4. Withdrawn from the Lens front at the end of June, it remained at rest in the vicinity of Buzancy and Grandpré in July, near Carignan, at the beginning of August; spent the second half of August in the Woevre, reenforcing the Verdun front east of Vaux. In September it occupied the sector north of the Chaume wood-Baumont, where it was relieved at the end of October.
Meuse (Left Bank).
5. About November 10 the 56th Division occupied the sector of Cheppy wood, on the left bank of the Meuse, where it remained until March 20, 1918.
RECRUITING.
Since the substitution of the 186th Infantry Regiment for the 35th Fusileers, the division has become entirely Hessian. By analogy with the 9th Landwehr Division, we sometimes find it designated as “Rhine troops”; the Rhine Provinces in general cooperate with Hesse and Hesse-Nassau in sending its replacements.
In the first months of 1918 the reenforcements received comprised men from the 3d and 4th Corps Districts (Berlin and Silesia) belonging to the industrial classes.
VALUE—1917 ESTIMATE.
Having suffered heavily in the Galician campaign in 1915, and in Champagne and at Verdun, the 56th Division had serious losses at Lens between April and June, 1917. The 186th Infantry Regiment had heavy losses during the battle of the Aisne (April, 1917) before joining the 56th Division. The division had few losses on the left bank of the Meuse from January to March, 1918.
Of 84 prisoners coming from three regiments of the 56th Division, captured on March 16 and 17, 1918, more than half belong either to the active or to the reserve.