6. On this date it was transferred to Roulers by way of Valenciennes-Mons and put on the Ypres front north of Hooge. It was withdrawn three days before the British attack, on July 27, but suffered heavy losses from the bombardment.
7. For five weeks, until September 23, the division occupied the calm sector of Havrincourt (south of the road Bapaume-Cambrai).
8. On September 23 it again entrained for Flanders. Sent by way of Cambrai to Ledeghem, it went into action in the Polygon wood sector (northeast of Ypres). On September 26 it counterattacked without success and with great losses. It only remained in line for two days. In these engagements the 75th Infantry Regiment lost 30 officers and 1,000 men (British Summary of Information.)
9. Relieved on September 28 from the Flanders front, the 17th Division was sent south of Lens on October 17. It was still there on February, 1918.
RECRUITING.
The 17th Division is recruited from the Hanseatic towns and the Duchies of Mecklenburg. The sectional character was accentuated in June 1917, when the 89th Grenadiers took from the regiments of the 18th Division all the inhabitants of Mecklenburg who were in them. (Summary of Information, June 28.)
However, one must take into account a certain proportion of Poles from the 6th Corps District, received in the replacements of 1917.
VALUE—1917 ESTIMATE.
On July 11, 1916, the following appreciation was written of the 9th Army Corps:
“The 9th Army Corps gives the impression of a very good corps which would be a formidable adversary. The intellectual level of officers and men is appreciably higher than that ordinarily encountered in the German Army. This fact is due to the recruiting which, in most cases, is done in Hamburg, Bremen, and Luebeck.”