Who Commanded The German 17th Division?

[At Home Dad]

Hallo all

I would like to find out the name, if possible, of the German

General commanding the 17th Division, in the Vimy Area

prior to April 1916.

This person was replaced in April 1916,

briefly, by General von Freitag-Loringhoven.

Many thanks for any assistance

[bob lembke]

The Germans had two, three, or four "17th Division"s in the Great War. Can we assume that you mean the 17. Infanterie=Division, the active or line (non-reserve) formation? With that assurance, I probably could find it for you.

Bob Lembke

[fritz]

I see, you mean 17. Reserve-Division, my grandfather´s division.

Divisionskommandeure

Albert von Mutius April 1917 Generalleutnant

Ernst von Reuter Dezember 1916 General

Hugo Freiherr von Freytag-Loringhoven April 1916 Generalleutnant

Ernst von Ziethen Juni 1915 Generalmajor

Ernst von Hoeppner November 1914 General

Max Schwarte November 1914 Generalmajor

Richard von Kraewel September 1914 Generalmajor

Gustav Wagener 1914 Generalleutnant

Fritz

[At Home Dad]

Cheers, Fritz!

[At Home Dad]

Fritz, do you have any 17. Reserve Division anecdotes from the period April and May 1916?

In particular, of the attacks on the British, around 19-28th May

Many thanks for any assistance

[Jack Sheldon]

If you have a look in my The German Army on Vimy Ridge 1914 - 1917 (available at all good libraries) you will see a description of events during the period which interests you and some anecdotal material, in particular from RIR 76.

Jack

[At Home Dad]

thank you, Jack

I'll take a look for it

kind regards

[bob lembke]

"Dad";

Looked in Volume 10 of the official series Der Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918 , which is roughly cronological and is the volume that covers that period. This volume is over 700 pages, but even the unit index, which seems to be rather complete, does not have a single entry for the 17. Reserve=Division over the period January 1916 through August 1916. In the period you are interested in, the volume is obsessed with the Battle of Verdun, and during the period in question there was important fighting and German advances on Hills 304 and Dead Man's Hill at Verdun. (My father was wounded on both, but a bit later.)

Der Weltkrieg is a useful resource, the various volumes may run to 7000 or 8000 pages, and were in large part written by former General Staff officers warehoused at the Reichsarchiv when the Allies prohibited Germany from possessing a General Staff. But it is hardly the only source. I just wanted to mention this to avoid you or someone else going to more trouble to look into it.

I heartily recommend you follow Jack's suggestion to look into his excellent work. His work is so heavily based on German primary sources that I, for one, largely consider it a primary source in itself. I double the suggestion if poking about in German sources does not work for you. I am guessing that whatever German sources are available will be quite expensive and/or difficult to obtain outside of Germany.

Bob

[Jack Sheldon]

AHD

Glad to be of assistance. Let me know if you have any trouble running a copy to earth.

Jack

[fritz]

Fritz, do you have any 17. Reserve Division anecdotes from the period April and May 1916?

In particular, of the attacks on the British, around 19-28th May

Many thanks for any assistance

At home dad,

my grandfather´s regiment IR 163 (17. Reserve Division) was engaged there

"Stellungskämpfe an der Vimy-Höhe 23..3.16 - 20.5.16

Erstürmung der Vimy-Höhe 21.5.16"

Then the regiment had a rest-time near Douai.

There is something about it in the regimental history. Of course all in German and not digital.

Kind regards

Fritz

[At Home Dad]

Thank you all, yes, Jack's book seems to be the best to look at by all accounts

many thanks, all