Lehr Infantry Regiment

The Lehr[lower-alpha 2] Infantry Regiment (German: Lehr-Infanterie-Regiment) was an infantry regiment of the Imperial German Army in World War I. It was formed on mobilisation of the German Army in August 1914 and served with the 3rd Guards Division through to the end of the war.

Lehr Infantry Regiment
Lehr-Infanterie-Regiment
Active2 August 1914 - 1918
Country German Empire
BranchInfantry
TypeRegiment
Size3,489 on formation[lower-alpha 1]
Garrison/HQPotsdam
EngagementsWorld War I
Battle of the Frontiers
Eastern Front: 1st Masurian Lakes, Łódź (1914), Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive
Western Front: Somme, Battle of Delville Wood, Arras (1917), Passchendaele, Cambrai (1917), German spring offensive, Aisne-Marne, Meuse-Argonne Offensive

Lehr Infantry Battalion

The Lehr Infantry Battalion (German: Infanterie-Lehr-Bataillon) - infantry instruction battalion - was raised in 1819 for the Prussian Army. In 1914 it was part of the Guards Corps and garrisoned in Potsdam.[2]

Lehr Infantry Regiment

Formation

With the mobilisation of the German Army on 2 August 1914, the Lehr Infantry Battalion was expanded to regimental strength as the Lehr Infantry Regiment. It was formed as follows:[3]

CompanyOrigin
1st, 3rd, 6th, 11thLehr Infantry Battalion
5th, 7th, 8thInfantry Shooting School[lower-alpha 3]
2nd, 4th, 9th, 10thNCOs School, Potsdam[lower-alpha 4]
Weapons Testing Commission[lower-alpha 5]
Guards reservists
12thLehr Infantry Battalion
Infantry Shooting School
Weapons Testing Commission

The Regiment was also provided with two machine gun companies.

Combat chronicle

The Lehr Infantry Regiment joined the Guards Fusilier Regiment in the new 6th Guards Infantry Brigade as part of the 3rd Guards Division in the Guards Reserve Corps.[4] It remained with the 3rd Guards Division throughout the war, even after the Division was triangularized in May 1915.[5]

The Guards Reserve Corps was assigned to the 2nd Army as part of the right wing of the forces that invaded France and Belgium as part of the Schlieffen Plan offensive in August 1914. It participated in the capture of Namur and was immediately transferred to the Eastern Front to join the 8th Army in time to participate in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes. It then fought in the Battle of Łódź. It continued fighting in the Carpathians and Galicia and then participated in the Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive.

The Regiment returned to the Western Front with its Division in April 1916 and entered the trenches in the Champagne region. In July 1916 it fought in the Battle of the Somme. At the beginning of September 1916, the division was again sent to the Eastern Front, returning in November. In 1917 it participated in the Battle of Arras and the Battle of Passchendaele. It then fought against the Allied tank attack in November 1917 in the Battle of Cambrai. In 1918, it fought in the German spring offensive. During the subsequent Allied offensives and counteroffensives, the division faced the French and Americans at Aisne-Marne and in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.[6] The division was rated as one of the best German divisions by Allied intelligence.[7]

By the end of the war, the Regiment was still with the 3rd Guards Division, XXV Reserve Corps, 3rd Army, Heeresgruppe[lower-alpha 6] Deutscher Kronprinz on the Western Front.[8]

Throughout the war, the Regiment lost 103 officers and 5,463 NCOs and men.[3]

See also

Notes
  1. On mobilisation, a normal Infantry Regiment had a strength of 86 officers, medical officers and officials, and 3,304 NCOs and men. The Lehr Infantry Regiment had two machine gun companies so an extra 4 officers, 9 NCOs and 86 men.[1]
  2. Lehr (meaning teach, instruction or training) is usually left untranslated.
  3. German: Infanterie-Schießschule
  4. German: Unteroffizierschule Potsdam
  5. German: Gewehr-Prüfungskommission
  6. Heeresgruppe or Army Group in the sense of a number of armies under a single commander.

References
  1. Busche 1998, p. 5
  2. "A Pocket German Army". Archived from the original on 12 May 2008. Retrieved 5 November 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. Busche 1998, p. 4
  4. Cron 2002, p. 86
  5. AEF GHQ 1920, p. 72
  6. 3. Garde-Infanterie-Division (Chronik 1914/1918) - Der erste Weltkrieg
  7. AEF GHQ 1920, pp. 72–75
  8. Ellis & Cox 1993, pp. 186–187

Bibliography
  • Busche, Hartwig (1998). Formationsgeschichte der Deutschen Infanterie im Ersten Weltkrieg (1914 bis 1918) (in German). Institut für Preußische Historiographie.
  • Cron, Hermann (2002). Imperial German Army 1914-18: Organisation, Structure, Orders-of-Battle [first published: 1937]. Helion & Co. ISBN 1-874622-70-1.
  • Ellis, John; Cox, Michael (1993). The World War I Databook. Aurum Press Ltd. ISBN 1-85410-766-6.
  • The German Forces in the Field; 7th Revision, 11th November 1918; Compiled by the General Staff, War Office. Imperial War Museum, London and The Battery Press, Inc (1995). 1918. ISBN 1-870423-95-X.
  • Histories of Two Hundred and Fifty-One Divisions of the German Army which Participated in the War (1914-1918), compiled from records of Intelligence section of the General Staff, American Expeditionary Forces, at General Headquarters, Chaumont, France 1919. The London Stamp Exchange Ltd (1989). 1920. ISBN 0-948130-87-3.
  • Mülmann, Wilhelm von (1935). Geschichte des Lehr-Infanterie-Regiments und seiner Stammformationen. Zeulenroda: Sporn.

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