World War I
During World War I, the division fought on the Western Front, seeing action in the Allied Great Retreat which culminated in the First Battle of the Marne and the Race to the Sea. It then spent the next several years in the trenches. In 1916, it fought in the Battle of the Somme. In 1917, it participated in the Battle of Passchendaele. In 1918, it fought against the various Allied offensives and counteroffensives. Allied intelligence rated the division as second class until 1918, but downgraded it to third class that year.
Read more about this topic: 40th Division (German Empire)
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“Where the world ends
The mind is made unchanging, for it finds
Miracle, ecstasy, the impossible hope,
The flagstone under all, the fire of fires,
The roots of the world.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Behold now this vast city; a city of refuge, the mansion house of liberty, encompassed and surrounded with his protection; the shop of war hath not there more anvils and hammers waking, to fashion out the plates and instruments of armed justice in defence of beleaguered truth, than there be pens and hands there, sitting by their studious lamps, musing, searching, revolving new notions.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)