The 107th Infantry Division (''107. Infanterie-Division'') was a unit of the

Imperial German ', literally translated "Germans of the ", 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 Germ ...

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The division was formed on June 1, 1915, and organized over the next few weeks.107. Infanterie-Division (Chronik 1915/1918)
/ref> It was part of a wave of new infantry divisions formed in 1915. The division was disbanded in 1919 during the demobilization of the German Army after World War I. The division was formed primarily from the excess infantry regiments of existing divisions which were being triangularized. The division's 213th Infantry Brigade was formerly the 98th Reserve Infantry Brigade of the 49th Reserve Division, and came to the division with the 227th Reserve Infantry Regiment. The 52nd Reserve Infantry Regiment came from the 5th Reserve Division and the 232nd Reserve Infantry Regiment came from the 50th Reserve Division.

Combat chronicle

The 107th Infantry Division initially served on the Eastern Front, seeing its first action in the Battle of Lemberg (now

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

) and later participating in the capture of Brest-Litovsk and of Pinsk. It was then transferred south to participate in the

Serbian Campaign The Serbian campaign was a series of military expeditions launched in 1914 and 1915 by the Central Powers against the Kingdom of Serbia during the First World War. The first campaign began after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July ...

. After a brief respite on the Macedonian front, the division went back to Russia at the beginning of January 1916. In November 1917, the division was sent to the Western Front, entering the line in the German "Siegfried" position. It fought in the tank Battle of Cambrai in November 1917 and in the German counterattack in December. In April 1918, the division participated in the German spring offensive, fighting in the

First Battle of the Somme (1918) Operation Michael was a major German military offensive during the First World War that began the German Spring Offensive on 21 March 1918. It was launched from the Hindenburg Line, in the vicinity of Saint-Quentin, France. Its goal was to ...

, also known as the Second Battle of the Somme (to distinguish it from the 1916 battle). It remained in the Somme salient and fought against various Allied counteroffensives. The division moved to the St. Mihiel salient in September and then occupied the line in the Woëvre region. In October, it met the Allied Meuse-Argonne Offensive. The division remained in the line until the end of the war. Allied intelligence rated the division as third class.

Order of battle on formation

The 107th Infantry Division was formed as a

triangular division A triangular division is a designation given to the way military 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 head ...

. The order of battle of the division on June 3, 1915, was as follows: *213. Infanterie-Brigade **Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 52 **Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 227 **Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 232 *1.Eskadron/Kürassier-Regiment Nr. 6 *2.Eskadron/Kürassier-Regiment Nr. 6 *Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 213 *Fußartillerie-Batterie Nr. 107 *Pionier-Kompanie Nr. 213

Late-war order of battle

The division underwent relatively few organizational changes over the course of the war. 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 March 2, 1918, was as follows:Cron et al., ''Ruhmeshalle''. *213.Infanterie-Brigade **Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 52 **Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 227 **Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 232 *3.Eskadron/Ulanen-Regiment Nr. 1 *Artillerie-Kommandeur 157 **Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 213 **I. Bataillon/Kgl. Bayerisches 6. Fußartillerie-Regiment *Pionier-Bataillon Nr. 107 **Pionier-Kompanie Nr. 213 **4. Kompanie/Pionier-Bataillon Nr. 21 **Minenwerfer-Kompanie Nr. 107 *Divisions-Nachrichten-Kommandeur 107

References

107. Infanterie-Division (Chronik 1915/1918) - 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 1825-1939.'' (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:107 Infantry divisions of Germany in World War I Military units and formations established in 1915 Military units and formations disestablished in 1919 1915 establishments in Germany