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

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 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 (german: XII. (Königlich Sächsisches) Reserve-Korps / XII RK) 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 ...

. The division was raised in the

Kingdom of Saxony The Kingdom of Saxony (german: Königreich Sachsen), lasting from 1806 to 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. The kingdom was formed from the Electorate of Saxon ...

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 Fr ...

and ended with the

First Battle of the Marne The First Battle of the Marne was a battle of the First World War fought from 5 to 12 September 1914. It was fought in a collection of skirmishes around the Marne River Valley. It resulted in an Entente victory against the German armies in the ...

. 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 ( or Autumn Battle) in World War I was a French offensive against the German army at Champagne that coincided with an Anglo-French assault at north-east Artois and ended with French retreat. Battle On 25 Septem ...

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

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...

. 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 (german: link=no, Dritte Flandernschlacht; french: link=no, Troisième Bataille des Flandres; nl, Derde Slag om Ieper), also known as the Battle of Passchendaele (), was a campaign of the First World War, fought by t ...

. 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 , be, Заходняя Дзвіна (), liv, Vēna, et, Väina, german: Düna , image = Fluss-lv-Düna.png , image_caption = The drainage basin of the Daugava , source1_location = Valdai Hills, Russia , mouth_location = Gulf of Riga, Baltic Se ...

River and

Lake Peipus Lake Peipus ( et, Peipsi-Pihkva järv; russian: Чудско-Псковское озеро, Псковско-Чудское озеро, Chudsko-Pskovskoye ozero, Pskovsko-Chudskoye ozero); is the largest trans-boundary lake in Europe, lying on ...

. 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 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 Infantry 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