(Former Metz Detachment. 68th Landwehr: 16th Corps District—Lorraine and the Rhine Province. 94th Landwehr: 11th Corps District—Electorate of Hesse and Thuringia. 153d Landwehr: 4th Corps District—Prussian Saxony.)

1915–16.

Lorraine.

1. The 255th Division is the former Metz Detachment, the composition of which was remodeled and which was changed into a division in May, 1917.

2. The Metz Detachment, composed of the 31st Landwehr Brigade (30th and 68th Landwehr Regiments) and of the 1st, 2d, and 3d Ersatz Landwehr Regiments, occupied the same sector of Lorraine between the Moselle and Abaucourt (north of Pont À Mousson) from the end of October, 1914, to 1917.

1917.

1. About May, 1917, the Metz Detachment became the 255th Division. It then comprised the 31st Landwehr Brigade (30th and 68th Landwehr Regiments) and three regiments of recent organization, the 86th, 94th, and 153d Landwehr, formed by grouping the battalions of the old dissolved Ersatz regiments.

2. With this composition, the 255th Division continued to hold the front along the Moselle (right bank) until the month of October.

3. In July and August the 30th and 86th Landwehr Regiments left the 255th Division to form the new 31st Independent Landwehr Brigade. The latter remained in line on the right bank of the Moselle. The 255th Division, reduced to three regiments (68th, 94th, and 153d Landwehr), went to the left bank (Le PrÊtre wood) about October 13.

VALUE—1917 ESTIMATE.

Mediocre.

1918.

1. The division continued to hold its sector in the Bois le Pretre until the American attack on September 12. At that time the company strength was 180 to 200, with an effective rifle strength of 100. The men were mostly between 37 and 45 years of age.

2. The attack of the 12th of September threw the division back on Vandieres and Preny, where it was still in line at the time of the armistice.

VALUE—1918 ESTIMATE.

The division was rated as fourth class.