58th Infantry Division (German Empire)

58th Infantry Division (58. Infanterie-Division)
Active 1915-1919
Country Saxony/Germany
Branch Army
Type Infantry
Size Approx. 12,500
Engagements World War I: Second Battle of Artois, Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive, Battle of Verdun, Battle of the Somme, Second Battle of the Aisne, Passchendaele

The 58th Infantry Division (58. Infanterie-Division) was a unit of the Imperial German Army in World War I. The division was formed on March 6, 1915 and organized over the next two months.[1] It was part of a wave of new infantry divisions formed in the spring of 1915 and was originally formed from troops from the Kingdom of Saxony and the Kingdom of Württemberg, but became a fully Saxon division by 1916. The division was disbanded in 1919 during the demobilization of the German Army after World War I.

Combat chronicle

The 58th Infantry Division initially fought on the Western Front, seeing action in the Second Battle of Artois. In July 1915, it was transferred to the Eastern Front, and participated in the Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive. In October 1915, it returned to the Western Front and went into the trenchlines in Lorraine. In 1916, it fought in the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme. In 1917, it fought in the Second Battle of the Aisne, also called the Third Battle of Champagne. In late April 1917, the division went back to the Eastern Front, where it remained until October. After returning to the Western Front, it saw action in the late phases of the Battle of Passchendaele, also called the Third Battle of Ypres. The division remained in the Flanders region until August 1918, when it went to the Somme region, fighting at Monchy-Bapaume and later resisting the Allied offensive between Cambrai and St. Quentin. Allied intelligence rated the division as second class.[1][2]

Order of battle on formation

The 58th Infantry Division was formed as a triangular division. The order of battle of the division on March 6, 1915 was as follows:[3]

Order of battle on January 1, 1918

The Württemberg elements of the division were transferred out and the division became fully Saxon by the end of 1916. Over the course of the war, other changes took place, including the formation of artillery and signals commands and the expansion of combat engineer support to a full pioneer battalion. The order of battle on January 1, 1918 was as follows:[4]

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 58. Infanterie-Division (Chronik 1915/1918)
  2. ↑ 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. 521-524.
  3. ↑ Hermann Cron et al., Ruhmeshalle unserer alten Armee (Berlin, 1935).
  4. ↑ Cron et al., Ruhmeshalle.
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