The 23rd Reserve Division fought on the
Western Front, participating in the opening German offensive which led to the Allied
Great Retreat and ended with the
First Battle of the Marne. Thereafter, the division remained in the line in the Champagne region through the end of 1914 and until July 1916 and fought in the
Second Battle of Champagne in the autumn of 1915. In late July 1916, the division entered the
Battle of the Somme. It remained in the Somme, Artois and Flanders regions thereafter. After a brief rest in April 1917, the division went into the line on the Yser. Its sister division in the Royal Saxon XII Reserve Corps, the
24th Reserve Division, was sent to the
Eastern Front at the end of April. The 23rd Reserve Division remained in Flanders, and faced the British in the
Battle of Passchendaele. In October 1917, after the heavy fighting in Flanders, the division was sent to the Eastern Front, arriving in November. It was on the line facing the Russians when the armistice on the Eastern Front went into effect. The division then went to Latvia and after a few months of fighting occupied the area between the
Daugava River and
Lake Peipus. In March 1918, the division returned to the Western Front and was deployed in Flanders and the Artois. It then participated in the 1918
German spring offensive and remained in the line in the Flanders area until the end of the war. Allied intelligence rated the division as third class. ==Order of battle on mobilization==