff offensive, was a series of German Empire, German attacks along the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during the World War I, First Wor ...

and remained in the line in the Flanders area until the end of the war. Allied intelligence rated the division as third class.

Order of battle on mobilization

The order of battle of the 23rd Reserve Division on mobilization was as follows: * 45. Reserve-Infanterie-Brigade ** Kgl. Sächs. Reserve-Grenadier-Regiment Nr. 100 ** Kgl. Sächs. Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 101 ** Kgl. Sächs. Reserve-Jäger-Bataillon Nr. 12 * 46. Reserve-Infanterie-Brigade ** Kgl. Sächs. Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 102 ** Kgl. Sächs. Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 103 * Kgl. Sächs. Reserve-Husaren-Regiment * Kgl. Sächs. Reserve-Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 23 * 4.Kompanie/Kgl. Sächs. 1. Pionier-Bataillon Nr. 12

Order of battle on March 20, 1918

The 23rd Reserve Division was triangularized in December 1916. Over the course of the war, other changes took place, including the formation of artillery and signals commands and a pioneer battalion. The order of battle on March 20, 1918, was as follows:Cron et al., ''Ruhmeshalle''. * 46. Reserve-Infanterie-Brigade ** Kgl. Sächs. Reserve-Grenadier-Regiment Nr. 100 ** Kgl. Sächs. Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 102 ** Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 392 * 2.Eskadron/Kgl. Sächs. Reserve-Husaren-Regiment * Kgl. Sächs. Artillerie-Kommandeur 118 ** Kgl. Sächs. Reserve-Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 23 ** I.Bataillon/Reserve-Fußartillerie-Regiment Nr. 15 * Kgl. Sächs. Pionier-Bataillon Nr. 323 ** 4.Kompanie/Kgl. Sächs. 1.Pionier-Bataillon Nr. 12 ** 4 Reserve-Kompanie/Kgl. Sächs. 2.Pionier-Bataillon Nr. 22 ** Kgl. Sächs. Minenwerfer-Kompanie Nr. 223 * Kgl. Sächs. Divisions-Nachrichten-Kommandeur 423

References

23. Reserve-Division (Chronik 1914/1918) - Der erste Weltkrieg
* Hermann Cron et al., ''Ruhmeshalle unserer alten Armee'' (Berlin, 1935) * Hermann Cron, ''Geschichte des deutschen Heeres im Weltkriege 1914-1918'' (Berlin, 1937) * Günter Wegner, ''Stellenbesetzung der deutschen Heere 1815-1939.'' (Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück, 1993), Bd. 1 * ''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)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:23 Reserve divisions of Germany in World War I Military units and formations established in 1914 Military units and formations disestablished in 1919 1914 establishments in Germany