Thus, collectively, the 13 brigade replacement battalions represented troop contributions from 26 different infantry regiments.
The five battalions of the 33rd Mixed Ersatz Brigade, from the IX Army Corps area in northern Germany, were even more mixed: the 33rd Brigade Replacement Battalion was from the Hanseatic Cities of Bremen and Hamburg; the 34th from the Grand Duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz; the 35th and 36th from Schleswig-Holstein; and the 81st from Schleswig-Holstein and the Hanseatic City of Lübeck.
It fought in the Battle of the Frontiers, seeing action in Lorraine and against the French defensive line from Nancy to Epinal.
At the end of September 1914, the division was transferred from Lorraine to Belgium, where it participated in the Siege of Antwerp.
After Antwerp fell, the division occupied the city and participated in follow-on fighting in Belgian Flanders.
After fighting before the German Siegfried position, the division participated in the Battle of Arras.
In July, it resisted the Russian Kerensky Offensive, and then participated in follow-on fighting in eastern Galicia.