10. After being thus reorganized, in the Vervins area, the division was sent to Haye in the Flirey sector, where it was engaged from the 5th of November on. It was relieved January 13, 1918.
RECRUITING.
The 14th Division is recruited principally from the Rhine districts of the 7th Corps District, and it is for this reason that it is called “Troops from the Lower Rhine” in the German communiques of July 27, 1917.
This region, very populous, suffices for its own recruiting. It is to be noticed, however, that in the course of the year 1917, in spite of the growing tendency to emphasize the sectional character of the large units, the 14th Division received replacement troops from other districts besides the seventh; in May, men from the 6th Corps District trained in the fourth (class of 1918); in August, men from the third, fourth, and eighth (class of 1918); in October, Pomeranians from the 22d Landwehr Division. The seventh district hardly counts except in the replacements of October, with convalescents and men from the Westphalian Landsturm battalions. The heavy losses suffered since December, 1916 would explain, to a certain extent, this falling off in numbers. It may also be that the morale of an industrial region such as Westphalia had been sufficiently shattered to make a mixture advisable.
VALUE—1917 ESTIMATE.
During the French offensive of December 15, 1916, the 14th Division behaved very well.
South of Ailles (at the end of June, 1917) it attempted to regain lost ground with great tenacity.
It put up a strong resistance to the attacks of October 23.
“The 14th Division is a good division. It has just been withdrawn from a quiet sector to take part in a war of movement. It is a division destined to attack.” (Jan. 18, 1918—note from the 1st French Army.)