84th Infantry Division (German Empire)

84th Infantry Division (84. 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 84th Infantry Division (84. Infanterie-Division) was a unit of the Imperial German Army in World War I. The division was formed in November 1914 as the "Division Posen 2", part of the Posen Corps (Korps Posen), and became the 84th 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 2 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 84th Infantry Division. It fought around Warsaw in July and August 1915 and then in the pursuit of retreating Russian forces. From September 1915 to July 1916, it occupied the line along the Servech and Shchara Rivers. From July 1916 to June 1917, it occupied the line along the Berezina, Olshanka and Krevljanka Rivers. It remained there and along the Servech and Neman Rivers until the armistice on the Eastern Front. At the end of December 1917, the division was sent to the Western Front. It occupied the line by Verdun from January to May 1918 and then moved to the Somme region. It remained in the line until the end of the war. Allied intelligence rated the division as fourth class.[2][3]

Order of battle on formation

The 84th 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 November 1916, losing the 167th Infantry Brigade and its two regiments and gaining the 423rd 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 January 10, 1918 was as follows:[5]

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Division-Posen-2 (Chronik 1914/1915); 84. Infanterie-Division (Chronik 1915/1918)
  2. ↑ 84. 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. 554-557.
  4. ↑ Hermann Cron et al., Ruhmeshalle unserer alten Armee (Berlin, 1935).
  5. ↑ Cron et al., Ruhmeshalle.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, January 14, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.