Ypres Salient map highlighting the location north of the salient for the gas trial and infantry attack.Order of Battle of the German 4th Army

22 April 1915

The front line held by the German 4th Army in Flanders on 22nd April 1915 covered the area from the Flanders coast near Nieupoort in the north to the Ypres-Comines canal on its southern left wing.

To the north and south of Ypres there was a point in the German line where it turned almost at 90 degrees to the east, forming a salient called the Ypres Salient by the Allies; at the neck of the salient the northern point of the German front line was about 8 kilometres away from Ypres and the southern point was about 4 kilometres from Ypres.

Order of Battle for 22nd April 1915

General-Oberst Duke Albrecht von Württemberg, Commander of the 4th German Army on the Ypres battlefront in Flanders.
Duke Albrecht von Wurttemberg, commander of the German 4th Army in March 1915.

Army Commander: General-Oberst Herzog Albrecht von Württemberg (General Duke Albrecht of Württemberg) (1865-1939) (4th Army Commander from 2.8.14)

Chief of Staff: Major-General Ilse

Army Headquarters: Tielt

On the morning of 22nd April the units (from north to south of the German line) in the front line at the Ypres Salient were:

XXIII. Reserve Corps

Corps Commander: General von Kathen (1)

45. Reserve Division

Commander: Generalleutnant Schöpflin

46. Reserve Division

Commander: Generalleutnant von Hahn

XXVI. Reserve Corps

General Hügel, Commander of the XXVI. Reserve Corps on the Ypres battlefront in Flanders.

Corps Commander: General von Hügel

52. Reserve Division

Commander: Generalleutnant Waldorf

51. Reserve Division

Commander: Generalmajor von Kleist

Corps Reserve

For the attack on the French front line the XXVI. Reserve Corps consisted of the following total number of units, these being its regular and some additional reinforcement units:

XXVII. Reserve Corps

Corps Commander: General von Carlowitz

38. Landwehr Brigade

53. Reserve Division (Saxon)

54. Reserve Division (Württemberg)

XV. Corps

General Deimling, Commander of the XV. Corps in the Ypres Salient.
General Deimling, Commander of the German XV Corps south-east of Ypres in March 1915.

Corps Commander: General von Deimling

39. Infanterie Division

30. Infanterie Division

Heavy Artillery

The huge German 42cm siege gun called “Dicke Bertha” by the Germans and “Big Bertha” by the British.

XXIII. Reserve Corps, XXVI. Reserve Corps and XXVII. Reserve Corps:

Heavy howitzers

Field guns

XV. Corps

Heavy howitzers:

Field guns:

Next>> Order of Battle of the French Army Détachement d'Armée de Belgique (D.A.B)

Acknowledgements

(1) The General's name listed in the German Order of Battle in British Military Operations gives the name as Rathen. However, the first letter of his name is actually a K in the German Gothic script typeface in Die Schlachten und Gefechte des Grossen Krieges, thus his name is spelled Kathen.

(2) British Military Operations lists this unit as 28. Reserve Jäger Battalion. However, in the Histories of Two Hundred and Fifty-One Divisions and on Map 2 of Der Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918: Sommer und Herbst 1915, 8. Band the unit is given as the 26. Reserve Jäger Battalion.

British Military Operations: France and Belgium 1915

Histories of Two Hundred and Fifty-One Divisions

Die Schlachten und Gefechte des Grossen Krieges 1914-1918

Geschichte des Reserve-Infanterie-Regiments Nr. 238