The 79th Reserve Division initially fought on the Eastern Front, seeing its first action in the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes. In 1915, it fought in the siege of Kovno and the battles on the Neman River and at Vilnius. From October 1915 to November 1916, the division was engaged in positional warfare, after which it was transferred to the Western Front. It was in reserve and then engaged in positional warfare in Flanders and the Artois until April 1917, when it fought in the Battle of Arras. Later in 1917, it fought in the Battles of Passchendaele and Cambrai. The division participated in the German 1918 Spring Offensive, fighting in the First Battle of the Somme (1918), also called the Second Battle of the Somme (to distinguish it from the 1916 battle). It saw action in the Second Battle of the Marne and continued fighting against the various Allied offensives until the end of the war. Allied intelligence rated the division as third class.