5. On August 24–25 it was engaged in the battle of the Somme, in Belleville wood. On August 31 it launched a counterattack northeast of the wood. It left the Somme on September 9.
Champagne.
6. It then took over a quiet sector east of Rheims at Cernay-La Pompelle. In the middle of November it returned to the Somme front (Pys) until January 7, 1917.
1917.
1. In January, 1917, the 56th Division was sent to rest in the vicinity of St. Quentin.
Somme-Hindenburg Line.
2. About February 11 it went back into line south of the Somme in the vicinity of Biaches, retired at the end of March to the north of St. Quentin, and from there went to Courrieres in the vicinity of the Lens mines.
Lens.
3. On April 10 it took over the sector of Lens, where it suffered important losses from raids and local conflicts. It absorbed 1,000 men from the 624th Infantry Regiment, dissolved, and some from the 625th (Hessian).