Army Group Makensen 1915

[geofffox]

Dear Forum Members

(I've already posted this topic on the Salonika and Balkans Front forum, but because of relatively low traffic there, I thought I'd try my luck on this forum as well).

I’m currently researching Army Group Makensen, which took part in the invasion of Serbia in 1915. In particular, I am trying to clarify which army divisions were allocated to the X Reserve Corps and the IV Reserve Corps.

According to Osprey’s Men-at-Arms book, ‘Armies in the Balkans 1914 – 1918’, the order-of-battle of the IV and X Reserve Corps were:

IV Reserve Corps

101st Infantry Division

103rd Infantry Division

X Reserve Corps

105th Infantry Division

107th Infantry Division

However, I have also seen online an article stating that the IV Corps actually consisted of:

IV Corps

11th Bavarian Division

105th Infantry Division

107th Infantry Division

In short, there is conflicting information regarding which divisions were allocated to these two Corps. As both the book and online article do not provide references to the original sources, I’d be grateful if someone could clarify the composition of these two German Army Corps in 1915.

Kind Regards

Geoff.

[Ron Clifton]

Hello Geoff

There may in fact be no inconsistency. Divisions did not always stay in the same corps, so the two sources may represent the position at different dates.

I can't be more definite, I'm afraid, as "Histories of 251 German Divisions ..." does not give the Corps to which they belonged, and Cron's standard work does not enlighten us either. It does appear, however, that all five divisions you mention went to the Serbian front at around the same time in 1915.

Perhaps other members may be able to be more specific.

Ron

[joerookery]

I am probably the source of the online article :whistle:

As I mentioned there, there are a lot of inconsistencies all round this campaign. The source I used was from the German official history–the red books–volume 9–the separate maps. I do not have the book you mentioned so I cannot comment on its veracity. It seems as though much of the problem is caused by English translation when the Germans did not use numbers to describe the Army Corps. There were often mentioned by the name of the commander. I have included the commanders names in the article unfortunately I left out the source volume. But the map below should show you part of the advance through Serbia. You can see the two army corps on the left flank of the German advance. The names of the commanders are used instead of the Army Corps numbers.

IV Reserve Corps - Genlt von Winckler

105th Division.

21st Regiment.

122nd Fusilier Regiment.

129th Regiment

107th Division.

52nd Reserve Regiment.

227th Reserve Regiment.

232nd Reserve Regiment

11th Bavarian Division.

3rd Bavarian Regiment.

22nd Bavarian Regiment.

13th Bavarian Reserve Regiment

X Reserve Corps.- Genlt Kosch

101st Division.

45th Regiment.

59th Regiment.

146 Regiment

103rd Division

32nd Regiment.

71st Regiment.

116th Reserve Regiment

http://www.pickelhauben.net/articles/Scroll_helmets.html

If you are into inconsistencies you might try to read the Handbook of Imperial Germany–it is full of them!

http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemD...px?bookid=60521

[geofffox]

Hi

Thanks for replying to my post regarding the IVth and Xth Reserve Divisions of the German Army.

I'm certain the order-of-battle you posted is the correct one. I've received several posts on another forum and they all corroborate the version you icluded in your response. Of course, as you mentioned, divisional orbats were not set-in-stone and units were tranferred and redepolyed; however, on this ocassion I feel that there's a small error on the author's part when compiling the list of units in these two corps.

Thanks for your help.

Kind Regards

Geoff.