German troop movements, 1916-1917

[only_the_trying]

When - 1916, into 1917

Where - France.

Searched - 'Somme Offensive', 'Battle of Verdun'', 'German casualties in Somme/Verdun' (I searched both), 'German units at Verdun/Somme' (again, both)

Question - It's a silly question and I'm almost certainly going to find an answer using a different Google search string which I haven't thought of yet, but I have

Comments

[stormwreath]

When the battle of the Somme started, the Germans didn't immediately transfer forces directly from Verdun. Instead, they just called a halt to their attacks in that region and moved the forces they'd earmarked as reserves for Verdun to the Somme instead. Quiet sectors of the front, like the Sixth Army to the north of the Somme, were also stripped of spare troops. A total of 14 new divisions had reached the battlefield nine days after the start of the offensive, but none of them cam directly from Verdun.

On the other hand, the German organisation structure meant that armies were assigned specific areas of the front line as their responsibility - the 5. Armee under Kronprinz Wilhelm was responsible for the Verdun area, for example - but individual divisions could be transferred from one army to another as the war situation developed. It would therefore be quite normal for a division to serve at Verdun for a few months, then be moved into reserve to recover, then perhaps be sent to the Somme.

For example:

1. Bayerische Infanterie-division: at Verdun until July, then at St Mihiel until October, then at the Somme for a few weeks, then back to St Mihiel.

5. Infanterie-division: at Verdun until July, then at the Somme for a month, then to Champagne.

6. Infanterie-division: at Verdun until May, then to Champagne until October, then to the Somme for a month, then to the Argonne.

7. Reserve-infanterie-division: at Verdun until July, then the Argonne until September, then the Somme for a month, then to the Argonne.

Given that Germany had 241 infantry divisions I won't list all of them :) but you see the pattern. It looks like most units only served at the Somme for a few weeks until they were chewed up and spat out, and withdrawn to a quieter sector to recover while another took their place.

If you want more detail, this site seems comprehensive:
http://www.militaerpass.net/oob_wk1.htm

For example, the Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 66, part of the 7. Reserve-Infanterie-Division, fought at Verdun from 28 May 1916, was sent to the Argonne on 3 July, to the Somme on 27 September and withdrawn back to the Argonne on 11 October after a week's rest.