53rd Reserve Division (German Empire) - Combat Chronicle

Combat Chronicle

The 53rd Reserve Division initially fought on the Western Front, entering the line in mid-October. As part of the so-called Race to the Sea, it fought in the Battle of the Yser in October–November 1914. It remained in positional warfare and fighting along the Yser until April 1915, and then was engaged in fighting in the Second Battle of Ypres. After that battle, the division returned to the line on the Yser until September. After a brief period of rest, the division fought against the French offensive in the Second Battle of Champagne. The division again went into army reserve from the end of October 1915 to the end of January 1916, after which it returned to the line on the Yser and then in the Flanders and Artois regions. It saw several weeks' action in the Battle of the Somme, and then returned to positional warfare in the line. In November 1916, the division was transferred to the Eastern Front, where it engaged in positional warfare until June 1917. It then fought against the Russian Kerensky Offensive and in follow-on fighting in Galicia and on the Ukrainian border. At the end of November 1917, the division was transferred back to the Western Front, arriving in mid-December at border defense positions on the Belgian-Dutch border. After a few months there and then in the line in Flanders and the Artois, the division fought in the 1918 German Spring Offensive, seeing action in the First Battle of the Somme (1918), also known as the Second Battle of the Somme (to distinguish it from the 1916 battle). After that battle, the division went to the Verdun region to recover, and then in June went to the Soisson region, where it saw action in July–August in the Second Battle of the Marne. The division suffered heavily and was relieved on August 10. It went to the Argonne region to be dissolved; some of its understrength units were there when the Meuse-Argonne Offensive began and they were sent to the line to bolster other divisions in the face of American attacks. Allied intelligence considered the division as mediocre in 1917 and rated it third class in 1918.